Following Big! Storia leggerissima di qualcosa che non rifaremo – the podcast that told the story of the two Sicilian artists' first appearance at the Festival di Sanremo – Bis! follows the duo Colapesce and Dimartino for the second time during the most frenetic week in Italian music. The new audio documentary, once again written and produced by Marco Rip and Giacomo De Poli for Dopcast and LifeGate Radio, is available on all audio streaming platforms.

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The weight of expectations the second time around

Between outdoor stage performances, green carpets, side events and parties, independent radio stations, passes, official lookalikes, and curious onlookers — extremely curious ones — pouring in from all over Italy and flooding the streets of Sanremo, the 2023 edition of the Festival della canzone italiana is once again the great media circus it was before the previous two years, which had been marked by red zones and the absence of audiences, protocols and extremely strict anti-Covid rules.

Sanremo has once again become the five-day event in which artists and management are engaged around the clock promoting the songs presented on the stage of Italy's most famous theatre: for any artist, taking part in Sanremo means not only singing their song during a live worldwide broadcast, but above all sustaining a gruelling pace that makes it possible to compress into just a few days the promotional commitments that are usually planned over the course of at least two months.

And so Colapesce and Dimartino return to tread the boards of the Ariston in an edition that is even more hectic than the one they had already experienced in 2021 — the edition that had consecrated them as leading figures in the Italian music scene thanks to the extraordinary success of Musica leggerissima, a song that became a hit immediately. Their participation in the 73rd edition of the Festival soon proves to be an unimaginably gruelling tour de force, yet also rich in satisfactions and introspective moments, which Bis! manages to convey with great sincerity.

This time, the pair of artists brings to Sanremo a song that is less broadly accessible, with a more engaged lyric and perhaps also slightly more refined from a sonic standpoint than Musica leggerissima. A track that seems to paraphrase entirely the state of mind with which the two artists approach this new participation: the weight of expectations that the song speaks of is also, in part, their own with regard to the famous "second time" that must not disappoint — a weight that, in the end, will grow lighter in light of the awards received in this latest edition too (Splash!, the song presented, received the Mia Martini critics' award and the Lucio Dalla radio-TV-web press room award).

The episodes are short and frequently shift register (…) Because Sanremo is precisely that: a potpourri of different things. In the same way, the aesthetic and structure of the podcast remain very consistent and faithful to that aspect.

Marco Rip

Bis! Another festival, another great song and another podcast

In Bis!, Marco Rip and Giacomo De Poli once again follow Lorenzo and Antonio's adventures at Sanremo, in order to give listeners the experience of the protagonists' story in the form of a sonic narrative. Bis! is above all a documentary podcast, yet one capable of alternating an objective perspective with vivid, introspective moments: this narrative quality is also well expressed from a stylistic and recording-technique standpoint.

As Marco Rip explains: "The episodes are short and frequently shift register: from episodes that feel more like a talk, like a genuine talking room, to others with very frequent cuts. Because Sanremo is precisely that: a potpourri of different things. In the same way, the aesthetic and structure of the podcast remain very consistent and faithful to that aspect."

Bis! is a varied podcast that fully reflects and seeks to convey the atmosphere of the Festival without compromise: a unique and immersive sonic film that tells of hectic days in which it is not easy to find quiet — inner or outer — yet one tries all the same in one's hotel room, before plunging back into the chaos and the ephemeral that reigns outside.

In Bis! the characters reveal themselves indirectly too, and that is one of the strengths of this documentary. They do so through their ways of living and facing the Festival, but above all through the tone of their voices and their attitude, which changes day by day and from one episode to the next (…) Bis! is a podcast that says a great deal about them and a great deal about Sanremo, but without doing so explicitly.

Giacomo De Poli

As Giacomo De Poli points out, compared with Big!, which was constructed almost entirely remotely through voice messages, long long-distance conversations, coverage of the Festival through the media and a few scenes captured by the entourage, Bis! is a true documentary, made inside every setting of the Festival: "Bis! is a podcast that complements Big!: here, the characters reveal themselves indirectly too, and that is one of its strengths. They do so through their ways of living and facing the Festival, but above all through the tone of their voices and their attitude, which changes day by day and from one episode to the next. Their personalities once again come through very vividly: Bis! is a podcast that says a great deal about them and a great deal about Sanremo, but without doing so explicitly."

Bis! is therefore less didactic and more evocative, so much so that to appreciate it fully the advice is to listen to it strictly through headphones: recorded using various techniques, some clips also make use of binaural audio (that is: two-eared): a three-dimensional sound recording method that reflects the acoustic perceptions of a listener in the original recording environment. In this way, the listener is totally immersed in the situations being described, with the sensation of being an integral part of the environment in which the protagonists move.

The success of Big!

Big! Storia leggerissima di qualcosa che non rifaremo was released in 2021 and told the story of two outsiders on the most important stage in Italy, in an anomalous edition of the Festival due to the restrictions arising from the Covid-19 health emergency. Big! succeeded in crystallising one of the most beautiful chapters in the recent history of Italian pop music, documenting its protagonists' exploit and the extraordinary success of Musica leggerissima.

In addition to its great listening figures, it received several accolades, including: selection by Apple among the best podcasts of 2021; second place in the ranking of the most listened-to podcasts on Spotify; a nomination at the Oscars of Italian podcasts as best podcast in the audio-documentary category for 2021; and selection by Corriere della Sera on Corriere.it as an example of one of the best branded podcasts around.

Read also:

• Big! Behind the scenes of the audio-documentary about Colapesce and Dimartino at Sanremo
• How to listen to the podcast Big! Colapesce and Dimartino at Sanremo