Italy: How to follow 'Sanremo' week
07 February 2023 at 08:00 CETHOW TO WATCH: 'Festival di Sanremo' airs on Rai 1 in Italy. Italian broadcaster Rai also offers a live stream via their online player RaiPlay. All 5 nights of shows, from Tuesday 7 to Saturday 11 February, have a 20:40 CET start-time.
Italy's Festival di Sanremo has long achieved legendary status, and now in its 73rd year, the popular contest continues to draw in new audiences around Europe and beyond.
Coming to us live from Teatro Ariston in Sanremo, in the Linguria region of Italy, Festival di Sanremo is made up of 5 nights of shows, during which the 28 competing songs will be performed 3 times each, intertwined with a varied programme of entertainment on each night.
This year, the format of Festival di Sanremo is mapped out like this over the 5 nights:
| Tuesday 7 February | 14 songs are performed by their artists |
| Wednesday 8 February | The remaining 14 songs are performed by their artists |
| Thursday 9 February | All 28 songs are performed again |
| Friday 10 February | All 28 artists perform a cover of a classic song, with a guest performer |
| Saturday 11 February | All 28 songs are performed again, with 5 songs moving to a 'super final' to decide a winner |
As well as the performances outlined above, Festival di Sanremo invites a selection of guests and other artists along each night, to take part in the show. A mix of comedians, actors, celebrities and singers ensure that Italian audiences are kept entertained in between all the music.
The Songs
These are the 28 artists and songs that will compete in Festival di Sanremo 2023:
Anna Oxa - Sali (Canto dell'anima)
Ariete - Mare di guai
Articolo 31 - Un bel viaggio
Colapesce & Dimartino - Splash
Colla Zio - Non mi va
Coma_Cose - L'addio
Elodie - Due
Gianluca Grignani - Quando ti manca il fiato
Gianmaria - Mostro
Giorgia - Parole dette male
I Cugini di Campagna - Lettera 22
LDA - Se poi domani
Lazza - Cenere
Leo Gassmann - Terzo cuore
Levante - Vivo
Madame - Il bene nel male
Mara Sattei - Duemilaminuti
Marco Mengoni - Due vite
Modà - Lasciami
Mr. Rain - Supereroi
Olly - Polvere
Paola & Chiara - Furore
Rosa Chemical - Made in Italy
Sethu - Cause perse
Shari - Egoista
Tananai - Tango
Ultimo - Alba
Will - Stupido
The songs will be heard for the first time when they are performed for the first time. For their debut performance, the 28 songs have been divided into 14 being premiered on the Tuesday and 14 on the Wednesday. The performances across those first 2 nights have been split like this:
The Voting
Voting is made up of a public televote (34%), a jury comprising members of the press (33%) and a demoscopic jury of 300 members of the public (33%).
Voting is done all through the week and then again on the Saturday night. The average between the votes obtained during the final show and those obtained during the previous shows will determine an overall ranking of the 28 songs. This will present a Top 5 to move on to the 'super final'. All previous votes will be reset and a new vote on those 5 songs will open.
Once the voting in the 'super final' has closed and the results announced, Italy has its entry to the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool.
Hosting the event on all 5 nights will be the festival's creative director Amadeus, for the 4th consecutive year.
Together with Amadeus, Gianni Morandi will serve as co-host during all 5 nights of the festival. Alongside this pair, we will also have 4 four guest hosts who will alternate during the week: Chiara Ferragni (nights 1 and 5), Francesca Fagnani (night 2), Paola Egonu (night 3) and Chiara Francini (night 4).
The guest performers opening the festival on Tuesday 7 February will be Mahmood & BLANCO, winners of Festival di Sanremo 2022.
Make sure you sign up to the official Eurovision Song Contest newsletter, subscribe to the official podcast, and follow us across our social media channels - YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook - to be the first to find out how to secure tickets for the Eurovision Song Contest in 2023.
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