Watch: Tonight at 20:40, the first of five evenings of the Italian Eurovision pre-selection, “Sanremo 2025” festival, will take place. A link for viewing the broadcast is provided.
The Italian Eurovision pre-selection, the long-standing and beloved “Sanremo 2025” music festival, kicks off tonight. This evening’s show will be the first of five taking place between February 11-15 2025, culminating in the selection of Italy’s representative for Eurovision 2025. All performances will be held at the “Ariston Theatre” (Teatro Ariston), which has consistently hosted the festival since 1977 (except for 1990, when the festival was held at the “Nuovo Mercato Dei Fiori” hall).
The broadcast will begin at 20:40 and is expected to last until 01:30.
To watch the first evening of the festival – click here!
How Will the First Evening Unfold?
The festival will be hosted by Carlo Conti, the new artistic director and host chosen after the retirement of Amadeus. Conti has previous experience hosting the festival from 2015-2017. Each evening will feature additional hosts; tonight’s co-hosts will be Antonella Clerici, an Italian television presenter and journalist who hosted the festival in 2010 (during Italy’s absence from the Eurovision competition), and Gerry Scotti, an Italian television presenter and actor. All 29 songs participating in the festival will be performed tonight. A jury composed of professional journalists from television and online media outlets will vote. Subsequently, the top five songs will be announced randomly.
What Will Happen in the Rest of the Festival?
On the second and third evenings (Wednesday and Thursday, February 12 and 13), half of the songs will be performed each night. The results will be determined by combining the audience’s vote (50%) with the vote of a jury composed of radio broadcasters (50%). At the end of each evening, the top five songs based on the current scores will be announced in random order.
On the fourth evening (Friday, February 14), each artist will perform a cover version of an existing song in Italian, English, or any other language. Competing artists will have the opportunity to perform their cover with a guest artist. The performances will be judged by the audience at home (34%), a professional jury composed of journalists (33%), and a professional jury of radio broadcasters (33%). The results from this evening will not be added to the overall score.
On the final evening, the festival’s grand finale, which will take place on Saturday, February 15, all 29 artists will perform their competing songs again. Only the audience at home will vote during this round. The results from this evening’s audience votes will be combined with the scores from previous evenings to determine which five artists advance to the final round (Superfinal). In this final round, the top five songs will be performed again and judged by a combination of audience votes (34%), a professional jury composed of journalists (33%), and a professional jury of radio broadcasters (33%). The song receiving the highest number of votes will be declared the winner of the festival.
The 29 songs that will be performed on the first Night of the festival:
- Gaia – “Chiamo io chiami tu”
- Francesco Gabbani – “Viva la vita”
- Rkomi – “Il ritmo delle cose”
- Noemi – “Se t’innamori muori”
- Irama – “Lentamente”
- Coma_Cose – “Cuoricini”
- Simone Cristicchi – “Quando sarai piccola”
- Marcella Bella – “Pelle diamante”
- Achille Lauro – “Incoscienti giovani”
- Giorgia – “La cura per me”
- Willie Peyote – “Grazie ma no grazie”
- Rose Villain – “Fuorilegge”
- Shablo ft. Guè, Joshua, Tormento – “La mia parola”
- Olly – “Balorda nostalgia”
- Elodie – “Dimenticarsi alle sette”
- Massimo Ranieri – “Tra le mani un cuore”
- Tony Effe – “Damme ‘na mano”
- Serena Brencale – “Anema e core”
- Brunori Sas – “L’albero delle noci”
- Modà – “Non ti dimentico”
- Clara – “Febbre”
- Fedez – “Battito”
- Lucio Corsi – “Volevo essere un duro”
- Bresh – “La tana del granchio”
- Sarah Toscano – “Amarcord”
- Joan Thiele – “Eco”
- Rocco Hunt – “Mille vote ancora”
- Francesca Michielin – “Fango in paradiso”
- The Kolors – “Tu con chi fai l’amore?”
Among the contestants are several familiar names:
- Francesco Gabbani: Participated in the Sanremo Festival in 2016 with the song “Amen“. A year later, he won with the song “Occidentali’s Karma” and represented Italy at Eurovision, finishing in sixth place with 334 points!
- Francesca Michielin: Participated in the Sanremo Festival twice and reached second place both times but represented Italy at Eurovision 2016 with the song “Nessun grado di separazione“, with which she reached 16th place.
- Achille Lauro: Represented San Marino at Eurovision 2022 with the song “Stripper“, finishing 14th in the second Semi-final. That same year, Lauro tried to represent Italy and participated in the Sanremo Festival with another song, “Domenica“. Achille also participated in the Sanremo Festival in 2019 and 2020.
- Massimo Ranieri: Italy’s representative for Eurovision in 1971, with the song “L’amore è un attimo“, and finished in fifth place. He also represented Italy in 1973 with the song “Chi sarà con te“, and finished 13th.
- Irama: Participated in the Sanremo Festival in 2016 with the song “Cosa resterà“, in 2019 with the song “La ragazza con il cuore di latta“, in 2021 with the song “La genesi del tuo colore“, in 2022 with the song “Ovunque sarai“, and last year with the song “Tu no“, with which he finished in fifth place.
- Giorgia Todrani, the 53-year-old Italian singer who won the Sanremo Festival in 1995 with the song “Come saprei“. However, because Italy did not participate in the competition between 1994 and 1996 due to lack of interest in Eurovision, the singer did not represent her country. Her last participation in the festival was in 2023 with the song “Parole dette male” with which she reached sixth place. In 2024, she returned to co-host with the festival’s then-host, Amadeus, the second evening of Sanremo.
- Elodie – Participated in Sanremo in 2017 with the song “Tutta colpa mia” with which she reached eighth place, in 2020 she returned to the festival with the song “Andromeda” with which she reached seventh place, and in 2021 with the song “Due” with which she reached ninth place.
- Rocco Hunt – Participated in Sanremo in 2016 with the song “Wake Up” and reached ninth place.
- Clara: Participated in the Sanremo Festival 2024 with the song “Diamanti Grezzi” and finished in 24th place out of 30.
- The Kolores: Participated in the Sanremo Festival in 2018 with the song “Frida” and reached ninth place. Last year they participated with the song “Un ragazzo una ragazza” with which they failed to advance to the super-final stage on the last evening of the festival.
- Rose Villain: Participated in the Sanremo Festival last year with the song “CLICK BOOM!” with which she failed to advance to the super-final stage on the last evening of the festival.
- Coma_Cose: Participated in the Sanremo Festival 2023 with the song “L’ADDIO” and in 2021 with the song “Fiamme negli occhi“.
- Marcella Bella: Participated in Sanremo several times in 1972, 1986, 1988, 1990, 2005, and in the last year also participated in San Marino’s Eurovision national selection with the song “Chi siamo davvero“, but never managed to reach Eurovision.
- Rkomi: Participated in the Sanremo Festival in 2022 with the song “Insuperabile“.
- Modà: It is an Italian pop band from Milan. The band, formed in 2002, currently consists of lead vocalist Kekko Silvestre, guitarists Diego Arrigoni and Enrico Zapparoli, bassist Stefano Forcella, and drummer Claudio Dirani. The band participated in the Sanremo Festival in 2023 with the song “Lasciami” with which they reached 11th place.
- Olly – Participated in San Remo 2023 with the song “Polvere” with which he reached 24th place.
Italy in Eurovision 2024
“La noia” is the song performed by singer Angelina Mango in the grand final of Eurovision 2024. The song was selected at the Italian Sanremo Festival 2024. In the Eurovision final, the song placed 7th with 268 points. Italy has successfully ranked in the top 10 for eight consecutive years.
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Eurovision 2025: This will be Italy’s 50th participation in Eurovision. Italy joined the contest in 1956, was one of the seven founding countries, and has won three times over the years. Italy’s most recent victory was at Eurovision 2021 with the song “Zitti e buoni” performed by the band Måneskin.
