as from BM soapbox
BRIAN AND KERRY IN SANREMO, ITALY
SEE BRIAN'S COMMENTS ON SOAPBOX
Today it was officially announced that Brian May and Kerry Ellis will be appearing at the Sanremo Festival in Italy on Thursday 16 February 2012 and are to perform a duet with Irene Fornaciari, daughter of Brian's dear friend, Zucchero.
Today's televised Press Conference was led by Gianni Morandi, a very famous Italian singer who will be the host of the festival. He introduced Brian as a big rock star.
Brian and Kerry will play during the "International Duets" night with Irene Fornaciari. The song (like all the other duets to be featured) is a famous Italian song, “I (Who Have Nothing)”, original title Uno Dei Tanti”, written by Mogol and Donida and performed by Joe Sentieri. The song is well-known even outside of Italy, sung in different languages, the English version (“I (Who Have Nothing)” having been covered by Ben E King, Tom Jones, Roberta Flack, Sylvester, Shirley Bassey, Luther Vandross, Neil Diamond, Gadys Knight, Joe Cocker and even Status Quo... and now Brian May and Kerry Ellis.
The concert will be held at the Ariston Theatre in Sanremo (link, link and is part of the week-long festival. Queen were there at the same theatre and same festival in 1984. The Sanremo Festival is probably the most viewed not-sport event on Italian TV.
Tickets will be on sale for the complete week of the festival at 520 euro. Tickets for a single night only will subject to availability and not in presale, with prices from 100 to 180 euros. link
So, Brian May, Kerry Ellis and Irene Fornaciari performed. First that Italian song, followed by a short rendition of We Will Rock You. It was awesome.
Also, the original post forgot to note that those in Italy or in areas bordering Italy can also follow the festival for free on Italian public TV channel Rai 1, which is what I did too (I live in Slovenia but in an area about 20 km from the nearest Italian TV transmitter so I receive the Rai DVB-T mux 1 perfectly).