Italy's popular Sanremo Music Festival, boosted on its opening night by a performance by Elton John, captured nearly half of the TV audience share for State broadcaster RAI on February 9, 2016, with an average number of 11.135 million viewers.

Elton took the stage in dark glasses at the Ariston Theatre for just over 15 minutes. After performing his classic "Your Song", Elton reflected back on his career in response to questions from the festival's host Carlo Conti. "I still like to play, above all live, more than ever," Elton said. "I never thought the journey would have lasted so long. And I never would have thought I'd become a father, to have the life that I've had, it has all been very positive," he said.

Elton was referring to his sons with husband David Furnish, who wasn't in attendance. He finished his set with the single "Blue Wonderful" from his new album "Wonderful Crazy Night”.

The performance came amidst an impending vote in the Italian Senate on a civil unions bill, which prompted artists Noemi, Arisa, and Enrico Ruggeri to take the stage waving rainbow flags in support of the measure.

Second-time host Conti on Wednesday said he was "very happy" with the viewership for the festival's opening night. In his debut last year, the first-night broadcast garnered nearly the same number of viewers, taking in a 49.34% audience share. "We should have put the soundtrack from Mission Impossible, because repeating it wasn't easy," Conti said. "I'm particularly happy, but we have to get to Saturday," he said of the five-evening festival.

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