RAI’s president: “Sanremo’s voting system should be fixed”

One week after the end of the 69th Sanremo Festival and the reactions have not yet stopped, due to the unexpected results and the enormous difference in the results of the audience and the juries. RAI’s president, Marcello Foa, in his statements, seems to take his reactions into account and announces the change of the voting system at the historic Festival.

The reactions for the Sanremo 2019 results

Mahmood’s victory coming mostly from the points he received from the special jury and the press committee’s rating, and the abusive and vulgar attitudes of accredited journalists, both against Ultimo and Il Volo, made the whole of Italy talking about Sanremo. The Sanremo 2019 monopolized the Italian social networks throughout the week that passed.

Initially, Ultimo said clearly that despite having three-fold votes from Mahmood on televoting, he was in second place because of the “30 journalists and 8 jury members who do not know about music.” Followed by Il Volo, who, through their social networks, referred to the vulgar behavior of some journalists. Terrible behavior has also caused dozens of videos released and showing various journalists covering this year’s festival, to infect both Il Volo and Ultimo.

The politicians of the country, who congratulated Mahmood, expressed their concern about the so much difference between the rating of the jury and the public.

The gap between the public’s preference and the judges

Below you can see the big difference in televoting with Ultimo first in the public’s preference for almost the evenings of the Festival and Mahmood that ranged between 12th and 7th in his appearances:

• In their first appearance among 24 contestants, Mahmood received 1.74% and Ultimo 17.99%
• In their second appearance among 12 contestants Mahmood received 4.32% and Ultimo 27.92%
• In their third appearance in the duel night, Mahmood received 2.27% among 24 competitors and Ultimo 14.44%
• In the last round, Mahmood received 3.49% in the first round, which was 7th and 19.25% by Ultimo, who was the first among 24 co-rivals, while the superfinal received 20.95% the first, being third between the three finalists of superfinal and 48,80% the second, who was by far the first.

RAI’s president announces changes for Sanremo 2020

The artistic director of the Festival, Claudio Baglioni, right after the end of this year’s festival, asked by journalists how he judges this year’s results and the gap between the public and the juries. He said that maybe a revision of the regulations might have to be made.

But RAI’s president, Marcello Foa, was more explicit, saying the voting system should change:

There was a clear imbalance between the public’s vote and the juries made up of a few dozen people who caused the whole confrontation. Does this system work or not? It must be fixed, of course, and because the public feels it is represented, there has been a reversal of its judgment and it has to be taken into account.

Marcello Foa, however, hastened to relieve Mahmood, from all this discussion, by saying that he has no interference in the whole debate.

The members of the Sanremo 2019 jury stated that they voted for Mahmood because they felt that Soldi was a more catchy song, and their vote had neither political motives nor voted against Salvini, since many supported that Ultimo and Il Volo were considered pro-governmental and were therefore not supported by journalists and the jury.

Positive messages before Mahmood starts his journey to Eurovision

Despite intense reactions, Mahmood is preparing for his tour across Italy, along with the other eight Sanremo Giovanni winners, while Soldi is the song with the biggest airplay to Italy’s radios in the previous week, while is third on the table of bets to win in May in Tel Aviv.

Below you see his latest live performance of Soldi: