The Sanremo Music Festival 2020 (Italian: Festival di Sanremo 2020), officially the 70th Italian Song Festival (70º Festival della canzone italiana), was the 70th edition of the annual Sanremo Music Festival, a television song contest held at the Teatro Ariston of Sanremo and organised and broadcast by RAI. The show was held between 4 and 8 February 2020[1][2][3] and was presented by Amadeus, who also served as the artistic director for the competition, alongside Fiorello.[2][3][4]
The competition was divided in two sections. The winner of the Big Artists section was Diodato with the song "Fai rumore", while Leo Gassmann won the Newcomers' section with "Vai bene così". As a result of his victory, Diodato earned the right to represent Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020; however, after the contest's cancellation, Diodato performed "Fai rumore" in the non-competitive replacement show Eurovision: Europe Shine a Light.
Format
The 2020 edition of the Sanremo Music Festival took place at the Teatro Ariston in Sanremo, organized by the Italian public broadcaster RAI. The artistic director and the presenter for the competition was Amadeus.[2][3]
Third evening: Music and singers of the Sanremo Music Festival Orchestra.
Fourth evening: Jury of the Press Room, TV, Radio and Web.
Fifth evening. The voting systems will have the following weight: 34% Public televoting; 33% Jury of the Press Room, TV, Radio and Web; 33% Demoscopic Jury. At the end, a ranking of the songs/artists will be drawn up determined by the average of voting percentages obtained in all the evenings.
Selections
Newcomers' section
The artists competing in the Newcomers' section were selected through two separate contests: Sanremo Giovani and Area Sanremo.[7][8][9]
Sanremo Giovani
On 23 October 2019, Rai Commission for Sanremo Music Festival 2020 announced a list of 842 acts, but only 65 artists coming from all Italian regions -excluding Basilicata and Valle d'Aosta- and from abroad were selected in the first phase.
On 3 November 2019, the jury of Sanremo Festival 2020 has selected the 20 semi-finalists. The selection was preceded by four afternoon shows on "Italia sì", conducted by Marco Liorni, where the artists and their entries were presented and were selected the 10 finalist.[10]
On 19 December 2019, the ten finalists performed their songs at Sanremo Casino in Sanremo, with the show Sanremo Giovani 2019 broadcast on Rai 1 presented by Amadeus. The evening is divided into 5 duels, the five selected by the jury, televote, music commission and demoscopic jury were added to the two entries of Area Sanremo and Sanremo Young's winner, for a total of eight young emerging artists in the category of the Newcomers' section of the Sanremo Music Festival 2020. Leo Gassmann, Fadi, Marco Sentieri, Fasma and Eugenio in Via Di Gioia were chosen as contestants of the Newcomers' section of the Sanremo Music Festival 2020.[8][11]
Enters Sanremo 2020
Duel
Draw
Artist
Song
TV Jury
Music Comm.
Demoscopic
Televote
Tiebreaker
Total
1
1
Thomas
"Ne 80"
X
X
2
2
Leo Gassmann
"Vai bene così"
X
X
X
3
2
3
Réclame
"Il viaggio di ritorno"
X
1
4
Fadi
"Due noi"
X
X
X
3
3
5
Shari
"Stella"
X
X
2
6
Marco Sentieri
"Billy Blu"
X
X
X
3
4
7
Jefeo
"Uno due tre stella"
0
8
Fasma
"Per sentirmi vivo"
X
X
X
X
4
5
9
Eugenio in Via di Gioia
"Tsunami"
X
X
X
3
10
Avincola
"Un rider"
X
X
2
Area Sanremo
After the auditions, RAI Commission - composed by Massimo Cotto, Vittorio De Scalzi, Teresa De Sio, Andrea "Andy" Fumagalli and Petra Magoni; plus the participation of Gianni Testa - identified 8 finalists for the competition among the 750 acts:[9][12]
The Big Artists section of the contest will see the participation of 24 artists. All the artists performed several times and were scored during the week, but every competing artist advanced to the final night.[13][14]
Competing entries
Competing songs and artists, showing writers, orchestra conductor and results achieved
"Tsunami" – Eugenio in Via Di Gioia (Eugenio Cesaro, Emanuele Via, Paolo Di Gioia, Lorenzo Federici, Dario "Dardust" Faini)
Carlo Alberto Cipolla
Eliminated
Critics' Award "Mia Martini"
"Nel bene e nel male" – Matteo Faustini (Matteo Faustini, Marco Rettani)
Mario Natale
Eliminated
Lunezia Award for Best Music-letterary Value
"Il gigante d'acciaio" – Gabriella Martinelli & Lula (Gabriella Martinelli, Lucrezia Di Fiandra, Paolo Mazziotti)
Carlo Carcano
Eliminated
"Due noi" – Fadi (Fadi, Antonio Filippelli)
Daniel Bestonzo
Eliminated
Shows
First evening
The first twelve Big Artists each performed their song and the first four Newcomers each performed their song for the first time in two manches, two for each one.
All the twenty-four Big Artists each performed a song that are part of the history of the Sanremo Music Festival. In this case, the artists can choose whether or not to be accompanied by Italian or foreign guests.
All the twenty-four Big Artists each performed once again their songs. Also, the winner of the 4 remaining songs in the Newcomers section was determined.
During the evening, Bugo & Morgan were disqualified for failing to deliver their performance.[17]
Rai 1 and Rai Radio 2 carried the official broadcasts of the festival in Italy. The five evenings were also streamed online via the broadcaster's official website RaiPlay.
