It looks like Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will not appear after all on a video link on the last night of this week’s Sanremo Song Festival on Saturday, as had previously been announced after the anticipated appearance created controversy and drew protests from various quarters.
Prime time entertainment chief at Rai TV, Stefano Coletta, announced on Monday that he will instead send a written message to the annual music extravaganza. The message will be read out by host and organizer Amadeus, Coletta said.
Coletta said Rai had been in constant touch with Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Melnyk over the provocative appearance, which many Italian politicians said was inappropriate for a light entertainment event.
Other commentators said it risked trivializing the war against the Russian invasion.
But many others said they had no problem with giving the Ukrainian leader a platform to voice his gratitude to Italy for its aid.
Coletta said it would have been “complicated to censor the president”, who has appeared in other entertainment events on video link, such as last year’s Grammys.
“We are in daily contact with Ambassador Melnyk. We arrived at the definition of the Ukrainian president’s speech yesterday: he will not send a video, but a text that will be read on stage by Amadeus,” said Coletta.
The highly anticipated Sanremo fest, perhaps Italy’s biggest entertainment show of the year, runs from Tuesday through Saturday.
