Italy: Sanremo 2026 Newcomers' lineup finalised
- Domenic Rossi
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
The lineup for the newcomers' category of the Sanremo Music Festival 2026 is complete following the conclusion of both Area Sanremo and Sanremo Giovani over the weekend.
The four acts moving forward to the main stage next February are:
Mazzariello
Soniko, Blind & El Ma
Angelica Bove
Nicolò Filippucci
All four will compete separately from the 30 "big artists", each with a new song to present at the iconic Ariston Theatre.
Sanremo 2026 will take place from February 24 to 28 next year.
Area Sanremo
Area Sanremo is a smaller competition aimed at promoting young artists from the city of Sanremo and its surrounds.
Organised by the City of Sanremo and the Sanremo Symphonic Orchestra, the competition has existed in some form for over 15 years. Its winners are selected by a musical panel usually including the artistic director of the Sanremo Music Festival.
This year, 505 acts were auditioned in early December, with 22 moving to the next stage.
Ten winners were proclaimed following the second round of auditions and therefore invited to a final round.
Through the final of Area Sanremo on Saturday evening, Mazziariello and Soniko, Blind & El Ma were selected for the newcomers' section of Sanremo 2026.
Sanremo Giovani
Sanremo Giovani is a five-week competition for aspiring Italian artists hoping to score a spot on Sanremo's main stage. Like at Area Sanremo, it offers two lucky winners important spots at the Sanremo Music Festival.
Angelica Bove and Nicolò Filippucci won the 2025 edition on Sunday evening, securing their spots to compete in February.
The annual competition saw 24 young artists battle for two available tickets to the main event next year.
The results from Sunday's final are as follows:
Angelica Bove - Superfinalist and Top 2
Nicolò Filippucci - Superfinalist and Top 2
Senza Cri - Superfinalist (Eliminated)
Welo - Eliminated
Seltsam - Eliminated
Antonia - Eliminated
Angelica Bove and Nicolò Filippucci will now move on to compete in the newcomers' section of Sanremo 2026 alongside the two winners of Area Sanremo.
Sanremo Giovani has been used to choose new artists to take part at Sanremo since 1993, usually taking place during the December prior.
Newcomers at Sanremo
The format surrounding newcomers at Sanremo has stayed relatively firm apart from a few outlier years, most of which have been within the past five competitions.
Introduced in 1984, the Newcomer's Section (Le nuove proposte in Italian) of the competition was allocated specifically for younger artists with lower-profile names to participate and compete against each other.
In 1998, for the first time in the history of the festival, the top three from this category were allowed to compete with the big artists. This led to newcomer Annalisa Minetti winning the entire competition. The subsequent controversy led to a reversion of the original, separate format in 1999.
In late 2021, then artistic director of Sanremo, Amadeus, announced his plan to let newcomers compete with the big artists for the 2022 edition, marking the first time this would happen since 1988. This format continued in 2023 and 2024 before being reverted in 2025.
Artists successful at Area Sanremo and Sanremo Giovani win not only a place on the stage of the Ariston, but also an opportunity for exposure during Italy's most important week in music.
Eurovision artists' who are winners of the newcomers' category include Fabrizio Moro (2007), Raphael Gualazzi (2011), and Francesco Gabbani (2016).
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