Sanremo Music Festival 2023


The Sanremo Music Festival 2023, officially the 73rd Italian Song Festival, was the 73rd edition of the annual Sanremo Music Festival, a television song contest held in the Teatro Ariston of Sanremo, organised and broadcast by RAI. The show was held between 7 and 11 February 2023, and was presented for the fourth time in a row by Amadeus, who also served as the artistic director for the competition, with Gianni Morandi co-hosting.
The festival was won by Marco Mengoni with "Due vite", earning him the right to represent in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023; Mengoni had previously won Sanremo in 2013 and had represented Italy in that year's Eurovision.

Format

The 2023 edition of the Sanremo Music Festival took place at the Teatro Ariston in Sanremo, Liguria, organized by the Italian public broadcaster RAI. The artistic director and the presenter for the competition was Amadeus, for the fourth consecutive year.

Presenters

On 24 March 2022, one month after the final of the 2022 edition, RAI officially confirmed Amadeus as the presenter of the 73rd edition of the Sanremo Music Festival. Together with Amadeus, Gianni Morandi served as co-host in all five nights of the festival. Alongside Amadeus and Morandi, four co-hosts alternated during the five evenings: Chiara Ferragni, Francesca Fagnani, Paola Egonu and Chiara Francini.

Voting

Voting occurred through the combination of three methods:
  • Public televoting, carried out via landline, mobile phone, the contest's official mobile app, and online voting.
  • Jury of the press room, TV, radio and web.
  • Demoscopic jury, composed by 1000 music fans who vote from their homes via an electronic voting system managed by Ipsos.
Their voting was articulated as follows:
  • First two nights: half of the entrants were judged by three separate panels from the jury of the press room, TV, radio and web.
  • Third night: all of the entrants were judged through a 50/50 split system by means of televoting and the demoscopic jury. The results were combined with those of the previous nights.
  • Fourth night: the same systems used on the first three nights were put in place.
  • Fifth night: the entrants were judged by televoting alone, to be added up to the results obtained that far; ultimately, a final voting round was held among the top 5, which determined the winner.

Selections

''Sanremo Giovani 2022''

For the second time in a row, the Newcomers' section was not included in the Festival, but a similar selection was held to decree the six places reserved in the Big Artist section. The artists competing in the new format were selected through two separate contests: Standard section and Area Sanremo.

Standard selection

On 26 October 2022, the RAI commission for Sanremo Music Festival 2022 announced a list of 714 acts, but only 43 artists coming from all Italian regions – excluding Basilicata and Valle d'Aosta – and from abroad were selected in the first phase.
On 5 November 2022, the RAI commission announced the eight finalists.
  • Gianmaria – "La città che odi"
  • Giuse the Lizia – "Sincera"
  • Maninni – "Mille porte"
  • Mida – "Malditè"
  • Olly – "L'anima balla"
  • Sethu – "Sottoterra"
  • Shari – "Sotto voce"
  • Will – "Le cose più importanti"

Area Sanremo

After the auditions, a RAI commission – composed by Amadeus, Federica Lentini, Massimo Martelli and Leonardo de Amicis – identified 4 finalists for the competition among the 549 acts:
  • Colla Zio – "Asfalto"
  • Fiat 131 – "Pupille"
  • Noor – "Tua Amelie"
  • Romeo & Drill – "Giorno di scuola"

Final

On 16 December 2022, the twelve finalists performed their songs on Sanremo Giovani ''2022'', broadcast on Rai 1 and presented by Amadeus. Gianmaria, Will, Olly, Colla Zio, Shari and Sethu will participate in Sanremo 2023 with a new entry.
DrawArtistSong
1Gianmaria"La città che odi"
2Noor"Tua Amelie"
3Will"Le cose più importanti"
4Olly"L'anima balla"
5Maninni"Mille porte"
6Colla Zio"Asfalto"
7Fiat 131"Pupille"
8Mida"Malditè"
9Shari"Sotto voce"
10Giuse the Lizia"Sincera"
11Romeo & Drill"Giorno di scuola"
12Sethu"Sottoterra"

Big Artists

For the second year in a row, the traditional Big Artists section of the contest was merged with the Newcomers' section, and saw the participation of 28 artists, 22 being selected among established artists and 6 qualifying from Sanremo Giovani. The former 22, selected from over 300 submissions received, were revealed on 4 December 2022, and also attended the night of Sanremo Giovani on 16 December, where their competing songs' titles were also made known.

Shows

First night

The first fourteen competing artists each performed their song.

Second night

The remaining fourteen artists each performed their song.

Third night

All of the twenty-eight artists performed their songs once again.

Fourth night

The artists each performed a cover of a song from the '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s, or '00s, duetting with a guest performer.

Fifth night – Final

All of the artists performed their songs one final time, with the top five reprising their performances before moving on to the final round of voting.

Special guests

The special guests of Sanremo Music Festival 2023 included:

Broadcast and ratings

Local broadcast

Rai 1 and Rai Radio 2 brought the official broadcasts of the festival in Italy. The five evenings were also streamed online via the broadcaster's official website RaiPlay, which made it available in all member countries of the European Broadcasting Union, since the festival is broadcast on the Eurovision network.
CountryShowBroadcasterCommentator
All showsRai 1, No commentary
All showsRai Radio 2Ema Stokholma and
All showsRaiPlay, No commentary
All showsRai Italia No commentary
All showsRTSH, RTSH TiranaNo commentary
FinalRTSH 1Andri Xhahu and Blerina Shehu
All showsTVCG 2Nebojsa Sofranac
Nights 1–4RTS2No commentary
FinalRTS3No commentary
FinalGlitterBeamEugenio Ceriello and Michael Walton-Dalzell