Sanremo Music Festival 2025

The Sanremo Music Festival 2025 (Italian: Festival di Sanremo 2025), officially the 75th Italian Song Festival (75º Festival della canzone italiana), is set to be the 75th edition of the annual Sanremo Music Festival, a television song contest held at the Teatro Ariston in Sanremo, organised and broadcast by RAI. It is scheduled to be held between 11 and 15 February 2025 and presented by Carlo Conti, who will also serve as the artistic director for the competition.^[1][2]

As has been the case since 2015, the winner of the festival will earn the right of first refusal to represent Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 2025.^[3]

RAI initially announced that the contest would be held from 4 to 8 February 2025. The dates were later changed to 11–15 February as they overlapped with the quarter finals of Coppa Italia, broadcast on Mediaset channels.^[2][4]

In June 2024, it was announced that the Sanremo 2025 stage will be designed by Riccardo Bocchini, the same designer of the 2015, 2016 and 2017 editions.^[5]

In June 2023, Amadeus, Sanremo's host and artistic director from 2020, announced that he would step down from his position after 2024.^[6] Despite proposals by RAI to remain for 2025,^[7] Amadeus confirmed during a press conference on 5 February 2024 that the 2024 edition would be his final time in the role.^[8]

On 22 May 2024, RAI announced Carlo Conti – who had previously taken on the role in 2015, 2016 and 2017 – as the artistic director and main host of the 2025 and 2026 editions.^[9][10] In October 2024, Conti announced that the special DopoFestival broadcast after each of the shows would be hosted by Alessandro Cattelan.^[11] The following month, Cattelan was announced as one of the co-hosts of the final night of the festival.^[12]

On 13 June 2024, Conti announced the first changes in the rules and the organisation of the contest: these include the reintroduction of the separate Newcomers' section, which was last featured in 2021, and that of DopoFestival, which will be reduced in length compared to previous editions; the "cover night" will be retained, and once again none of the entries will be eliminated before the final.^[13][14]

The complete rules were published on 20 August. It was confirmed that the number of entries would decrease from 30 to 24. As for the voting system, the results of the "cover night" would not be added to the score obtained on the other shows. On the final night, after the top five songs have been announced, there will be another round of voting, but unlike previous years, the results will then be added to the overall score. The song with the highest overall score wins the contest.^[3] In November, Conti announced that the number of entries would instead be higher than 24, as well as clarifying that competing artists will be able to duet with each other during the "cover night".^[15]

Voting will occur again through the combination of three methods:

• Public televoting, carried out via landline and mobile phone.
• Jury of the press room, TV and web.
• Jury of the radio.

Their voting will be articulated as follows:

• First night: all of the entrants were judged by the jury of the press room, TV and web.
• Second night: half of the entrants will be judged through a 50/50 split system by means of televoting and the jury of the radio, to be added up to the results of the first night. Two of the four newcomers will be judged by all three juries, determining the first finalist.
• Third night: the other half of the entrants of both sections will be judged as on the previous night.
• Fourth night: the covers will be judged through a split system by means of the televoting (34%) and the two juries (33% each), determining the winner of the night. The winner of the Newcomers' section will be determined by the same system.
• Fifth night: the entrants will be judged by televoting alone, to be added up to the results of the first three nights; ultimately, a final voting round (again a sum of televoting at 34% and the two juries at 33% each) will be held among the top five, which will determine the winner.^[3]

The four artists competing in the Newcomers' section will be determined through the Sanremo Giovani format, with the contestants, aged 16 to 26, being selected via a standard selection and the separate Area Sanremo competition. The contest is being held from 12 November to 18 December 2024, and is taking place in three stages:^[11][16]

• four weekly "challenges" on 12, 19, 26 November and 3 December, presented by Alessandro Cattelan and airing on Rai 2, each seeing six contestants, three of them advancing to the next stage based on the votes of the musical committee;
• a semi-final on 10 December, also presented by Cattelan and airing on Rai 2, where six of the remaining twelve contestants will be eliminated by the musical committee;
• a final on 18 December 2024, held at the Sanremo Casino Theatre and presented by Carlo Conti, airing live on Rai 1; the six finalists will compete for three spots in the festival, while another two, selected from Area Sanremo, will compete for an additional place; the results will be determined by a 50/50 combination of televoting and votes from the musical committee.

Online submissions for the standard selection were open between 10 July and 8 October 2024. On 17 October 2024, it was announced that 564 acts had applied, 46 of which were selected by a musical committee – composed of professionals Ema Stokholma [it; fr], Carolina Rey [it], Manola Moslehi, Enrico Cremonesi [it] and Daniele Battaglia, and chaired by the artistic director (Conti) with RAI director Claudio Fasulo [it] – to take part in an audition round in Rome on 23 October, where 24 artists were selected to compete.^[16][17][18] Their songs were released on 31 October 2024.^[19]

The rules of the Area Sanremo selection, organised by the Municipality of Sanremo alongside the Sanremo Symphonic Orchestra Foundation, were released on 3 September 2024, with the opening of an online application platform lasting until 18 October 2024. The 336 submitting acts were auditioned by a musical committee between 16 and 21 November 2024 at the Sanremo Palafiori, with the 24 qualifiers from this phase attending a final round on 22 November; there, ten winners were proclaimed, among whom two Sanremo Giovani finalists will be selected on 23 November.^[16][21][22]

The contest will feature a Big Artists section and a Newcomers' section. The entries competing in the former will be selected by the artistic director both from public submissions and by direct invitation,^[1][13][28] and are set to be announced on 1 December 2024; the number of entries, originally planned to be 24, was later announced to be higher.^[15] 4 acts, as determined through the Sanremo Giovani format, will compete in the latter.^[16] Upon the announcement of the new artistic director, Italian consumers association Codacons [it] issued a statement requesting that Conti establish a professional committee to select the competing entries, to ensure that they meet musical standards and that their selection is not based on the artists' "number of social media followers, web views or temporary fame deriving from their participation in singing talent shows", as well as the inclusion of a Codacons representative in each phase of the preparations in order to guarantee public transparency.^[29]

All 24 artists will perform their competing songs. The top 5 will be announced in a random order.^[1]

Twelve of the competing artists will perform their competing songs for a second time. The top 5 will be announced in a random order.^[1]

The remaining twelve artists will perform their competing songs for a second time. The top 5 will be announced in a random order.^[1]

The artists each will perform an Italian or international song from the past (or a medley thereof), duetting with each other or with one or more guest performers. The winner of the night will be proclaimed, but unlike previous years, the results for that night will not be added to the overall score.^[1][15]

All 24 artists will perform their competing songs. The top 5 artists of the combined rankings of this and the first three shows will advance to the superfinal. Here they will get to perform their song for a second time, while juries and televote will vote to determine the winner.^[1]

Rai 1 and Rai Radio 2 will bring the official broadcasts of the festival in Italy. The five evenings will also be streamed online via the broadcaster's official online platform RaiPlay.

• Official website of the Sanremo Music Festival
• Official website of Sanremo Giovani