The 5 best moments of the fourth night of Sanremo 2023

Cover night always confronts us with the same question: will today's songs manage to become classics? Given how L'Amour Toujours has become, in retrospect, a great nostalgic classic of the past it would be tempting to say yes. Nonetheless, the lyrical and sonic sophistication of some past hits (incredible Anima Mia and Destinazione Paradiso) suggests that something of the beauty of yesteryear is not only irretrievable, but also strangely out of date. The trap version of Qualcosa di Grande remade by Mr. Rain and Fasma was not the iconoclasm some have talked about, but it did show that the new generation possesses, rather than a distinctive sound, an aesthetic frame of reference all their own that can reinterpret the past even at the cost of deforming it, while still covering it with a current skin. For better or worse. Other duets, however, such as that of Tananai and Biagio Antonacci (Tananai's Gucci outfit was spectacular) and especially that of Giorgia and Elisa, which we will talk about later, showed that twenty years ago they were playing a different sport altogether - a sport that not even the creators of those hits today really know how to play anymore. On the other hand, the evening was charged with energy and the episode passed with truly remarkable panache and cheerfulness. One inexplicable thing: the monologue by Chiara Francini (the only co-host so far accustomed to the stage, performance, diction, and showmanship) was aired at an unseemly time, where that of her previous colleagues had come very early. Mysteries of the schedule. 

Without further ado, here are the 5 best moments of the fourth night of Sanremo 2023.

1. Giorgia and Elisa's real Y2K tears everyone else apart

Yesterday, these two stars of Italian music, whom the '90s kids perpetually remember as young, now matured and experienced as great masters of their discipline, made a fundamental statement: that Y2K that we like so much to remember and relive was not just made up of boorishness and vulgar opulence, there was also elegance, there was also beauty. The duet on the notes of the epic ballad that is Di sole e d'azzurro was the singing equivalent of a hydrogen bomb moving the earth off its axis. Even Beppe Vessicchio returned to the stage for them. If the song Giorgia brought to the competition this year is all in all forgettable, the incredible past hit that is perhaps to this day her most universally known and iconic song simply had no equal last night. 

2. Grignani goes Grignani… yet again

The more the evenings go on, the more the feeling grows that this edition of the Festival is not a competition but Gianluca Grignani's redemption arc. After all, if there is anything Italians love more than a sinner, it is a repentant sinner. This Festival is meant to reconfirm Grignani's abilities as a songwriter and entertainer and to point out that if he became more infamous than famous because of certain past excesses, those very excesses were made possible by immense bravura. Today's Grignani is not exactly a subtle entertainer, and last night it showed - he was, for lack of better words, genuinely elated, and Arisa herself, having divested herself of the stage mask of femme fatale, after giving us the crazy meme of her singing in the face of the Rai director, muttered at the end «We made a mess». But Grignani is all heart, and this year we remembered that we love him very much.

3. The night's fashion case 

Music aside, fashion has been snoozing these days. But. And it's a big but. Last night, as in the best nineteenth-century novels, two women showed up at the same ball wearing the same dress. In fact, Arisa and first violinist of the scale Laura Marzadori wore the same Prong Dress from Rick Owens' SS22. Everyone didn't notice until later, it is true, however, it is exhilarating that the one at the center of the case is Rick Owens. Owens' capacity for cultural omnipresence, which is and remains a niche designer, shows how classic his fashion is.

4. Carla Bruni in Versace

Carla Bruni and the Italians have an ambiguous relationship. On the one hand, Bruni is the one that got way, Carlà à-la-française who left Turin for Paris, the ethereal diva whose music Fiorello and Luciana Littizzetto politely mocked years ago; on the other hand, she is literally the Carla Bruni, a total icon as well as a woman whose talents (supermodel, singer, public and institutional figure) seem inexhaustible. Yesterday seeing her singing Celentano's Azzurro together with Colapesce and Dimartino covered in Versace and Bulgari was a multiversal crossover worthy of the best Marvel movie.

5. Colla Zio's dance

At the end of the evening, with the audience exhausted, Colla Zio and Dito Nella Piaga step in to bring back a chill of energy with Daniele Silvestri's iconic Salirò. Dito Nella Piaga gave the group (they are too grown up to be called a boy band) an incredible female counterpart, perfectly suited to their vibe. Together they remade the classic dance routine seen in the original Salirò video that many are perhaps too young to remember. What a total freshness.