"I apologize to the workers and the public for having used inappropriate words and tones, unusual for me, in a moment of excitement because my voice could not be heard clearly."
Mea culpa of the Gallura native Angelo Sotgiu of Ricchi e Poveri , after that curse pronounced live, with the microphone open, a few seconds before the stroke of midnight, during the New Year's Eve show on Rai1, which immediately went viral on the web, provoking jokes and memes. And shortly thereafter prompting the host Marco Liorni to apologize to viewers.
The first slip-up, during the group's performance on the stage of the Year to Come in Reggio Calabria, when an exclamation was heard off-screen: «Happy New Year... you c... heads!». Then, with the countdown underway, the swear word pronounced by Sotgiu most likely towards a sound engineer : «Can you open the microphone for me? My microphone is closed, you c... heads!». Liorni intervened immediately: «We owe you an apology because we were told that here, on the stage full of people, where everything happened as always happens when midnight is about to arrive, it seems that some inappropriate words slipped out, and I wanted to apologize to the audience, to those who heard it and felt a little disturbed by this certainly inappropriate expression».
In the afternoon, the Viale Mazzini board member Federica Frangi had asked Sotgiu to apologize "to viewers and Rai technicians" , speaking of "vulgar and offensive out-of-place phrases, uttered during the live New Year's Eve broadcast of L'anno che verrà on Rai 1, in front of thousands of people present and more than 5 million viewers". "No one can afford to insult Rai technicians who, as they always do, carried out their work with extreme professionalism", she concluded.
(Online Union)