Sanremo 2023, Ultimo: «If I finish second again? I would sign for 4 years like these”

It has been since Amadeus revealed his name among the Big of Sanremo 2023 that Last he explains that he has chosen to return to the Ariston with the desire to close a circle, and this is exactly what he continues to think a few hours before going on stage, addressing the journalists with whom, four years ago, he got into a heavy discussion after his second place. “It is always a great responsibility to return to Sanremo,” says Ultimo in the press room of the casino after taking off his sunglasses. «At a concert I know I have an audience that has chosen to be there and, even if I’m wrong, never mind, I’ll throw it into a racket. Here in Sanremo you are a guest on a stage where everything has a thousand spotlights and, in this sense, I feel a little more pressure. However, I want to show great openness and great respect for this stage that has given me so much: I left here in 2018, and Sunrise it’s a song that seemed right to me to come back to, to leave a different memory of Sanremo».

To those who ask him if he feels bad about being given once again as favorite together with Marco Mengoni – it also happened in that fateful 2019, when the victory went to Mahmood -, Ultimo replies seraphic: «I am living it with a great sense of lightness and with the desire to present Sunrise because I think it’s a song that deserves this kind of exposure. Being favored or not is not what wakes me up in the morning: I’m here to try to send a message, that is, looking within, trying to overcome oneself in every circumstance of life». The question, at this point, arises spontaneously: how would he take it if he finished second again? «Honestly, I would sign up to relive four years like these that I have lived. I am living it with serenity and with all the difficulties of the case, since I am sensitive and very shy», replies slyly Ultimo, who has chosen to show up at the Ariston without accompanying himself on the piano, and for a specific reason.

«I liked the idea of ​​starting with the microphone stand, a way to focus on the text, which is very important, and a way for the face to communicate what it has to communicate. When you sing at the piano there is a certain difficulty in mimicry », confesses the singer who, on the fourth evening of duets, will perform alongside his myth Eros Ramazzotti together with which he will propose three of his greatest hits. «With Eros there is a very beautiful, simple relationship. I asked him if he would like to perform with me and he said yes, in the most natural way in the world. I connect some songs of Eros to my purest childhood», continues Ultimo, happy and excited at the thought of performing in front of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, present for the first time at the Ariston. «I’m very focused on the song, on what I have to do. However, the desire to go on stage is stronger than the emotion».

At this point, however, the natural question arises: what can Ultimo still want after having held in his hands the possibility of filling stadiums by going towards such a brilliant career? «The thing I’m working on now is trying to have a very well-defined live path, as well as a true, blood relationship with the public. I have to work on continuity: achieving success is difficult, maintaining it is almost impossible. I would like to keep these numbers, and it’s not easy. I feel a strong pressure, I’ve always felt it», reveals the artist even if, after all, as he himself has had the opportunity to underline, «he’s only 27 years old». «The live route and stadiums are one thing, and the discography is another. I want to get involved I feel the fire inside», and this is why, after the Sanremo Festival, Sunrisehis new album, completely self-produced, will see the light on February 17th.