The first night of the 63rd edition of the Sanremo Italian Song Festival will take place tonight, 12 February, at the Teatro Ariston, hosted by Fabio Fazio and Luciana Littizzetto.

Special guests of the event will be the singer Toto Cutugno, winner of the 1990 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Insieme: 1992, the Italian comedian Maurizio Crozza, the conductors Daniel Barenboim and Daniel Harding and the dancer Lutz Foster.

Tonight 7 of the 14 artists of the Big Category will sing their entries. Each act will sing 2 songs. A 50/50 deliberation by a special panel of judges and telovoting will decide which of the 2 songs performed by each artist will proceed to the next round.

It is the first time in history that singers are allowed to take part in the contest with two songs each. Below you can find the list of the artists of the Big Category who will compete tonight, in order of appearance:

• Marco Mengoni – Bellissimo and L’essenziale
• Raphael Gualazzi – Sai (Ci basta un sogno) and Senza ritegno
• Daniele Silvestri – A bocca chiusa and Il bisogno di te
• Simona Molinari and Peter Cincotti – La felicità and Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde
• Marta sui tubi – Vorrei and Dispari
• Maria Nazionale – Quando non parlo and E’ colpa mia
• Chiara Galiazzo – L’esperienza dell’amore and Il futuro che sarà

A little intellectual curiosity: La felicità by Simona Molinari and Peter Cincotti, will be the 1800th song performed on the Sanremo stage by an artist in the history of the Italian Song Festival.

The 8 songs of the Giovani Category will also be presented at the end of the show, the artists will not perfom them tonight:

Stay tuned to Esctoday.com for the latest information on the 2013 Sanremo Song Festival