Sanremo Music Festival is a cultural phenomenon in Italy - spanning five nights, around 25 hours total and is the selection for Italy's Eurovision participant in 2022. It will be run as nightly shows from February 1st to 5th with no broadcast times confirmed. RAI ('Radiotelevisione italiana') is the Italian broadcaster of both Sanremo and Eurovision.
The competition will once again be hosted by the much adored Amadeus and Fiorello, with Amadeus as artistic director for the third year. Generally the winner goes on to participate for the Mediterranean nation at Eurovision - however; Sanremo has never been a simple 'national final', on occasion if the winner declines the opportunity than it is up to the broadcasters to select someone else from that participating year (not necessarily 2nd place).
24 artists will compete for the golden lion, two of which qualified from the newcomers' section of 'Sanremo Giovani' (to be held 15 December 2021). The other 22 artists (including six former Eurovision artists) were revealed today and they are:
Achille Lauro
The young Italian rapper makes his fourth consecutive appearance at Sanremo taking part as contestant and guest artist. He competed in 2019 with ‘Rolls Royce’ and in 2020 with ‘Me ne frego’.
AKA 7even
Luca Marzano aka AKA 7even is a previous finalist in the Italian talent show ‘Amici di Maria De Filippi’. Just this year he won the “Best Italian Act” award at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2021, beating Måneskin.
Ana Mena
The Spanish singer and actress has had huge hits in Italy, ‘Una volta ancora’, ‘D’estate non vale’, ‘A un passo dalla luna’ and ‘Un bacio all’improvviso’ collaborating with Italian rappers Rocco Hunt and Fred De Palma. She is a 2010 winner of Disney's musical reality show ‘My Camp Rock 2’.
Dargen D’amico
Dargen D’amico is an Italian rapper, songwriter, record producer and DJ. He founded his own independent record label. His style leans more towards hip hop. In 2017 he released an album ‘Variazioni’ in collaboration with Italian composer Isabella Turso.
Ditonellapiaga and Rettore
Donatella Rettore aka Rettore returns to Sanremo for the fifth time. She is well known in the 80’s with her songs ‘Splendido splendente’, ‘Kobra’ and ‘Lamette’. She will be joined by a young 24-year-old Margherita Carducci, aka Ditonellapiaga. The singer-songwriter is known for her popular songs ‘Perun’ora d’amore’ and ‘Spreco di potentiale’.
Elisa
Elisa Toffoli is a 2001 Sanremo winner with the song ‘Luce (Tramonti a nord-est)’. She earned six awards at the Festival. She has won numerous awards including an MTV Europe Music Award in 2001. She had the honour of performing her Sanremo winning song at the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Turin. She is one to watch at Sanremo 2022.
Emma
Emma represented Italy in 2014 with 'La mia città’ which finished in 21st place. She won Sanremo in 2012 with ‘Non è l’inferno’. The previous year she finished in second place with ‘Arriverà’ as part of the group Modà. The singer has since been a judge on ‘X Factor Italia’.
Fabrizio Moro
Fabrizio Moro is also back, he performed 'Non mi avete fatto niente' at Eurovision in 2018 with Ermal Meta.
In 2007 during Fabrizio's second time competing in the 'Sanremo Music Festival' he won the Newcomers' Section with his entry 'Pensa' which went on to go to No. 1 on the Italian singles chart. This will be Fabrizio's sixth participation in Sanremo.
Gianni Morandi
Gianni represented Italy at Eurovision 1970 with ‘Occhi di ragazza’ which finished in 8th place, Italy’s twelfth top 10 placing at the time. He made a comeback in the 80’s winning Sanremo in 1987 with ‘Si può dare di più’ together with Enrico Ruggeri and Umberto Tozzi. Gianni also competed at Sanremo in 1995 finishing in second place and in 2000 where he finished in third place. The pop singer and entertainer was presenter at Sanremo in 2011 and 2012. He will be 77-years old at Sanremo 2022.
Giovanni Truppi
Giovanni Truppi was born in Naples in 1981. He began releasing music in 2010 and is present in the indie scene. In 2014 he designed and built his very own piano he obtained by modifying a vertical plane, which he uses in his music. On Spotify his most streamed song is ‘Mia (con Calcutta)’ with over one million streams.
Giusy Ferreri
Giusy Ferreri will be participating in Sanremo for the fourth time. The former ‘X Factor’ Italy contestant last participated in Sanremo 2017 with the song ‘Fa talmente male’. She was eliminated on the fourth night in the “Big Artists” category.
Highsnob and Hu
Highsnob and Hu are rapper Michele Matera (Highsnob) and Federica Ferracuti (Hu). Hu competed in Sanremo Giovanni last year with ‘Occhi Niagara’. She missed out on the “Newcomers” category. Highsnob will be making his Sanremo debut.
Irama
Filippo Maria Fanti aka Irama makes his return to Sanremo. He is a previous winner of the Italian talent show ‘Amici di Maria De Filippi’. Irama was the artist who unfortunately didn’t perform live on the Sanremo stage last year after his staff contracted Covid. A pre-recorded rehearsal video was used and he managed to finish in an impressive 5th place.
Iva Zanicchi
Iva Zanicchi is a pop singer and politician, with a mezzo-soprano voice, who represented Italy at Eurovision in 1969 with ‘Due grosse lacrime bianche’ finishing in 13th place. She has won Sanremo three times in 1967, 1969 and 1974, the only woman to do so. She will be 82-years-old at Sanremo 2022.
La Rappresentante di Lista
La Rappresentante di Lista, also known as LRDL, are a progressive pop-rock band formed by Veronica Lucchesi and Dario Mangiaracina in 2011. They competed in Sanremo in 2021 with ‘Amare’ which was co-written and produced by Dardust.
Le Vibrazioni
Le Vibrazioni will compete in Sanremo for the fourth time. The rock/pop band from Milan, fronted by Francesco Sarcina, are best known for their 2003 hit ‘Dedicato a te’. They last competed at Sanremo in 2020 with ‘Dov’è’. They came fourth just missing out on the Superfinal.
Mahmood and Blanco
Eurovision 2019 runner-up Mahmood who is teaming up with Italian singer Blanco an 18-year-old rapper who has been commercially successful in Italy. Blanco’s 2021 single ‘Mi fai impazzire’ topped the Italian singles chart for eight weeks and was certified quintuple platinum. Mahmood’s 2019 Sanremo winning song and Eurovision entry ‘Soldi’ has now over 191 million streams on Spotify.
Massimo Ranieri
Massimo Ranieri represented Italy twice at the Eurovision Song Contest. The first time in 1971 with the song ‘L’amore è un attimo’ which in finished in 5th place and in 1973 with ‘Chi sarà con te’ which finished in 13th place. In 1988 he won Sanremo with the song ‘Perdere l’amore’, interestingly the song was previous rejected in the preliminary song screening by another artist the previous year. Massimo will be 70-years-old at Sanremo 2022 which will be his seventh participation in the festival.
Michele Bravi
Michele Bravi returns to Sanremo for the second time. The previous winner of ‘The X Factor’ Italy 2013 previous competed in Sanremo 2017 ‘Il diario degli errori’, later releasing his debut album ‘Anime di carta’ which shot to No. 1 in Italy.
Noemi
Noemi returns to Sanremo for the seventh time competing six times between 2010 and 2021. She rose to fame in 2009 competing in the Italian version of ‘The X Factor’. Her best placing at Sanremo was in 2012 where she sung ‘Sono solo parole’ in the “Big Artists” category and finished third overall.
Rkomi
Mirko Martorana aka Rkomi is a successful Italian rapper who will make his Sanremo debut. His most popular hits are ‘Nuovo range’ with Sfera Ebbasta which reached No. 1 in Italy and currently has over 75 million streams and ‘ Partire da te’ which has over 56 million streams on Spotify.
Mirko ‘Rkomi’ Martorana is one of the most successful Italian rappers of recent years. He will debut at Sanremo after reaching the top of the Italian album chart three times. His most successful track is the #1 hit “Nuovo range“, a duet with Sfera Ebbasta.
Sangiovanni
Giovanni Pietro Damian aka Sangiovanni is an Italian rapper who is hugely popular in Italy right now. His hit ‘Malibu’ is the most listened to song on Spotify in Italy this year! ‘Malibu’ has over 102 million streams on Spotify. He is a previous runner-up in the Italian talent show ‘Amici di Maria De Filippi’.
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