The penultimate night of Sanremo 2021 brought the last chance to see all 26 artists perform their entries before the crunch of the final evening. If you missed the drama and shenanigans from the first, second and third evenings - we've got you covered.
Additionally, we got the results of the Newcomer competition - many highly successful Eurovison representatives have risen through the ranks of Sanremo Giovani such as Diodato (Italy 2020), Mahmood (Italy 2019), Ermal Meta (Italy 2018) and Francesco Gabbani (Italy 2017).
The results of the Newcomer Section were:
Winner: Gaudiano 'Polvere da sparo'
Runner Up: Davide Shorty 'Regina'
Third: Folcast 'Scopriti'
Fourth: Wrongonyou 'Lezioni di volo'
The Top 10 provisional results for the Big Artists section going into the final night are:
1 Ermal Meta
2 Willie Peyote
3 Arisa
4 Annalisa
5 Måneskin
6 Irama
7 La Rappresentante Di Lista
8 Colapesce Dimartino
9 Malika Ayane
10 Noemi
Performance Highlights
Ermal Meta 'Un milione di cose da dirti'
Another spine-tingling performance from the master Ermal Meta. Translating to 'A Million Things To Tell You' - the entry is loaded with passion. One of the better visual concepts in terms of staging this year - he will be difficult to beat. Across all evenings he has been vocally consistent and at the top of the table with the provisional results.
Madame 'Voce'
Charging into the Italian charts - the song is penned by the successful Dardust (composer of 'Soldi' and 'Andromeda'), Botta and of course Madame. A better vocal performance tonight with buckets of presence and heart on stage - she's got the balance of the vocal distortion effect down pat now. Brava!
Måneskin 'Zitti e buoni'
Frontman Damiano David certainly has steeze and prowl to burn. Another standout performance - the only real one of it's genre entered this year. Probably a bit spicy for the juries to get behind it but will have buckets of Eurofans after their appearance this year.
Malika Ayane 'Ti piaci così'
A bit of a dark horse placing very consistently during the first few evenings. A simple but beautiful song. Stunning vocals and I really enjoy her vibe on stage. Translating to 'You like yourself that way'. Another stunning performance.
Lo Stato Sociale 'Combat pop'
Another entertaining performance from the lads of Lo Stato Sociale. These boys don't take themselves too seriously and have plenty of tongue and cheek references from the lyrics to the small army of costumes they have rotating through the performance. At one point one of the band members was levitating on a bar stool...iconic.
Irama 'La genesi del tuo colore'
Once again, due to Irama having to quarantine his rehearsal footage stood in for his performance. Another song touched by the magic hand of Dardust. Another entry using the in vogue vocal distortions. Probably a touch too much but this is for sure one of the strongest songs. Irama does appear he is "going through the motions" in his rehearsal footage, understandable, but it would be a shame not to see him smash it live on the final night.
Annalisa 'Dieci'
Having the job of opening the evening Annalisa delivered another consistent performance. 'Dieci' has a lovely ark with Annalisa climbing to the climax only to simmer down at the end. Another truly beautiful vocal performance. One to watch.
Arisa 'Potevi fare di più'
Another solid performance and performing very well on all results. Translating to 'You Could Have Done More' - a strong vocal performance. The song is about dissolved love and the pain it caused. Magical and powerful.
Notable Moments
• Achille Lauro and Fiorello's rendition of 'Me Ne Frego'
• Fiorello "having" to be carried off stage after the power of that performance
• Mahmood's medley of his greatest hits
• Amadeus and Fiorello being Amadeus and Fiorello
• Amadeus's AMAZING suits
This morning was the penultimate night of the five day festival - the final evening will proceed as follows (Australian Dates - 6:30am AEDT):
Night 5 (Sunday): All 26 artists will perform their entry...again. At the end of the voting, the final ranking will be drawn up, determined by the average between the percentages of the final evening and those of the previous evenings, which will establish the final ranking from the twenty-sixth to the fourth position. A new vote will then follow with zeroing of the previous ones for the first three classified, voted by the opinion poll jury (33%), by the press room (33%) and by the public via televoting (34%) who will decide the winning song of the Festival