The first show of the Sanremo Italian Song Festival took place last night and 7 song qualified in the next round.

The first 7 songs of the Big Category made their way to the next round, that will be on 14 February, during the third night show.

The following entries have been chosen by a 50/50 deliberation of a special panel of judges and televoting:

• Marco Mengoni – L’essenzial
• Raphael Gualazzi – Sai (Ci basta un sogno)
• Daniele Silvestri – A bocca chiusa
• Simona Molinari and Peter Cincotti – La felicità
• Marta sui tubi – Vorrei
• Maria Nazionale – E’ colpa mia
• Chiara Galiazzo – Il futuro che sarà

Unfortunately, the rest 7 songs, performed by the same artists, were knocked out from the competition:

Italy will announce their 2013 Eurovision representative during the last night of the Sanremo Festival, on  Saturday 16 February. It is not clear yet if the singer will be selected from the Giovani Category, as it happened with Raphael Gualazzi in 2011, or  selected from  the Big Category, like Nina Zilli last year.