Changes will be seen in the 68th edition of the Sanremo Music Festival as the Italian national broadcaster, RAI, has released the rules for the country’s forthcoming grand event.

The Sanremo Music Festival returns once again for its 68th edition next February, with the official dates for the competition being unveiled last month.

As with previous years, Sanremo 2018 will see the festival divided into 2 categories: the Campioni (Big Artists) event and the Nuove Proposte (Newcomers) event. However following with tradition of the past few years of the festival, the winner of the Campioni event will be offered the chance to compete at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest.

An official statement from the Sanremo rules and regulations state:

The winning artist in the Campioni Section will have the right to participate, in representing Italy, at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest Edition at the request of RAI. If such artist does not intend to make use of this faculty, RAI and/or the organisers of the above Eurovision Song Contest will reserve the right to choose the participant according to their own criteria.

Changes to Sanremo 2018

Whilst Italy’s Eurovision representative will be selected in traditional fashion, general changes have been made for the forthcoming edition of the Italian music festival, with drops and re-introductions being implemented.

One change will see no eliminations taking place throughout the Sanremo week, meaning that the full 20 Campioni artists will each perform and compete in the Grand Final of the festival on the 10 February 2018.

The fourth night of Sanremo 2018 will also see the reintroduction of the duets segment, seeing each Campioni artist performing their bidding entries alongside a special guest performer.

Voting will take place throughout the Sanremo week in both the Campioni and Nuove Proposte events, the results of which set to be combined in order to determine the winner of each category. As with previous years, the winner will be decided through a mixed system including public televote, press room jury and expert jury.

A full set of rules and regulations can be found via the official Sanremo website.

Last year’s Sanremo winner and Eurovision representative, Francesco Gabbani

Sanremo 2018 dates

• 06/02/2018: First evening (20 Campioni acts perform their entries)
• 07/02/2018: Second evening (10 Campioni acts perform their entries again; 4 Nuove Proposte acts perform their entries)
• 08/02/2018: Third evening (10 Campioni acts perform their entries again, initial percentages revealed; 4 Nuove Proposte acts perform their entries)
• 09/02/2018: Fourth evening (20 Campioni acts perform their entries with special guests; 8 Nuove Proposte acts perform their entries, winner announced)
• 10/02/2018: Fifth evening (20 Campioni acts perform their entries, winner announced and offered chance to represent Italy at Eurovision 2018)

The eventual Italian representative will represent the nation at the final of the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest in the host city of Lisbon, Portugal. The forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest will take place on the 8, 10 and 12 May 2018.