Sanremo Music Festival 1967
The Sanremo Music Festival 1967, officially the 17th Italian Song Festival, was the 17th annual Sanremo Music Festival, held at the Sanremo Casino in Sanremo between 26 and 28 January 1967,
and broadcast by RAI. The show was presented by Mike Bongiorno and Renata Mauro.
According to the rules of this edition, every song was performed in a double performance by a couple of singers or groups. The winners of the festival were Iva Zanicchi and Claudio Villa with the song "Non pensare a me". Villa was thus selected to represent at the Eurovision Song Contest 1967, with "Non andare più lontano".
Following the festival, the biggest success and most popular song was "Cuore matto" by Little Tony, which sold 6 million copies and was the no.1 hit for nine consecutive weeks in the Italian hit parade. During the festival, following the elimination of his song "Ciao amore ciao", performed with his partner Dalida, singer-songwriter Luigi Tenco committed suicide.
Shortly after the contest ended, the original tape of the contest was lost. Only four decades later a copy was recovered and restored by Italian broadcaster RAI.