Sanremo 2026

Looking at the endless list of names taking part in the 2026 Sanremo Festival, you swing between wondering who on earth Eddie Brock or Samurai Jay are and cracking an awkward smile at the announcement of guests who reek of mothballs. Carlo Conti's second edition in a row seems to replicate the cautious mediocrity of 2025: a show stuffed with songs, almost all of them harmless, and names that guarantee a thoroughly predictable spectacle. Even if you doze off, you'll know exactly how the evening ended up.

No scandal in sight, and we'd have settled even for a bit of healthy, superficial gossip, a minor controversy, a gaffe. Betting on Fedez and Marco Masini, the most dangerous pairing in competition, risks leaving us empty-handed: no brazen, toxic statements from wounded men, just a half-hearted admission of guilt. That the truly shocking twist might come from Fulminacci or Patty Pravo, from Ermal Meta or Enrico Nigiotti, is a burst of optimism that's genuinely hard to muster.

Desperately searching for some spice in a Sanremo that promises to be bland, we end up scanning Friday night's lineup, the covers-and-duets night, hoping for a breath of fresh air.

It would have taken a loose cannon like Morgan, paired up with Chiello, but he's pulled out, so we won't get to see a legendary sketch repeated like the one with Bugo. Fun but not exactly spicy is the touch brought by Las Ketchup, who'll be backing Elettra Lamborghini, herself one of the faint hopes for anyone looking for a moment that might break Carlo Conti's regime, perhaps with a liberating twerk.

Looking closely, though, there is one genuinely risky, dangerously unpredictable name: TonyPitony.

Who is TonyPitony and what is he doing at Sanremo

A thirty-something from Siracusa, TonyPitony hides behind an Elvis mask and, on Gianluca Gazzoli's podcast "BSMT", describes himself as more of an actor than a singer. He passed through "X Factor" just long enough to get rejected, and has since found an underground yet surprising fame through songs with a classic feel, seemingly romantic and intimate, laced with a foul-mouthed, off-colour irony.

Embarrassing, unrepeatable lines, dropped into songs that would otherwise sound harmless, polished and measured, and that are anything but sloppy in form and execution.

He's not the crude Bello Figo, still less the provocative, erotic Myss Keta. TonyPitony isn't pushing an inclusive sexual liberation, tearing down every taboo like some Hachiko; instead he plays on the border between serious, embarrassing and grotesque - in a word, he inhabits the ridiculous.

You don't laugh with him, you laugh at him, at his character. Whether his little theatre is meant to work as a distorting mirror of our society, wringing out a bitter smile, is a question left for the listener to answer.

At Sanremo he appears alongside Ditonellapiaga, with whom he'll sing the classic "The Lady Is A Tramp", a 1937 song whose most famous duet version is the one by Frank Sinatra with Ella Fitzgerald. The pairing itself is no surprise, but what does throw you is Carlo Conti's choice to host a singer who became a social-media idol through songs like "Mi piacciono le nere", "Striscia", "Culo" and "Donne ricche". One wonders whether the artistic director is genuinely aware of the live wire he's inviting on, or whether, for duets night, the rules were simply loosened out of sheer exhaustion.

Far less refined, but the contrast between fairly elegant form and explicit content can bring to mind Squallor, with a touch of the taste for provocation of certain Elio e le Storie Tese records, plus a theatrical flair for staging apparently owed to years of study in London.

With his irreverent style, his morally dubious persona and his vulgar lyrics, TonyPitony is utterly at odds with Carlo Conti's predictable Sanremo, where nothing is allowed to unsettle the viewer as they're gently lulled off to sleep. In this context, more discount-store entertainment than grand musical or theatrical spectacle, an Elvis cosplayer who uses a genuinely solid vocal technique to belt out unpresentable obscenities, deliver racist gags, and flaunt misogynistic, backward ideas is something that stands out - you might even say shines: let's hope that from that composed, mediocrity-filled stage, he fires off an earth-shaking ode to sodomy.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google