Listen: Sanremo Festival 2025 kicked off last night in Italy, unveiling the songs competing in the Italian Eurovision national selection to represent Italy at Eurovision 2025.

Last night (Tuesday), the Italian Eurovision national selection, “Sanremo Festival 2025,” opened at the “Ariston” Theatre (Teatro Ariston), with the first evening of the show featuring the contestants’ performances and revealing the 29 songs competing this year to represent Italy at Eurovision 2025. This was the first of five shows taking place this week from February 11th to 15th, culminating in the announcement of the festival winner who will get the opportunity to represent Italy at Eurovision in Basel, Switzerland.

At the end of a long evening during which all participants of the Italian Eurovision national selection performed one after another, the revelation of the competing songs concluded. The evening was hosted by Carlo Conti, the new artistic director and festival host chosen after the retirement of Amadeus. Alongside him were Antonella Clerici, an Italian television host and journalist who presented the festival in 2010 (during Italy’s absence from the Eurovision competition), and Gerry Scotti, an Italian television presenter and actor. A panel of judges composed of professional journalists from television and internet media outlets voted and determined the results of the first evening.

The 29 contestants and songs in the Italian Sanremo 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?“

Click on the song title to listen!

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.

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.