Black Eyed Peas to perform on second night of Sanremo 2023, new co-hosts revealed
Earlier today, Rai’s social accounts revealed new information about the upcoming Festival di Sanremo, including the exciting news that US group the Black Eyed Peas will grace the stage of the Teatro Ariston on Wednesday 8th February, or Night 2 of 5.
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Although the group has been together in some capacity since the 80s, they first rose to prominence when prominent songstress Fergie joined the trio for their 2002 album Elephunk, which produced worldwide No.1 smash hits Where Is The Love?, Shut Up, Hey Mama and Let’s Get It Started between then and 2005. The current group consists of rappers will.i.am (William James Adams Jr.), apl.de.ap (Allan Pineda Lindo) and Taboo (Jaime Luis Gomez). It has experimented hugely over its subsequent six albums, with music straying into Dance Pop, R&B and Electropop genres, and songs in English, Spanish and Tagalog.
This will be the group’s first broadcast performance since their virtual performance at the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards, and their first live broadcast since their slot at the 2017 UEFA Champions League final. Their last worldwide tour in 2020, named Transition, was cut short by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In addition, the two co-hosts for Night 3 and Night 4 were also revealed. Italian Volleyball player Paola Egonu will host alongside Amadeus and Gianni Morandi on the third night, and actress Chiara Francini will do the same on the fourth. It was revealed in December that the first two nights will be co-hosted by fashion entrepreneur Chiara Ferragni and TV host Francesca Fagnani respectively.
Sanremo 2023 will be the 73rd edition of the long-running song festival, and has been used to select Italy’s Eurovision entrant on-and-off in the past, and then every year since 2011, with the exception of 2014 when Emma Marrone was internally-selected. The show has been known worldwide for its often high-profile guest artist performances in the past, the Ariston stage having hosted the likes of Ray Charles, Gloria Gaynor, Miriam Makeba, Kiss, Shirley Bassey and Eurovision alumnus Bonnie Tyler, to name a few.
The 2023 edition will feature 28 artists, six of which were decided in December’s Sanremo Giovani, the newcomers’ competition. This year, some familiar names among the ‘Big’ artists vying for the title include 2019 runner-up Ultimo, 2021 alumni Madame and Colapesce & Dimartino, 2022’s last place Tananai and Mara Sattei, the latter two both having featured on rapper Fedez’s 2022 summer hit La Dolce Vita.
The last edition was won by male duo Mahmood and Blanco, the former for the second time in four years, with the emotional ballad Brividi. They eventually finished 6th at Eurovision after flying the flag at the Grand Final at home in Turin.
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