(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 6 - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
will not appear on a video link on the last night of this week's
Sanremo Song Festival Saturday, as previously announced, but
will only send a written message to the annual music
extravaganza after protests against his appearance at the fest,
prime time entertainment chief at Rai TV, Stefano Coletta, said
Monday. 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 controversial 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. (ANSA).
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Zelensky won't appear at Sanremo, will send message
Text to be read out by host Amadeus after row