Last night was the opening night of this year’s edition of Sanremo, and it was hit by a huge scandal when one part of last year’s winning duo – Blanco, decided to throw a temper tantrum mid-performance, and destroy the set-up of the stage. Blanco’s in-ears did not work whilst he was performing his brand new song “L’isola delle rose”, so he decided to stop singing, and destroy the stage furnishing, the flower arrangements, to which the public in Ariston started boo-ing.

As soon as this ‘performance’ had finished, Amadeus returned to the stage and claimed that something like this has not been seen in Sanremo since the “days of Bugo and Morgan”, whilst Gianni Morandi came on stage with a mop and helped sweep off the mess Blanco left, and said:

You will see that despite all the beautiful songs of today, tomorrow everyone will only talk about this.

And he was right. The Internet has a lot to say about Blanco’s behaviour – Italian actress Serena Autieri commented that Blanco “showed a huge disrespect towards the Festival as an institution, as well as to the public who prefers a good song to a sterile exercise of devastation that seemed guided by unjustified, and out of place anger”. Italian Film Director Leonardo Pieraccioni jokingly asked Blanco if he can come to his place as he needs to “trim the hedges in his garden”.

Professor Matteo Bassetti said that “whoever made him get on that stage should apologizes to all Italians”, while the journalist Gabriele Parpiglia said that this kind of behaviour is not rock ‘n roll, and that he expects a public apology.

Other Internet users took their opinions and frustrations to social media as well. The user @enedasula on Instagram commented on Blanco’s account:

When one takes air and feels immortal and forgets education and how to be humble, ends up becoming a fool (you looked like a psychopath, ill with hallucinations). If you have idiots you have to sing without headphones (if you are a real singer) artists great ones pop up. You ruined your career tonight.

Instagram user @martii_nica added:

Well deserved whistles! That’s the same stage that hosted you last year! Zero respect.

@il_lorenzo_ stated:

Ridiculous!! Fly low and respect other people’s work. DO YOU KNOW how many times this has happened and how many artists had technical problems? An artist knows how to deal with even these setbacks without making these barbaric scenes!!

Nevertheless, the opening show of this year’s edition of the Festival was seen live by 10,757,000 viewers in Italy, which resulted in 62.4% of the share (last year’s share was 54.7%). Sanremo continues tonight where the remaining 14 acts are going to perform their songs live for the first time, and we are going to get the first full ranking, which will be based on the votes of the Press jury.