Afterhours

Italy’s Sanremo Music Festival was the original European song competition that eventually gave birth to the Eurovision competition. This year saw the 59th edition of this massively popular week-long televised event. In an effort to appeal to a younger, hipper audience, the show’s producers invited Italy’s top alternative rock band Afterhours (who are preparing for a U.S. tour – dates given below) to play – an unprecedented move for this very mainstream show.

Much to the consternation of the group’s fans Afterhours accepted and some of their following were critical of the move. But unbeknownst to them the group had plans for using this forum in a very special, culturally subversive way. Lead singer Manuel Agnelli had organized a project called Il paese è reale (”the country is real”), a compilation with 18 independent bands, that were all ignored by the mainstream audiences and major media. His idea was to use the media coverage of Sanremo Music Festival and of Afterhours participation in it to promote music that usually doesn’t get noticed by major media outlets.  Afterhours fans who had complained have now apologized realizing that the band kept true to its long held ideals about promoting underground culture in Italy and had made excellent use of this extraordinary opportunity to expose the culture rather than promote their own record sales.

Afterhours eliminated from the competition on the first day, as they expected (imagine Mars Volta competing on “American Idol”!) but the new song they’d performed on the show was awarded the Premio della critica (”Critics Award”), given by the journalist in attendance.

The Festival della canzone italiana (in English: Italian song festival) is a popular Italian song contest running since 1951 and held annually in the city of Sanremo. Usually referred to as Festival di Sanremo, or outside Italy as Sanremo Music Festival, it was the inspiration for the Eurovision Song Contest. It is currently held at the Ariston Theatre.

For some years (from 1953 to 1971, except for 1956) each song was sung twice by two different interpreters (singer or band), each one using an individual orchestral arrangement to illustrate the meaning of the festival as a composers’ competition, not a singers’ competition.. During this era of the festival, it was custom that one version of the song was performed by a native Italian artist while the other version was performed by an international guest artist. Notable guest artists of that time were, among others:

• 1964: Peggy March, team partner of Claudio Villa with Passo su passo, semi-finals only, not qualified for main event
• 1965: Connie Francis, team partner of Gigliola Cinquetti Ho bisogno di vederti, # 5
• 1965: Petula Clark, team partner of Betty Curtis with Invece no, # 6
• 1965: Dusty Springfield, team partner of Gianni Mascolo with Di fronte all’ amore, semi-finals only, not qualified for main event
• 1966: Gene Pitney, team partner of Caterina Caselli with Nessuno mi può giudicare, # 2
• 1966: Pat Boone, team partner of Peppino Gagliardi with Se tu non fossi qui, # 14
• 1967: Dalida, team partner of Luigi Tenco with Ciao, amore ciao, semi-finals only, not qualified for main event
• 1968: Bobbie Gentry, team partner of Al Bano with La siepe, # 9
• 1968: Dionne Warwick, team partner of Tony del Monaco with La voce del silenzio, # 14
• 1969: Mary Hopkin, team Partner of Sergio Endrigo with Lontano dagli occhi, # 2

The festival has been used as the way of choosing Italy’s Eurovision entry from 1956 to 1966, in 1972 and 1997. The festival has also launched the career of many very famous italian singers, most notably Andrea Bocelli, Giorgia, Elisa, Laura Pausini and Eros Ramazzotti

The Festival is broadcast live on TV Rai Uno in Eurovision Network since 1955.

AFTERHOURS U.S. Tour Dates

3/19 – Austin, TX – Submerged – SXSW Festival
3/20 – San Antonio, TX – Limelight
3/24 – New Orleans, LA – One Eyed Jack’s
3/27 – Washington, DC – The Velvet Lounge
3/28 – Wilmington, DE – Mojo 13
3/30 – Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s
3/31 – Brooklyn, NY – Cameo with Steve Wynn