Tonight’s appointment with the long-awaited evening of covers at the Sanremo Festival 2026, the one in which each artist interprets a classic of Italian music and beyond. Among the key moments there should have been the (discussed) duet between Chiello and Morgan, called to perform I fell in love with you by Luigi Tenco, a delicate piece that requires great interpretative intimacy.
Morgan’s presence on stage should have marked a symbolic return to Ariston, six years after the famous “Bugo affair” of 2020 that we all remember with memes that still echo on social media today. A choice strongly supported by Chiello himself who had expressed esteem for Morgan as an artist and had defended the decision despite the criticism due to Castoldi’s accusations of stalking his ex.
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Morgan withdraws so as not to “overshadow” Chiello
The surprise, however, came last Friday, even before the start of the Festival, when Morgan announced that he would not go on stage. In a post on Instagram he explained:
My participation as Chiello’s guest at the next Sanremo Festival will not be on stage, but from behind the scenes, my contribution will be technical. I deeply love the song that Chiello chose for the covers evening, ‘I fell in love with you by Luigi Tenco, and I know that it is an extremely intimate piece that needs a single voice, a single soul, a single heart. For this reason, my presence will not be on stage, allowing Chiello’s talent to be fully expressed on stage.
According to Morgan, his presence on stage could have “overshadowed” his young colleague, and the choice to remain behind the scenes would have arisen from modesty and artistic respect.
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Chiello’s response: “The decision was mine”
But the surprises, as mentioned before, are not over. Even more unexpectedly, Chiello wanted to give his version of events at a press conference yesterday. And (and here we are sure that Bugo is celebrating somewhere) be careful because it is completely different from Morgan’s:
He is a great artist, there is no doubt about that. Except that we did a few tests and we didn’t find each other, that artistic alchemy wasn’t created and so I decided not to bring it.
The rapper added ironically:
I don’t want to start this controversy, it seems like the girlfriend who says ‘I left you, you didn’t leave me’. I don’t care about this, he can say whatever he wants anyway.
Between past and present: the weight of an iconic duet
Who really wanted to separate from the other? Morgan or Chiello? We will probably never know. But even more we ask ourselves, so who will duet with Chiello? The rapper will be accompanied by Saverio Cigarini on the piano, with an arrangement handled together with his brother Fausto.
A story that inevitably brings to mind the aforementioned “Bugo affair” of 2020, when Morgan modified the text of Sincereunleashing one of the most iconic moments of the Festival. This year, the situation presents itself in a different light: Morgan claims to want to protect the intimacy of the song, Chiello claims the artistic choice as his own. Tonight, therefore, the public will witness a long-awaited performance but surrounded by controversy, curious to discover how Luigi Tenco’s classic will be interpreted without Morgan’s scenic shadow. And we can already imagine the rain of memes: “Where’s Morgan?”.
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