According to an opinion poll jury, Loredana Berté would have won Sanremo
Although with some differences compared to previous years, the juries to decree the winning song of Sanremo 2024 – won by Angelina Mango with “La noia” – were still three: those “of the experts” it’s a “popular”. The first category included Jury from the Press, TV and Web Room to which this year it was added, replacing the Demoscopic Juryone Radio Jury, made up of national and local radio broadcasters, identified according to criteria of representation of the entire Italian territory. To these two entities was added the Televoting expressed by telephone by the public at home.
In the absence of an opinion poll jury, as explained by Andrea Alemanno in the “Corriere della Sera”, Ipsos selected “a panel of users of the Sanremo Festival contacted before the event in order to listen carefully to all the performances of the first 3 days, to express a reasoned opinion on the songs and performances before being influenced by the covers and the general ranking of the fifth evening. All managed by Ipsos respecting the confidentiality and anonymity of the jurors to guarantee the neutrality of the vote.” The outcome of this popular vote is a ranking led in the first three positions by “Pazza” by Loredana Berté, followed by “Sincerely” by Annalisa and “La noia” by Angelina Mango.
Here is the overall ranking of Sanremo if the opinion poll jury made up by IPSOS had voted:
1. Loredana Berté, «Crazy»
2. Annalisa, «Sincerely»
3. Angelina Mango, «Boredom»
4. Mahmood, «Gold tracksuit»
5. Diodato, «You move»
6. Ghali, «My House»
7. Fiorella Mannoia, «Mariposa»
8.
Emma, «Apnea».
9. Irama, «Not you»
10. Dargen D’Amico, «High wave»
11. The Kolors, «A boy, a girl»
12. Clara, «Diamonds in the rough»
13. French Saints, «Love in the mouth»
14. Big Mama, «Anger is not enough for you»
15. Gazelles, «That’s all»
16. Il Volo, «Masterpiece»
17. Negramaro, «Let’s start everything again»
18. Alessandra Amoroso, «Up to here»
19. Rose Villain, «Click Boom!»
20. Geolier, «I p’me, tu p’te»
21. Rich and poor, «But not all of life»
22. Mr. Rain, «Two Swings»
23. La Sad, «Self-destructive»
24. Alpha, “Go!”
25. The Three, «Fragile»
26. Renga and Nek, «Crazy about you»
27. Maninni, ««Spectacular»
28. Bnkr44, «Punk Government»
29. Sangiovanni, «Finish me»
30. Fred De Palma, «Heaven doesn’t want us»
Obviously there is no impeccable methodology for assigning, in a competition, the prize to the most deserving of all. There are events in which large juries of professionals vote (the Oscars, the Grammys); others in which the jury is limited and made up of professionals (the Venice Film Festival); still others, like in the past “Canzonissima”, which rely exclusively on the popular vote (voting was done with postcards from the New Year’s Lottery). The Sanremo Festival has tried them all: from the “demoscopic” juries scattered throughout Italy, to the Totip ballots, to televoting. None of these methodologies are absolutely unmanipulable. The last Sanremo used three juries (press room, radio and televoting) trying to ensure that the first two could “moderate” the result of the third – and from what is known so far it seems that the method worked, if Geolier , with 60% of the televoting, was however surpassed by Angelina Mango.
Always remembering that RAI likes televoting, because RAI receives a percentage from the telephone providers for each vote expressed, and that in any case televoting involves an expense on the part of the voter, however limited, it seems obvious that televoting rewards those who have support large and willing to spend, and knows how to best organize their fan base (perhaps with micromarketing methods). The interesting IPSOS experiment mentioned above indicates instead that opinion poll juries reward the general popularity of a singer – this is the case of Loredana Berté. The case of the press room (which I know well from direct experience) is different, where voting orientations follow flows dictated both by regionality and by the group the voters belong to. I can’t say anything about the radio vote, which is in its first year of existence, but I imagine that a similar situation occurs there too.
There are in fact two things that I have been writing about for some time.
One, is that the major prize should be assigned on the basis of popular approval, possibly expressed in a non-onerous way and not balanced by “adjustments” of self-styled experts (press and radio), who should, if anything, be given the task of assigning the prizes” technical” such as those for the best text or the best music without these interfering with the results of the popular votes.
Two, which in any case the Italian song festival is no longer what its name suggests, but is the festival of Italian singers; the songs themselves, unfortunately, now count relatively little. (Franco Zanetti)
