Italy's Eurovision Song Contest participation has been linked to the Sanremo Festival since their very first entry at the first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956 in Lugano. Their 1964 winner Gigliola Cinquetti's Non Ho L'Età had been crowned as Sanremo winner before her victory in Copenhagen.
Italy is about to make its third appearance at the Eurovision Song Contest since their comeback in 2011 and once again the highly succesful Festival di Sanremo will be the platform used to announce Italy's participant at the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest Final on the 18th of May. Only the artist will be chosen, the song for Malmö will be confirmed later on.
The acts that will participate in the 2013 Sanremo Song Festival are:
"Campioni" Category:
Almamegretta, Annalisa, Chiara, Daniele Silvestri, Elio e le storie tese, Malika Ayane, Marco Mengoni, Maria Nazionale, Marta sui tubi, Max Gazze', Modà, Raphael Gualazzi, Simona Molinari & Peter Cincotti and Simone Cristicchi.
"Giovani" Category:
Andrea Nardinocchi, Antonio Maggio, Blastema, Ilaria Porceddu, Il Cile, Irene Ghiotto, Paolo Simoni and Renzo Rubino.
Last year's Italian entry L'Amore È Femmina reached the Top 10 in Baku and it came from one of the established artists, Nina Zilli, while in 2011 it was the winner of the newcomers category, Raphael Gualazzi. After reaching the second place in the Final in Düsseldorf with Madness Of Love/Follia D'Amore, Raphael is back in Sanremo 2013 as a "Campioni".
The 63rd "Festival di Sanremo" takes place at the Ariston Theatre in Sanremo from the 12th to the 16th of February presented by Fabio Fazio and Luciana Littizzetto. During the Final on the 16th, the Italian artist for the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest will be announced.
