Italy’s biggest music event kicks off this evening with night 1 of the Sanremo Music Festival 2016. The festival will run over the course of 5 days with the grand final taking place on Saturday 13 February.

How to watch

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Night 1 of Sanremo 2016 will air at 20:30 CET on the following channels:

• Rai 1
• Rai HD
• Rai Radio 2
• Live webcast via rai.it

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Over the first 2 nights of the festival, the 20 Campioni (Big Artists) acts will perform their entries on the Sanremo stage for the first time; the first 10 acts will perform on night 1 whilst the remaining 10 acts will perform on night 2.

Night 1 acts

1. Lorenzo Fragola – Infinite volte
2. Noemi – La borsa di una donna
3. Dear Jack – Mezzo respiro
4. Deborah Iurato & Giovanni Caccamo – Via da qui
5. Stadio – Un giorno mi dirai
6. Arisa – Guardando il cielo
7. Enrico Ruggeri – Il primo amore non si scorda mai
8. Bluvertigo – Semplicemente
9. Rocco Hunt – Wake up
10. Irene Fornaciari – Blu

Tonight’s show will feature guests performance by a number of national and international artists including Laura Pausini, Aldo, Giovanni & Giacomo, Elton John and Maitre Gims.

Following the performances, a combined 50/50 public televote and press jury vote will take place where the votes will then be carried over to night 4 of the event; the semi-final. None of the competing acts will be eliminated over the first 2 nights.

On night 4 of the festival, a further voting consisting of 40% televote, 30% expert jury vote and 30% fan poll vote will then take place which will then be added to the votes from the first 2 nights. The top 15 Campioni acts will qualify along with a further qualifier from the repechage round.

A total of 16 acts will compete in the grand final of the Campioni section of the festival where a total of 3 acts will qualify to the second round of the final. Following a combined 40% televote, 30% expert jury vote and 30% fan poll vote, a winner will be decided where the Campioni act will be presented the opportunity to represent Italy at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest.

Sanremo 2016 schedule

• 09/02: Night 1 (First 10 Campioni acts perform)
• 10/02: Night 2 (Remaining 10 Campioni acts perform; first 4 Nuove Proposte acts compete in semi-final 1, 2 qualifiers)
• 11/02: Night 3 (The 20 Campioni acts perform cover songs, cover round winner decided; remaining 4 Nuove Proposte acts compete in semi-final 2, 2 qualifiers)
• 12/02: Night 4 (The 20 Campioni acts perform, 15 qualifiers decided including 1 repechage qualifier; the 4 Nuove Proposte finalists perform, winner decided)
• 13/02: Night 5 (The 16 Campioni acts perform, 3 acts will qualify to the second round of the final where the winner is decided)

Stay tuned to esctoday.com for the latest news on Italy, Sanremo 2016 and the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest