We’re heading to Sanremo tonight for the Grand Final of the 2017 Sanremo Song Festival; the winner of the competition will be eligible to fly the Italian flag at the forthcoming 2017 Eurovision Song Contest in Kyiv.

The winner of the Campioni category at the 2017 Sanremo Song Festival will be eligible to represent Italy at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest in Kyiv. A total of 16 acts will battle for the Grand Prix during tonight’s show. The top 3 acts will proceed to the Superfinal and fight for the Grand Prix.

How to watch?

The Grand Finale of the 2017 Sanremo Song Festival will be aired live 20:45 CET at on the following channels:

• Rai 1
• Rai 1 (via Satellite- Hotbird 19.2)
• Radio 2
• Live webcast via rai.it

The Participants

• Chiara – Nessun posto è casa mi
• Clementino – Ragazzi fuori
• Marco Masini – Spostato di un secondo
• Alessio Bernabei – Nel mezzo di un applauso
• Michele Zarrillo – Mani nelle mani
• Elodie – Tutta colpa mia
• Paola Turci – Fatti bella per te
• Bianca Atzei – Ora esisti solo tu
• Sergio Sylvestre – Con te
• Samuel Umberto Romano – Vedrai
• Michele Bravi – Il diario degli errori
• Lodovica Comello – Il cielo non mi basta
• Ermal Meta – Vietato morire
• Francesco Gabbani – Occidentali’s karma
• Fabrizio Moro – Portami via
• Fiorella Mannoia – Che sia benedetta

The Show

The 2017 Sanremo Song Festival kicked off on Tuesday 7 February and concludes tonight. The winners of the Campioni category will be determined during the show tonight. The Grand Finale of the 2017 Sanremo will be held at the Teatro Ariston in Sanremo and will be hosted by Carlo Conti and Mari Di Filippi.

The winner of the Campioni Category will be eligible to represent Italy at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest next May. During the show tonight the 16 Campioni candidates will be whittled down to 3 candidates. The top 3 acts will proceed to the Superfinal where the voting will be reset and kick off again, the act with the highest number of votes will be declared the winner of the competition, and thus will be able to fly to Kyiv if he/she wish to.

Italy in the Eurovison Song Contest

Italy has the tradition of selecting its Eurovision act via this internationally acclaimed Italian Song Contest. The country returned to the Eurovision Song Contest in 2011 after a 13 year absence from the competition. Italy has selected its Eurovision act via Sanremo every year since its return to the contest in 2011 with the exception of  2014 when the country went internal and sent Emma Marrone to Copenhagen.

Italy is one of the founder members of the Eurovision Song Contest, having debuted in the very first contest in 1956. The country has won the competition twice in 1964 with Gigliola Cinquetti and in 1990 with Toto Cotugno.

The 2017 Eurovision Song Contest is scheduled to be held on 9, 11 and 13 May at the IEC in Kyiv, Ukraine.