The Sanremo Music Festival 2020 ( it, 70º Festival della Canzone Italiana di Sanremo 2020) was the 70th edition of the annual

Sanremo Music Festival The Sanremo Music Festival, officially the Italian Song Festival () and commonly known as just (), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria. It is the longest-running annua ...

, a television song contest held in the

Teatro Ariston The Ariston Theatre ( it, Teatro Ariston) is a cinema in Sanremo, Italy. It has been the venue of the annual Sanremo Music Festival The Sanremo Music Festival, officially the Italian Song Festival () and commonly known as just (), is the ...

Sanremo Sanremo (; lij, Sanrémmo(ro) or , ) or San Remo is a city and comune on the Mediterranean coast of Liguria, in northwestern Italy. Founded in Roman times, it has a population of 55,000, and is known as a tourist destination on the Italian Rivie ...

and organised and broadcast by

RAI RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...

. The show was held between 4 and 8 February 2020. The show was presented by

Amadeus Amadeus may refer to: *Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), prolific and influential composer of classical music *Amadeus (name), a given name and people with the name * ''Amadeus'' (play), 1979 stage play by Peter Shaffer * ''Amadeus'' (film), ...

, who also served as the artistic director for the competition.

Format

The 2020 edition of the Sanremo Music Festival took place at the

, organized by the Italian public broadcaster

. The artistic director and the presenter for the competition was

Presenters

On 2 August 2019,

officially confirmed

as the presenter of the 70th edition of the Sanremo Music Festival. Together with Amadeus, ten co-hosts alternated during the five evenings: Laura Chimenti, Antonella Clerici, Emma D'Aquino, Rula Jebreal, Diletta Leotta, Francesca Sofia Novello, Georgina Rodríguez,

Sabrina Salerno Sabrina Debora Salerno (born 15 March 1968), known mononymously as Sabrina, is an Italian singer, songwriter, record producer, model, actress and television presenter. During her career, she has sold over 20 million records worldwide and scored ...

, Alketa Vejsiu and Mara Venier. Actress

Monica Bellucci Monica Anna Maria Bellucci (; born 30 September 1964) is an Italian actress and model. She began her career as a fashion model, modelling for Dolce & Gabbana and Dior, before making a transition to Italian films and later American and French f ...

was set to participate as special guest, but she quit two weeks before the festival started.

Voting

Voting occurred through the combination of four methods: * Public televoting, carried out via landline, mobile phone, the contest's official mobile app, and online voting. * Jury of the Press Room, TV, Radio and Web. * Demoscopic jury, composed by music fans who voted from their homes via an electronic voting system managed by

Ipsos Ipsos Group S.A. () (an acronym of ) is a multinational market research and consulting firm with headquarters in Paris, France. The company was founded in 1975 by Didier Truchot, Chairman of the company, and has been publicly traded on the P ...

. * Musicians and singers of the Sanremo Music Festival Orchestra. Voting during the five evenings: * First evening: Demoscopic jury. * Second evening: Demoscopic jury. * Third evening: Music and singers of the Sanremo Music Festival Orchestra. * Fourth evening: Jury of the Press Room, TV, Radio and Web. * Fifth evening. The voting systems will have the following weight: 34% Public televoting; 33% Jury of the Press Room, TV, Radio and Web; 33% Demoscopic Jury. At the end, a ranking of the songs/artists will be drawn up determined by the average of voting percentages obtained in all the evenings.

Selections

Newcomers' section

The artists competing in the Newcomers' section were selected through two separate contests: ''Sanremo Giovani'' and ''Area Sanremo''.

Sanremo Giovani

On 23 October 2019, Rai Commission for Sanremo Music Festival 2020 announced a list of 842 acts, but only 65 artists coming from all

Italian regions The regions of Italy ( it, regioni d'Italia) are the first-level administrative divisions of the Italian Republic, constituting its second NUTS administrative level. There are twenty regions, five of which have higher autonomy than the rest. U ...

-excluding Basilicata and

Valle d'Aosta , Valdostan or Valdotainian it, Valdostano (man) it, Valdostana (woman)french: Valdôtain (man)french: Valdôtaine (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = Official languages , population_blank1 = Italian French , ...

- and from abroad were selected in the first phase. On 3 November 2019, the jury of Sanremo Festival 2020 has selected the 20 semi-finalists. The selection was preceded by four afternoon shows on "Italia sì", conducted by Marco Liorni, where the artists and their entries were presented and were selected the 10 finalist. On 19 December 2019, the ten finalists performed their songs at Sanremo Casino in Sanremo, with the show Sanremo Giovani 2019 broadcast on

Rai 1 Rai 1 () is an Italian free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana. It is the company's flagship television channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream and gener ...

presented by

. The evening is divided into 5 duels, the five selected by the jury, televote, music commission and demoscopic jury were added to the two entries of Area Sanremo and Sanremo Young's winner, for a total of eight young emerging artists in the category of the Newcomers' section of the Sanremo Music Festival 2020.

Leo Gassmann Leonardo Gassman, better known as Leo Gassmann (born 22 November 1998) is an Italian singer and songwriter. Born in Rome, he is the son of the actors Alessandro Gassmann and Sabrina Knaflitz and the grandson of the actors Vittorio Gassman and Juli ...

, Fadi, Marco Sentieri, Fasma and Eugenio in Via Di Gioia were chosen as contestants of the Newcomers' section of the Sanremo Music Festival 2020.

Area Sanremo

After the auditions, RAI Commission - composed by Massimo Cotto, Vittorio De Scalzi, Teresa De Sio, Andrea "Andy" Fumagalli and Petra Magoni; plus the participation of Gianni Testa - identified 8 finalists for the competition among the 750 acts: * Alessia Geraldi * Alex Leo * Arianna Manca * Camilla Magli * Gabriella Martinelli & Lula * Jacqueline Branciforte * Matteo Faustini * Messya

Newcomers' Finalists

- "Vai bene così" * Fadi - "Due noi" * Marco Sentieri - "Billy Blu" * Fasma - "Per sentirmi vivo" * Eugenio in Via Di Gioia - "Tsunami" * Matteo Faustini - "Nel bene e nel male" * Gabriella Martinelli & Lula - "Il gigante d'acciaio" *

Tecla Insolia Tecla Insolia (born 13 January 2004) is an Italian actress and singer. Biography Born in Varese, she grew up in Piombino, Tuscany. She took part in several Italian TV shows such as ''Pequeños gigantes'' (2016) and ''L'allieva'' (2018). On 15 ...

- "8 marzo"

Big section

The Big Artists section of the contest will see the participation of 24 artists. All the artists performed several times and were scored during the week, but every competing artist advanced to the final night.

Competing entries

Shows

First evening

The first twelve Big Artists each performed their song and the first four Newcomers each performed their song for the first time in two manches, two for each one.

Big Artists

Newcomers

Second evening

The other twelve Big Artists each performed their song and the other four Newcomers each performed their song for the first time.

Big Artists

Newcomers

Third evening - ''Sanremo 70''

All the twenty-four Big Artists each performed a song that are part of the history of the Sanremo Music Festival. In this case, the artists can choose whether or not to be accompanied by Italian or foreign guests.

Big Artist

Fourth evening

All the twenty-four Big Artists each performed once again their songs. Also, the winner of the 4 remaining songs in the Newcomers section was determined. During the evening,

Bugo Cristian Bugatti, also known as Bugo (born 2 August 1973 in Rho (MI), Italy) is an Italian singer-songwriter, artist and actor. He spent his youth in the rice fields of Cerano, in the Province of Novara in the Piedmont region. A self-taught arti ...

& Morgan were disqualified for failing to deliver their performance.

Big Artists

Newcomers

Fifth evening

The 23 Big Artists each performed their entry for a final time. The top three then faced a superfinal vote, where the winner was decided.

Superfinal

* * *

Special guests

The special guests of Sanremo Music Festival 2020 were: *singers / musicians:

Alessandra Amoroso Alessandra Amoroso (; born 12 August 1986 in Galatina, Province of Lecce) is an Italian pop/soul singer, songwriter, producer and TV personality. She was the winner of the 2009 edition of the Italian talent show ''Amici di Maria De Filippi''. Si ...

, Albano, Biagio Antonacci,

Bobby Solo Roberto Satti better known as Bobby Solo (born 18 March 1945) is an Italian singer, musician and film actor. Singing career In 1964, Solo participated in the Sanremo Music Festival with the song " Una lacrima sul viso" ("A Tear on your Face", w ...

Coez Silvano Albanese (born 11 July 1983, in Nocera Inferiore, Italy) and better known by his stage name Coez is an Italian singer and rapper. Career Born in Nocera Inferiore in the province of Salerno, he grew up in Rome. He studied comedy at Sc ...

, Dua Lipa, Elisa Toffoli,

Emma Marrone Emmanuela "Emma" Marrone (; born 25 May 1984), known professionally as Emma, is an Italian pop singer, songwriter, and actress. After working with several bands, she won the Italian talent show ''Amici di Maria De Filippi'' in March 2010, and s ...

Fiorella Mannoia Fiorella Mannoia (; born 4 April 1954) is an Italian singer and songwriter. Biography The Beginning Fiorella Mannoia's father Luigi was an Italian film stuntman, and Fiorella, her brother Maurizio and sister Patrizia began work in this area a ...

, Gente de Zona, Ghali,

Gianna Nannini Gianna Nannini (; born 14 June 1954Who Is Who
''Bello e possibile'' ...

Gigi D'Alessio Luigi "Gigi" D'Alessio (born 24 February 1967) is an Italian popular singer and Neapolitan singer-songwriter. In his career, he has sold over 26 million records. Career D'Alessio was born in Naples. He was well known in Naples in the early 1990 ...

, Giorgia, Kumalibre, Laura Pausini,

Lewis Capaldi Lewis Marc Capaldi ( ; born 7 October 1996) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and musician. He was nominated for the Critics' Choice Award at the 2019 Brit Awards. In March 2019, his single " Someone You Loved" topped the UK Singles Chart wher ...

Massimo Ranieri Massimo Ranieri (born Giovanni Calone on 3 May 1951) is an Italian singer, actor, television presenter and director. Biography Early life Ranieri was born in Naples ( at Santa Lucia), the fifth of eight children in the family. When he was 10, y ...

Mika Mika is a given name, a nickname and a surname. Notable people and fictional characters with the name include: People known just as Mika * Mika (singer) (born 1983), Lebanese-born British singer-songwriter Michael Penniman, Jr. * Mika (footbal ...

Ricchi e Poveri Ricchi e Poveri (; "The Rich and The Poor") is an Italian pop group formed in Genoa in 1967, originally consisting of Angela Brambati, Angelo Sotgiu, Franco Gatti and Marina Occhiena. Active since the late 1960s, they have sold over 20 million r ...

, Roger Waters,

Romina Power Romina Francesca Power (born October 2, 1951) is an American actress and singer born in Los Angeles, California. She is the daughter of Hollywood matinée idol Tyrone Power and actress Linda Christian. With then-husband Albano Carrisi, she fo ...

Tiziano Ferro Tiziano Ferro (; born 21 February 1980) is an Italian singer, songwriter, producer and author. He broke through in 2001 with his international hit single " Perdono" and has remained commercially successful since then, in several countries. Ferro ...

Tony Renis Tony Renis (born 13 May 1938), stage name of Elio Cesari, is an Italian singer, composer, music producer and film actor. Life and career Renis was born in Milan. In the mid-1950s he met with Adriano Celentano, and the two started performing an i ...

Vittorio Grigolo Vittorio Grigolo (correctly Vittorio Grigòlo, born 19 February 1977) is an Italian operatic tenor. Early life Grigolo was born in Arezzo and raised in Rome. He began singing by the age of four. When he was nine years old he accompanied his mot ...

, Wilma De Angelis,

Zucchero Adelmo Fornaciari (; born 25 September 1955), more commonly known by his stage name Zucchero Fornaciari or simply Zucchero (), is an Italian singer, musician and songwriter. His stage name is the Italian word for "sugar", as his elementary teach ...

. *actors / comedians / directors / models: Alma Noce, Andrea Pittorino,

Antonio Maggio Antonio Maggio (born 8 August 1986 in San Pietro Vernotico) is an Italian pop singer. He debuted as a member of the vocal group Aram Quartet, which won the first edition of Italian talent show '' X Factor''. In 2010 he started a solo career, a ...

Christian De Sica Christian De Sica (; born 5 January 1951) is an Italian actor and film director. Life De Sica was born in Rome the second son of Italian director Vittorio De Sica and Spanish actress María Mercader. His first cousin once removed was Ramón ...

Claudio Santamaria Claudio Santamaria is an Italian actor; in 2016 he was awarded the David di Donatello for Best Actor award for portraying the superhero Enzo 'Jeeg' Ceccotti in ''They Call Me Jeeg''. Career His cinema debut came in 1997, with Leonardo Pieracci ...

Cristiana Capotondi Cristiana Capotondi (born 13 September 1980) is an Italian actress. Early life and career Capotondi was born in Rome to an Italian family of mixed Italian Catholic and Italian Jewish background (her maternal grandfather was Jewish). Growing ...

Diego Abatantuono Diego Abatantuono (born 20 May 1955) is an Italian cinema and theatre actor, and screenwriter, three-time winner of the Nastro d'Argento. Biography and career Abatantuono was born in Milan to a father of Apulian origin and a mother from Como. T ...

Donatella Finocchiaro Donatella Finocchiaro (born 16 November 1970) is an Italian actress. She has appeared in more than 20 films since 2002. She starred in ''The Wedding Director'', which was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. ...

Edoardo Pesce Edoardo Pesce (born 12 September 1979) is an Italian actor. Biography A student of the actor Enzo Garinei, Pesce began his career on stage, but gained notoriety with the TV series ''Romanzo criminale'' and ''I Cesaroni''. He received critical ac ...

, Francesco Centorame,

Gabriele Muccino Gabriele Muccino (; born 20 May 1967) is an Italian film director. He has worked his way from making short films only aired on Italian television to become a well-known and successful American filmmaker. He is the elder brother of actor Silvio Mu ...

, Gaia Gerace, Gessica Notaro,

Kim Rossi Stuart Kim Rossi Stuart (born 31 October 1969) is an Italian actor and director. Early life and career Rossi Stuart was born in Rome. His father, Giacomo, was an actor of Italian and Scottish descent (his mother was Scottish). Kim's mother, Klara M ...

, Margherita Mazzucco,

Massimo Ghini Massimo Ghini (born 12 October 1954) is an Italian actor. Life He has worked with Franco Zeffirelli, Giorgio Strehler, Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, and Gabriele Lavia, among others. He has been married to actress Nancy Brilli, and is the father ...

, Micaela Ramazzotti,

Paolo Rossi Paolo Rossi (; 23 September 1956 – 9 December 2020) was an Italian professional footballer who played as a forward. He led Italy to the 1982 FIFA World Cup title, scoring six goals to win the Golden Boot as top goalscorer, and the Golden ...

Pierfrancesco Favino Pierfrancesco Favino (; August 24, 1969) is an Italian actor, voice actor and producer. He has appeared in more than fifty European and American movies and television series since the early 1990s, including '' The Prince of Homburg'' (1997), '' T ...

, Riccardo Morozzi,

Roberto Benigni Roberto Remigio Benigni (; born 27 October 1952) is an Italian actor, comedian, screenwriter and director. He gained international recognition for writing, directing and starring in the Holocaust comedy-drama film ''Life Is Beautiful'' (1997), f ...

Rosario Fiorello Rosario Tindaro Fiorello (born 16 May 1960), known just as Fiorello, is an Italian comedian, singer, radio, and television presenter. Career Fiorello was born in Catania, Sicily, and raised in Augusta, Sicily. He began his career working in tour ...

. *other persons or notable figures: Carlotta Mantovan,

Costantino della Gherardesca Costantino della Gherardesca Verecondi Scortecci (born 29 January 1977, in Rome), or simply Costantino della Gherardesca, is an Italian actor, journalist, radio presenter, television personality and presenter. Gherardesca is part of a notable aris ...

Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward and captains the Portugal national team. He is currently a free agent. Widely regarded as one of the greatest p ...

, Dayane Mello, Max Giusti,

Novak Djokovic Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...

, Nicola Savino, Paolo Palumbo, Vincenzo Mollica.

Broadcast and ratings

Local broadcast

and

Rai Radio 2 Rai Radio 2 (''radio due'') is an Italian radio channel operated by the state-owned public-broadcasting organization RAI and specializing in talk programmes and popular music from Italy and China. History The origins of the channel can be tr ...

carried the official broadcasts of the festival in Italy. The five evenings were also streamed online via the broadcaster's official website

RaiPlay RaiPlay is the multimedia portal owned by the Italian national broadcaster RAI replacing Rai.tv since 12 September 2016. It is for watching popular Italian shows such as 'Inspector Montalbano', 'Don Matteo' and many more. Login and registration, ...

Ratings Sanremo Music Festival 2020

The audience is referred to that of

International broadcast

The international television service

Rai Italia Rai Italia is the international English language television service of Rai Internazionale, a subsidiary of RAI, Italy's public national broadcaster. Rai Italia operates a television network that broadcasts around the world via 3 localized feeds. ...

broadcast the competition in the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

, Australia and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

. The contest was also streamed via the official Eurovision Song Contest website ''eurovision.tv''.

Omni Television Omni Television (stylized as OMNI Television) is a Canadian television system and specialty channel owned by Rogers Sports & Media, a subsidiary of Rogers Communications. It currently consists of all six of Canada's conventional multicultural ...

broadcast all five shows in Canada on a delay from February 10 to the 14th.

RTSH Radio Televizioni Shqiptar (; en, "Albanian Radio and Television"; mostly called RTSH ) is an Albanian public broadcasting radio and television company. Founded in 1938, it operates several radio and television channels, over a domestic transmi ...

, TVR and

RTCG Radio and Television of Montenegro ( cnr, Радио и Телевизија Црне Горе, Radio i Televizija Crne Gore; abbr. /RTCG) is the public service broadcaster of Montenegro. A state-owned company with its headquarters in Podgorica, i ...

also broadcast Sanremo 2020.

Notes

References

{{Sanremo Music Festival 2020 in Italian television 2020 song contests February 2020 events in Italy Sanremo Music Festival by year