Sanremo 2026 - everything you need to know before the contest
- Liv Webster
- 2 hours ago
- 7 min read
The 76th edition of the illustrious Sanremo Music Festival begins in just under 24 hours. For anyone new to the premier Italian Music Festival - it runs over five days with around five hours per show with buckets of "fan lore" and history to wade through.
Since the 1977 Sanremo has been hosted at the iconic and historic Teatro Ariston (Ariston Theatre) - a significant cultural hub for the Mediterranean nation.
Notably, the winner of Sanremo is given the opportunity to represent Italy at Eurovision - however, if the winner declines, it is up to Italian broadcaster Radiotelevisione italiana (RAI) to choose another participant from Sanremo to compete at Eurovision.
Just last year, festival runner-up Lucio Corsi took the honour of representing Italy at Eurovision 2025 with the heartfelt ballad Volevo essere un duro after Sanremo winner Olly decided to proceed with his sold-out concert tour in May instead of attending Eurovision.
Allora, here is a crash course in the 2026 contest - from participants, hosts, format and everything in between!
Hosts
With sadness, the wonderful, stupendous and utterly fantastic Amadeus hung up his boots on being artist director and host of Sanremo at the end of the 2024 festival. His departure left big shoes to fill with Carlo Conti up for the challenge last year and is again reprising the role in 2026.
Carlo is no stranger to the festival, having held the title of host and artistic director for the 2015-17 editions as well.
Hailing from Florence, the capital of Tuscany, Carlo found his passion as a radio presenter and DJ before making his Italian television debut in 1985.
He will be joined by the lovely Laura Pausini to co-host this year's festival. Laura should be familiar to Eurovision fans having co-hosted Eurovision 2022 in Turin! Max Pezzali will be taking the reins on Costa Toscana, an Italian cruise ship that holds a mini concert on the Mediterranean Sea during the week. During the show, they will typically feature a few performances from the ship (this is a standard feature of the modern festival!).
Notable co-hosts through the festival are Achille Lauro (San Marino Eurovision representative 2022), Irina Shayk (international supermodel), Can Yaman (actor) and Bianca Balti (Italian supermodel).
How to watch Sanremo 2026
All nights of Sanremo and the individual performances are available to stream online internationally with Italian Broadcaster RAIÂ - link here.
Performances and highlights are also uploaded to their official YouTube channel. Enjoy them while you can as they are deleted a few weeks after the contest - much to the ire of Eurofans across the globe!
Nightly Schedule:
First Night - Wednesday (6:40am AEDT)
All 30 of the artists will perform their entries for the first time
Voting will be a combined press jury (50%) and radio jury (50%)
A provisional ranking of the Top 5 acts will be announced at the end of the show
Confirmed special guests: Olly, Tiziano Ferro, Gianna Pratesi and Gaia
Second Night - Thursday (06:40am AEDT)
The night is opened by the Newcomer section head-to-head competition
Fifteen of the artists will perform their entries for the second time
Voting will be televote (50%) and radio jury (50%)
A provisional ranking of the Top 5 acts will be announced at the end of the show
Confirmed special guests: Bresh, Arianna Fontana, Francesca Lollobrigida, Lisa Vittozzi, Giacomo Bertagnolli and Giuliana Turra
Third Night - Friday (06:40am AEDT)
The remaining fifteen artists will perform their entries for the second time
Voting will be televote (50%) and radio jury (50%)
A provisional ranking of the Top 5 acts will be announced at the end of the show
The night is closed by the Newcomers' final
Confirmed special guests: Alicia Keys, Eros Ramazzotti, Virginia Raffaele, Fabio De Luigi and The Kolors
Fourth Night - Saturday (06:40am AEDT)
All 30 artists will perform covers of iconic Italian or international songs
Artists may perform with an acclaimed Italian or international guest
Voting will be televote (34%), combined press jury (33%) and radio jury (33%)
The winning cover will be announced, but unlike previous editions, the result will not count towards the overall score at the end of the festival
Confirmed special guests: Francesco Gabbani
Final Night - Sunday (06:40am AEDT)
All 30 artists will perform their songs for the third and final time
At the end of televoting, the final ranking will be drawn up comprised of print and TV & Web media jury (33%), a radio jury (33%) and televoting (34%). The Top 5 ranked acts will perform again.
A new vote will then be held. Of the top five in the super final - the winner will be decided by televote (34%), press jury (33%) and radio jury (33%). The sum of the votes of all three components, added to the votes of the previous general classification, will finally decree the winning song of the Festival.
Confirmed special guests: Andrea Bocelli and Pooh
It's a marathon - not a sprint!
Competing artists and song titles
Arisa – Magica Favola
Bambole di pezza – Resta Con Me
Chiello – Ti Penso Sempre
Dargen D’Amico – AI AI
Ditonellapiaga – Che Fastidio!
Eddie Brock – Avvoltoi
Elettra Lamborghini – VoilÃ
Enrico Nigiotti – Ogni Volta Che Non So Volare
Ermal Meta – Stella Stellina
Fedez & Masini – Male Necessario
Francesco Renga – Il Meglio di Me
Fulminacci – Stupida Sfortuna
J-Ax – Italia Starter Pack
LDA & Aka 7even – Poesie Clandestine
Leo Gassmann – Naturale
Levante – Sei Tu
Luchè – Labirinto
Malika Ayane – Animali Notturni
Mara Sattei – Le Cose Che Non Sai di Me
Maria Antonietta & Colombre – La Felicità e Basta
Michele Bravi – Prima o Poi
Nayt – Prima Che
Patty Pravo – Opera
Raf – Ora e per Sempre
Sal Da Vinci – Per Sempre Sì
Samurai Jay – Ossessione
Sayf – Tu Mi Piaci Tanto
Serena Brancale – Qui Con Me
Tommaso Paradiso – I Romantici
Tredici Pietro – Uomo Che Cade
To the delight of many Eurovision fans, Ermal Meta is returning to Teatro Ariston! Alongside compatriot Fabrizio Moro they secured 5th place at Eurovision 2018 with the powerful entry Non Mi Avete Fato Niente.
Three other artists have won Sanremo and are returning: Francesco Renga - 2005 winner with Angelo, Marco Masini - 2004 winner with L’uomo volante and  Arisa - 2014 winner with Controvento.
Finally, the iconic legend Patty Pravo despite her extraordinary career, has never won Sanremo but is returning this year - could she finally get the job done in 2026, a mere 56 years after her debut?
Sanremo Giovani and Arena Sanremo 2025
In December 2025, Italian Broadcaster RAI hosted the annual Sanremo Giovani and Arena Sanremo competitions - aimed at finding and platforming up-and-coming young artists from all around Italy.
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.
Eurovision artists who are winners of the newcomers' category include Fabrizio Moro (2007), Raphael Gualazzi (2011), Francesco Gabbani (2016), and Mahmood (2019).
The four acts selected to compete in the newcomers section of Sanremo 2026 are:
Mazzariello - Manifestazione d'amore
Soniko, Blind & El Ma - Nei miei DM
Angelica Bove - Mattone
Nicolò Filippucci - Laguna
FantaSanremo
FantaSanremo is the Italian music industry version of Fantasy Football leagues. Essentially fans can compose a 'team' by choosing five of the artists in the competition, appointing a captain and based on the competition results you earn or lose points. Watch out because the captain is crucial for the final evening where their points are doubled (both good and bad).
The whole affair is very tongue-in-cheek and extremely popular locally. The competition is open to international participants - here at Aussievision we run a hotly contested internal competition every year!
The window for creating a team closes in a few hours so get moving!
The Odds
Two weeks ago, accredited journalists were given the opportunity to listen to the entries and give first impressions. At the risk of disqualification, no Sanremo entries are made public until the festival.
Favourable response to Serena Brancale with Qui con me rocketed her straight to the top of the odds. Trailing behind are Fedez & Marco Masini with Male necessario and Tommaso Paradiso with I romantici.
Last year's winner Olly was second in the odds prior to the festival with a 16% share. Unforunately the pre-festival favourite Giorgia led the odds with 17% but placed sixth. Lucio Corsi wasn't even in the Top 10 of the odds so take them with a pinch of salt!
Prizes
Winning the premiere Italian Music Festival propels artists into local stardom, or in the case of MÃ¥neskin, Eurovision glory and international success. As nice as it is to win Sanremo, collecting some of the minor awards holds high esteem.
Other awards include:
"Mia Martini" Critics' Choice Award
"Sergio Bardotti" Award for Best Lyrics
"Lucio Dalla" Radio-TV-Web Press Room Choice Award
"Giancarlo Bigazzi" Award for Best Musical Composition
"Enzo Jannacci" Award for Best Musical Interpretation
CoReCom award for Best song that talks about violence against women
Lunezia Award for valorisation of Italian songs
It's going to be one crazy week full of quintessentially Italian music, production and probably a generous dose of drama. I can't wait - never change Sanremo!
For continued updates on all Eurovision Song Contest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Threads, Bluesky and Instagram. All the links can be found at: https://linktr.ee/aussievisionnet