The Sanremo 2026 rules have been revealed and there are no major changes to previous year. The festival takes place in Sanremo's Teatro Ariston as usual between February 24-28, 2026, after a long battle (read more here) a couple of weeks later than usual due to Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics earlier in February.
Carlo Conti might invite comedians Leonardo Pieraccioni and Giorgio Panariello as his co-hosts to this festival he says wil be his last, and there's a rumor Giorgia will be the main host next to Conti.
Carlo Conti is accepting and listening the entries until November 17, 2025 and the 26 Big will be revealed in due course, probably on
The songs must be in Italian (with minor bits in dialect or foreign language accepted) and max length is 3:30 (instead of 4:00 as previosuly), and for the Newcomers 3:00.
The first night all 26 Big will perform their songs and are voted by Press center.
The second night 13 Big will perform their song and are voted by Radio jury and televote 50-50.
the 4 Newcomers (2 from Sanremo giovani and 2 from Area Sanremo selections) will have their duels and the winners will go to the final. They are voted by all three juries (34% televote, 33% Press and 33% Radio)
The third night the other 13 Big will perform and are voted the same way as the second night. The two Newcomers will have their final duel, voted by the 3-way..
The fourth night is the cover night. All three juries will vote but the vote will NOT contribute to the final score (Hooray!)
The final night sees all 26 Big back on stage voted by all three juries (34% televote, 33% Press, 33% Radio) and the votes are added to the first three night's votes. The top-5 reach the superfinal with a new 3-way voting. Conti may or may not reveal the full results on 4th and 5th night, or just give partial results. The winner gets the ticket to Eurovision unless the winner turns down the opportunity. In that case Conti and Rai will decide, most likely turning to the runner up like in 2025.
On every night only the Top-5 will be announced in random order. Guessing the winner will be maybe easier than before as whoever is on top after three nights will be hard to beat thanks to televote. That of course benefits artists with huge active online fanbase who will vote for their favorite no matter what. Is that right is another question......
On the covers night the artists in competition can once again perform together with other Big artists, or invite whoever they want to and sing in Italian or any other language an Italian or any other song.
The Sanremo 2026 artists may not be guests in any other television channels but Rai until March 3, 2026.
The guessing for the artists is in full swing, read more here.
The 2026 edition will certainly also honor Pippo Baudo, read more here.
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