Welcome to five days of pure-distilled-Italian-genius which is the Sanremo Music Festival! For those who are unfamiliar - the competition is held in the picturesque town of Sanremo in the North-Western pocket of Italy.
Beginning in 1951, many of the best known names in Italian music took part as competitors, guests or composers. For Italians it is the music event on the calendar and will propel artists straight to the top of the charts.
Need a guide of how to follow Sanremo this year? We've got you covered here.
All 29 artists performed this morning during the four and a half hour show - here are the provisional results for the Top 5 consisting of the combined press jury (50%) and TV & Web media (50%) votes:
Top 5 Results:
Brunori Sas
Giorgia
Lucio Corsi
Simone Cristicchi
Achille Lauro
Top 5 Performances:
Brunori Sas - L'albero delle noci
Surprisingly Brunori debuted at Sanremo this morning! A consolidated artist with 10 albums - it is unusual it's taken him this long to make it to the festival as more than a guest performer. His entry is a classic paired back ballad with a sweet message. I would be surprised to see this at the pointy end of the televote.
Giorgia - La cura per me
Giorgia is the only artist to win all four major prizes in the same night of Sanremo - an unbeaten record from her 1995 appearance. She goes into this years festival as the narrow odds favourite and for good reason. Her vocal performance today was nothing less than sublime. La cura per me draws on throwback italo-pop sounds but drags it into 2025, a truly captivating song.
Lucio Corsi - Volevo essere un duro
One of the debut artists for Sanremo 2025, Lucio hails from Grosseto in middle Italy and the festival marks his biggest musical performance to date. Some nerves held back Lucio on the night but can be ironed out by the final evening. Many were left scratching their heads that this was in the top 5 of the juries.
Simone Cristicchi - Quando sarai piccola
Hailing from Rome, Simone won Sanremo 2007 withTi regalerò una rosa and returns this year with another powerful entry. Spoken verse isn't for everyone but I urge you to give this entry a go! Simone is the master of spinning poetry into a song and giving it gravity.
Achille Lauro - Incoscienti giovani
Eurovision alum Achille Lauro returns to the home stage of Sanremo with another captivating entry for different reasons than previously witnessed! Sanremo is a proving ground for Italian artists and this entry is important for showing the music professionals and public that he can do classico Italiano entries too. The industry rewards those artists that can show diversity and he is doing just that at Sanremo this year!
Iconic Moments:
The real life, actual Pope (!?) made an address to the Italian public during the festival
Iconic Italian athlete Gianmarco Tamberi appeared on stage to chat with the hosts - he went viral for splitting the gold medal for the men's high jump at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics after he and another competitor decided against a tie-breaker jump off
Raf performed his 1984 Italo disco hit Self Control on the infamous "Suzuki Hybrid Stage" - the Laura Branigan cover went to #3 on the Australian charts!
This morning was the opening night of the five-day festival - the rest of the week will proceed as follows:
Second Night - Thursday (06:40am AEDT)
The night is opened by the Newcomers' semi-final
Half of the artists will perform their entries for the second time
Voting will be televote (34%), combined press jury (33%) and radio jury (33%)
A provisional ranking of the Top 5 acts will be announced at the end of the show
Confirmed special guests: Damiano David, BigMama, the cast of Follemente, the cast of Belcanto and the cast of Champagne.
Third Night - Friday (06:40am AEDT)
The remaining half of the artists will perform their entries for the second time
Voting will be televote (34%), combined press jury (33%) and radio jury (33%)
A provisional ranking of the Top 5 acts will be announced at the end of the show
Confirmed special guests: Ermal Meta, Duran Duran and Dario D'Ambrosi
Fourth Night - Saturday (06:40am AEDT)
All 29 artist will perform covers of iconic Italian or international songs
Artists may perform with an acclaimed Italian or international guest
Voting will be televote (34%), combined press jury (33%) and radio jury (33%)
The winning cover will be announced, but unlike previous editions, the result will not count towards the overall score at the end of the festival
The night is closed by the Newcomers' final
Confirmed special guests: Iva Zanicchi, Benji & Fede, the cast of Mare fuori, Paolo Kessisoglu & Lunita Kessisoglu and Edoardo Bove.
Final Night - Sunday (06:40am AEDT)
All 29 artists will perform their songs for the third and final time
At the end of televoting, the final ranking will be drawn up comprised of print and TV media jury (33%), a radio jury (33%) and televoting (34%). The Top 5 ranked acts will perform again.
A new vote will then be held. Of the top five in the super final - the winner will be decided by televote (34%), press jury (33%) and radio jury (33%). The sum of the votes of all three components, added to the votes of the previous general classification, will finally decree the winning song of the Festival.
Confirmed special guests: Planet Funk, Tedua, Antonello Venditti and Vanessa Scalera.
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