Sanremo wins 49.5% of audience share

(ANSA) - Sanremo, February 6 - The opening night of the 2019 Sanremo song festival attracted an average of 10.086 million viewers to State broadcaster RAI's flagship Rai1 channel on Tuesday night, 49.5% of the overall audience share. This is down on the average of 11.603 million viewers of the first night last year - 52.1% of the audience share. The long-standing and much loved festival/song contest is again in the hands of singer-songwriter Claudio Baglioni, who was also the artistic director last year. The highlight of the first night was blind tenor Andrea Bocelli singing the song with which he debuted at Sanremo 25 years ago, along with his son Matteo.
    Giorgia also wowed the festival audience.
    Comic Claudio Bisio and impressionist Virginia Raffaele were a hit with the crowd - although Raffaele committed a gaffe by 'saluting' the Casamonica Rome crime family.