Geolier first in the ranking at the Sanremo festival 2024, even after the cover night that saw Angelina Mango as the favourite, divides and not a little.
Emblematic and loud were the boos at the end of the night for the rapper from Secondigliano who had performed in a medley with Gué, Luché and Gigi D'Alessio. And Geolier, very loved and voted for, was more than a little upset.
"It was horrible - the rapper told the Corriere della Sera -, I prepared a lot, I did everything to bring these three monsters, then win and go on stage with people booing, leaving, it was the worst performance of my life. We are many working on this project. Now I would like to do something for the boys of Secondigliano, create fields, create recording studios in Naples".
In defense of Geolier, his vocal coach: "I am very happy for this first place of Geolier, and this journey that we have made together, in which he has proved very determined, disciplined, and has shown great vocal growth". Speaking to the Adnkronos is Danila Satragno, Geolier's vocal coach, contacted the day after the victory of the Neapolitan rapper at the cover evening of Sanremo openly contested by the boos of the Ariston audience. The vocal coach will not stand for it: "An incredible baritone voice is coming out, and I am very proud of it" she explains. And on the work done with the rapper, dominator of the 2023 charts, she wants to underline: "I was struck by the genuineness of Geolier, his naturalness despite having a beautiful baritone voice, which can be expressed both as pop and as a rapper".
There is also a lot of controversy on the topic, about racism towards a Neapolitan. "Geolier, a talented boy idolized by all Italian teenagers for the musical genre he represents, does not win because he is Neapolitan but is booed because he is Neapolitan. The audience in the room should be ashamed". Writes on X Myrta Merlino, presenter of Pomeriggio Cinque, commenting on the boos of the Ariston at Geolier's first place yesterday. And the journalist also dwells on Ghali's performance. The artist, on the cover night, has united Italy and Tunisia in his medley. "Ghali perhaps did not go to Sanremo to win the Festival but he certainly went there to awaken our consciences. Well done Ghali, there is no more true Italian than you", writes Merlino.
To answer her is Alba Parietti: "A great misunderstanding has been created with the boos sounded last night at the Ariston after the announcement of the cover night ranking: Geolier's victory was not booed because he is Neapolitan, it was booed because the public had preferred the beautiful tribute of Angelina Mango to her father Pino, who has trodden that stage many times, leaving a deep mark. The Theater had paid the standing ovation to the Mango, who for those who do not know are from Lagonegro, south of Naples. So northern racism has nothing to do with it". Parietti is surprised by the accusations of racism to the boos on Geolier's victory. "Surely - adds Parietti, always a fan of the Sanremo festival - it was also a generational whistle, because the Ariston audience is not made up of teenagers but of older people who preferred the tribute to Pino Mango. Geolier then sings in a very narrow dialect that not everyone in the room understands but this does not prevent him from being the artist who sold the most throughout Italy in 2023. And to achieve that result he is very followed throughout Italy, even by the boys of the north who search online for the translations of his texts from Neapolitan to Italian, as we search for those from English to Italian. Geolier is also voted by the kids from Aosta. So let's stop with this controversy about the boos in Naples, that's not the point", she underlines. But, she concludes, "Angelina Mango's performance deserved to win yesterday. Hers was not just a beautiful song sung well: it was a very powerful emotion, which we will carry with us forever. One of the most exciting moments in the history of the Festival, it will remain in the annals of the event".