A Nation Sings: Sanremo Music Festival
It’s not just a song contest, it's a cultural extravaganza
Light, camera…Sanremo! Once again, the world watched as the annual Sanremo Music Festival (Festival della Canzone Italiana di Sanremo) dazzled the Ligurian city on the Riviera dei Fiori recently. More than a song contest, the beloved event has captured the hearts of Italians since the 1950s, and it continues to define Italian music, history and culture on the world stage. Emotional pop-rock ballads, nostalgic folk melodies, guitar riffs that stay in your head for years…we’re only just warming up!
Held at Sanremo’s iconic Ariston Theatre (Teatro Ariston) every year in February, the song competition is broadcast on national TV and unites Italians of all ages. We gather around the television at home, at our neighbour’s place, or at the local bar to witness all the colour, character and hype that defines this global music spectacular.
A brief history of the ‘Festival della Canzone Italiana’
It’s hard to believe that this epic spectacle once started off in a small Sanremo casino with just three participants. In the early 1950s, it was decided that an annual song contest could help revive Sanremo’s economy, particularly in the years following World War II. From its humble origins as a three-day contest showcasing previously unreleased songs, the event has dramatically grown in scope, constantly mirroring Italy’s social and cultural climate through the voice of its contestants.
Discover the best of Italian music with this playlist of the biggest Sanremo hits! From timeless ballads to energetic dance songs, immerse yourself in these iconic melodies that span across generations.
Ask any Italian of a certain generation about Sanremo, and they’ll probably start recalling particular songs and artists that made Italian music history (with big sighs of nostalgia, no doubt!). The contest’s early ‘golden years’ showcased performances by the likes of Domenico Modugno, Claudio Villa and Mina. It has also witnessed unforgettable moments like Adriano Celentano ‘scandalously’ turning his back to the audience in 1961, and performances that still give us goosebumps to this day, like when Andrea Bocelli brought the whole nation to their feet with his performance of ‘Con te partiro’ (1995). The San Remo Music festival has a decades-long legacy, and an equally long list of classic Italian songs that we have grown up with.
The Sanremo ‘rulebook’
What actually takes place during the five-day festival? While the official ‘rules’ of the contest have changed over the decades, contestants (solo artists, groups or bands) are usually announced a few months prior to the event, along with their song titles and song lyrics (these are only clues that are released to the public about their performances). Spanning a diverse range of genres including Pop, Folk, Rock and Classical, singers perform their own original unreleased song, as well as a cover of a popular Italian hit song as each night’s performances unfold. The festival’s judging is based on a combination of ranking by a jury of press, TV and music experts, as well as public televote.
Historically, the contest has been divided into two performance categories: Big Artists and Newcomers, and all artists’s songs must be previously unreleased and performed in Italian (or Italian dialects). In certain years throughout its history, the Sanremo Music Festival invited major international guests to perform such as Ray Charles, Cher, Stevie Wonder and Jose Feliciano, which opened the event to new global audiences and more diverse music styles.
AND THE WINNER IS…
Did you know that the winner of the Sanremo Music Festival each year goes on to represent Italy at the international Eurovision Song Contest? In fact, the concept of Eurovision was actually inspired by Sanremo! Marcel Bezençon, the international event’s founder, observed Sanremo’s popularity and broadcasting success, and decided to create a version of the contest on an international scale.
Stars of the stage
We can thank the Sanremo Music Festival for launching and establishing the music careers of some of Italy’s most beloved artists including Tony Renis, Gigliola Cinquetti, Eros Ramazotti, Andrea Bocelli, as well as Marco Mengoni, Colapesce-Dimartino and Måneskin more recently. It’s not all about winning…we love this contest because it’s about new musical discoveries, and even rediscovering the songs that have captivated the heart of the nation for decades. From romantic ballads like Massimo Ranieri’s Perdere l’amore (1988) and La solitudine by Laura Pausini (1993), to upbeat hits like Le ragazze by Neri per Caso (1995) and Splash by Colapesce Dimartino (2023)… February always puts a song in our hearts!
Channel your own version of ‘Sanremo glam’ with some of these statement-making style pieces on ISSIMO:
