Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

The new Artistic director for Sanremo Stefano De Martino * has really changed some things in the annual festival with his co-director Fabrizio Ferraguzzo, some same old like dropping the Newcomers category in the festival, some new like replacing the Cover night with Eurovision night. But let's go on order. No news about his co-hosts yet but the names Giulia Vecchio, Herbert Ballerina and Carlo Amleto , his current collaborators are considered very possible be in. Maria De Filippi might return as well.  The 77th Sanremo festival will take place in Teatro Ariston in Sanremo between February 16 and 20, 2027. Apparently there will be fewer songs this time around, 24 (instead of the 30 the past years). The Newcomers winner aka Sanremo Giovani winner will be added to the line up to compete among the Big  and thus will have a chance to win it all and/or the Eurovision night and go to Eurovision as well. Just like Mahmood in 2018-19. The Sanremo Giovani final will take place on De...

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...

The 74th Festival della canzone italiana kicks off in legendary Teatro Ariston in Sanremo tonight. The artistic director and main host is once again Amadeus for the 5th year, officially his last but there's demand from Rai for him to do it again next year. His festivals have been not only viewing successes but also an endless source for multiplatinum scoring hits. The first night's co-host is none other than last year's winner and Eurovision 2023 4th placed Marco Mengoni who will open the night with his winning entry (and the most streamed Italian song abroad) Due vite. Singer and Sanremo winner Giorgia will co-host second night, comedian/actress Teresa Mannio 3rd, showgirl Lorella Cuccarini 4th and finally legendary funny man Fiorello the final.  Among the artists Eurovision veterans Mahmood, Emma, Il Volo and Ricchi e Poveri with Diodato. Other previous winner is Francesco Renga. 15 out of 30 acts are debutantes, or 16 if you don't count Negramaro's participation ...

Sanremo 2022 rules and other info has been revealed. There are changes to voting, and next year there will 24 Big artists, two of them coming from the Newcomers Sanremo Giovani 2021 selection that is the biggest change really, or no more two different categories. This isn't anything new either as already 2019 this was tried out and gave us Mahmood.  For the Giovani selection there were 711 submissions out of which 30 acts will be invited to live auditions on November 8 in Rome. A special invitation there is also for Castrocaro winner Simo Veludo . Eight of them will make to the televised selection in December, with addition of four acts from Area Sanremo. That's doubled to previous years when only two made it that way. Each of the chosen ones has had to have two songs ready already and has input in decision; one for the Giovani selection and one new one for the Sanremo itself.  As already common, the same phrase is in the rules: The winner goes to Eurovision if only has agreed...

Should Sanremo festival 2019 act also as the Italian national selection for Eurovision song contest next year ( and we have no reason to believe it wouldn't) there's a major change in rules coming up. Claudio Baglioni, man in charge for the second year in a row hoping to repeat his succesful 2018 edition aims to separate the newcomers and the Big artists totally. That means that the Newcomers, or Nuove proposte aka Giovani will be held already in December instead of along the festival in February. The winner gets a freebie for the Big category. Update: The dates for Sanremo Giovani are December 16-21, with four pre-shows before the two nights primetime shows on 20 and 21. The top-2 will join the cast of the Big in February festival (dates might yet change, btw). All this is also due to all these reality and talent shows; placing the winners and artists to Sanremo has become a very tricky task the past few years - who's big enough for a Big? There are some rules based ...

  Today's the day. Azerbaijan will kick off the rehearsals 11am local time behind closed doors, as it has been now for a couple of years. Even more rules have been set by EBU in the last minute this year: a maximum of two minutes footage can be published by fan sites and blogs, and if I understood corretly none in private social media pages but only on blogs and sites. Same goes for photos.... But hey, I'm all for it. Too many times "fans" have slaughtered acts even before they have got their act together on that new stage (think Belgium last year for example) making them drop in betting odds etc. It's not only question of peace of mind for the delegations and the artist and money, it's a question of respect.  Let them get their act together before you judge, ok?  If you complain have a long look at the mirror. Fandom gets what fandom deserves. Simple as that. One of the best decisions by EBU for years, the best since closed doors rehearsals actually. Now...

Claudio Baglioni has taken over from Carlo Conti and quite a few things in Sanremo will change, but not the link to Eurovision. The rules again say the winner of the Big category is the first choice for Eurovision song contest for Italy, if he/she/they only want to. So far the only one not accepting the job has been Stadio, who gladly handed the opportunity to runner up Francesca Michielin. Things that change include the dropping of the eliminations. All 20 Big, and 8 Govani aka Newcomers will reach the final. Also the Friday night's cover special is gone. Instead it's back to the Duets, already used previously. The Big can invited other artists to duet with their entries and rearrange the whole song.  The Italians fans doen't seem to be very optimistic in Baglioni's capacity of finding Eurovision worthy artists and songs, and are pretty afraid it'll be something very old and dated instead.... We'll see.  Here's how the nights will be and the voti...

The rules for the 67th Sanremo festival are out and once again it is used as the platform for the Italian entry - or rather the entrant as nothing is said about the song - for the Eurovision song contest in Kyiv. The winner has the option to fly the Italian flag if (s)he wants to and is the first choice. In case of "no, grazie" by the winner Rai will choose internally whoever they think suitable unlike in 2016 when it clearly stated the runner up would be next in line and gave us Francesca Michielin when Stadio declined the offer. Another interesting step is shortening the entries. Now for the Big category it is set to max 3:30, and for the Newcomers 3:00. Sounds very Eurovisionesque, doesn't it? Some changes in the line up of the evenings, too. All the 20 Big aka Campioni will perform already the first night and be voted 50-50 by televote-press. Ten of them will perform again on 2nd and 3rd night each with the same voting system. After counting the votes for thes...

As we know now the 65th Festival di Sanremo will be used as the selection format for the Italian entrant in the Eurovision song contest - for the first time officially since Italy's return as it is written in the rules. The winner will be the first choice (but not necessarily the winning song). But how does Sanremo work? It may be a bit confusing affair for those who haven't been following it for years (and sometimes even for us who have!) I try to spell it out in a simple way. The songs by Big will be first heard only when they are performed for the first time on stage in Teatro Ariston while the Newcomers songs will be played in Radio2 already in January to make people familiar with these new artists and voices. Only songs in Italian (or local dialects) are accepted fro Sanremo. And if you thought staging Eurovision costs, RAI spends 16,5 euros for Sanremo 2015 but hey, that's down from last year's 18! Five nights of votings by different groups and categories ...

EBU has released the rules for the Eurovision song contest 2014 today and while there are no major changes the jury gets underlined thanks to the on going voting irregulations speculations that really exploded this year.   Also, EBU will publish all the individual jury member votes and the split jury and televoting results right after the final. This should make most everyone happy! The jury members will be made public on May 1, 2014. This blogger is a little bit buzzled about this. What's the point? Isn't it easier to pressure and influence them if we know who they are? On the other hand, it also makes it more difficult in some ways. Maybe that's what EBU thinks wins in the end? The jury members, five of them in each country, also must work within music industry as radio DJs, artists, composers, lyricists or producers. They must not work for the broadcaster and must be citizens of the country in question. The jury must also be of sufficient representativeness of g...