Sanremo fest flies high again

(ANSA) - Sanremo, February 7 - A average of 9.836 million viewers, or 54.5% of the overall audience share, watched the third night of Italy's popular Sanremo song festival on State broadcaster RAI's flagship Rai1 channel, according to data released Friday on the previous night.
    It was the highest audience share registered by the festival since 1997, when popular presenter Mike Bongiorno conducted the event with Piero Chiambretti, garnering 55.5%.
    The evening was dedicated to the most successful songs in the festival's history and included an appearance by comedian and director Roberto Benigni, who won an Academy Award for Life Is Beautiful.
    The third evening of the festival last year totaled 9.409 million viewers, 46.7% of the share.
    Roman singer Tosca (Tiziana Donati) won the evening dedicated to cover songs that paid homage to the 70 years of the festival.
    Piero Pelù and the band Pinguini Tattici Nucleari came respectively second and third on the night.