RAI, the Italian national broadcaster has published the rules and regulations for the 76th Sanremo Festival and confirmed the dates for the competition.
The winner of Sanremo 2025 will be eligible to compete at the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest in Austria and thus will represent Italy at Europe’s favourite television show.
Sanremo 2026 will consist of five live shows and will run from 24-28 February:
- 24/02/2026- First Serata – (26 BIG Category acts will perform and will be voted by voted by the press centre, tv and web jury)
- 25/02/2026- Second Serata ( 13 BIG Category will perform and will be voted by radio jury and public via televoting/ New Proposal Duel)
- 26/02/2026- Third Night– (13 BIG Category will perform and will be voted by radio jury and public via televoting/ New Proposal )
- 27/02/2026- Fourth Serata– (Covers Night)
- 28/02/2026- Fifth Serata– (Campioni Grand Final)
A total of 26 acts will compete in the Campioni Category, the winner of the competition will be determined on Saturday 28 February 2026.
RAI’s official press release reads:
Scala Reale” for Carlo Conti, who, next February, will reach the milestone of five editions as artistic director and host. The rules for the 76th edition of the Sanremo Italian Song Festival—which will air live on Rai 1 from February 24 to 28, 2026.
Given last year’s winning formula, the new features will be truly significant: 26 Big Artists competing; then, two artists from the “Sanremo Area” will automatically gain access to the “Newcomers” category, joining the two selected during the “Sanremo Giovani” final on December 14, broadcast on Rai 1.
Once again, three juries will vote on the competing artists: public televoting; the Press, TV, and Web Jury; and the Radio Jury, with weights of 34, 33, and 33%, respectively.
Moving on to the analysis of the individual evenings, the first (Tuesday) will feature the 26 Big/Champions, and the songs will be voted on by the Press Room, TV, and Web Jury.
During the second (Wednesday), 13 Big/Champions will perform, voted on by the public through televoting and the Radio Jury, each with a weight of 50%.
For the Newcomers category, the four artists will be divided into two pairs, and each pair will perform in a direct challenge. The artists will be judged by the public through televoting, by the Press Room, TV, and Web Jury, and by the Radio Jury. The two winning artists of the challenges will advance to the Third Evening.
The same procedures will apply on the third evening (Thursday) for the Big/Champions; for the Newcomers, a final challenge will take place between the two artists who gained access to the evening. The song with the most votes from televoting, the Press Room, TV, and Web Jury, and the Radio Jury will be declared the winner of the category.
The “Cover” evening has been confirmed for Friday, with a winner: the Big Artists, accompanied by a guest artist, will reinterpret an Italian or international song. Voting in this competition will not affect the final result of the Festival. The covers will be judged by all three juries.
In the final round of the fifth and final evening (Saturday), all 26 songs by the Big Artists/Champions competing, as voted on by the three juries, will be performed. The results of this vote will be combined with those from previous evenings (except the “Cover” evening) to determine a ranking of the songs/artists.
A new performance and voting will be held for the top five songs/artists. The results will be added to the overall results from the previous evenings to determine a new ranking of the five songs/artists, thus awarding the winner of the 76th edition of the Italian Song Festival.
The common thread linking Carlo Conti to the Festival and music is thus strengthened, with songs at the center of the show, experimentation with new musical languages, and the search for emerging talent. All of this is tied together by his elegant and dynamic approach to conceiving a major television event with the same spirit as always: “Everyone, Really Everyone, Sings Sanremo!”
