We’re heading to Italy tonight, namely to Sanremo where the Grand Finale of the 2018 Sanremo Song Festival is to take place. RAI, the Italian national broadcaster, will once again select its Eurovision hopeful via the internationally acclaimed Italian song contest. The winner of tonight’s competition will be offered the golden ticket to the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest.
Italy will be fourth BIG 5 country to determine its Eurovision 2018 hopeful following France, Spain and the United Kingdom.
How to watch?
You can watch the 2018 Sanremo Song Festival’s Grand Finale from 20:40 CET on the following channels:
- Rai 1
- Rai International (via satellite)
- Rai Play webstream
About tonight’s show
The Grand Finale of the 2018 Festival di Sanremo will be held tonight at the Ariston Theatre in Sanremo and will hosted Claudio Baglioni, Pierfrancesco Favino and Michelle Hunziker.
The Campioni 20 candidates will fight for the coveted Sanremo trophy during tonight’s show. The 2018 Sanremo winner will be determined via combined televoting/press jury/expert jury deliberation.
The winner will be elgible to represent Italy at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest, if he/she declines the invite it will be entirely upon RAI’s discretion to deliberate the 2018 Italian Eurovision hopeful.
The Campioni Candidates
- Roby Facchinetti e Riccardo Fogli – Il segreto del tempo
- Nina Zilli – Senza appartenere
- The Kolors – Frida
- Diodato & Roy Paci – Adesso
- Mario Biondi – Rivederti
- Luca Barbarossa – Passame er sale
- Lo Stato Sociale – Una vita in vacanza
- Annalisa – Il mondo prima di te
- Giovanni Caccamo – Eterno
- Enzo Avitabile & Peppe Servillo – Il coraggio di ogni giorno
- Ornella Vanoni with Bungaro & Pacifico – Imparare ad amarsi
- Renzo Rubino – Custodire
- Noemi – Smettere mai di cercarmi
- Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro – Non mi avete fatto niente
- Le Vibrazioni – Così sbagliato
- Ron – Almeno pensami
- Decibel – Lettera dal duca
- Max Gazzé – La leggenda di Cristalda e Pizzomunno
- Red Canzian – Ognuno ha il suo racconto
- Elio & le Storie Tese – Arrivederci
Italy in Eurovision
Italy is one of the founder members of the Eurovision Song Contest having debuted in the very first contest in Lugano back in 1956. The country has won the competition on two ocassions: 1964 (Gigliola Cinquetti) and 1990 (Toto Cotugno).
Italy withdrew from the event in 1997 and came back to the game after a 13 year hiatus. The Italians returned with great honours in 2011 when Raphael Gualazzi came 2nd in Düsseldorf.
In 2017, Francesco Gabbani took Italy by storm and walked away with the Sanremo trophy and flew to Kyiv to represent Italy at Europe’s favorite television show.
Despite being the hot favourite to bag the Grand Prix, he achieved an honorable 6th place with his mega hit Occidentali’s Karma.