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
- Lorenzo Fragola – Infinite volte
- Noemi – La borsa di una donna
- Dear Jack – Mezzo respiro
- Deborah Iurato & Giovanni Caccamo – Via da qui
- Stadio – Un giorno mi dirai
- Arisa – Guardando il cielo
- Enrico Ruggeri – Il primo amore non si scorda mai
- Bluvertigo – Semplicemente
- Rocco Hunt – Wake up
- 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)