Italy: Sanremo 2020 winner to represent Italy in Eurovision 2020
According to RAI’s newest update on the next Santemo Festival the winner will once again earn the right to represent Italy in the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam.
The popular national festival of Sanremo is marking its 70th edition on the next competition. For once more the winner according to the Italian national broadcaster, RAI, will have the right to represent the country at the next Eurovision Song Contest in The Netherlands.
The 2020 Sanremo edition
Sanremo Festival 2020 will include two categories: Campioni, with 20 acts, and Nuove proposte, with 8. The winner of the Campioni section will be selected jointly by four juries: a demoscopic jury, the press jury, the televote and finally the musicians and choir members of the orchestra. The famous italian competition will unfold from 4 February and for four nights. The final show will take place on February 8, when we will find out the next Italian representative. In order to secure the fact that the winner will go on to represent Italy in Eurovision, this time the contestants of the Campioni category must sign a written form in which they declare their intention in representing the county in Rotterdam
Submission period
Artists that are interested in participating in the Campioni category can send in to RAI their application until December 9,2019. RAI is accepting applications until Monday 9 December 2019. The final 20 acts to compete in Sanremo will be revealed by this year’s Artistic Director Amadeus on 6 January 2020 live on Rai 1.
THE EUROVISION STORY SO FAR
Italy has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 45 times since making its debut at the first contest in 1956. After a 14-year absence from 1998 and on, the country returned to the contest in 2011. Italy has won the contest twice in 1964 with Gigliola Cinquetti and her song “Non ho l’età”. Italy’s second victory in the contest came in 1990 with Toto Cutugno and the song “Insieme: 1992”.
Italy’s come back to the contest has proved to be very successful, the country having finished in the top ten in seven times of the last eight contests (2011–2019), with Raphael Gualazzi second in 2011, Nina Zilli ninth in 2012, Marco Mengoni seventh in 2013 and Il Volo third in 2015, Francesco Ghabbani 6th in Kiev. In 2018 the winners of Sanremo 2018 ,Ermal Meta and Fabrizio Moro, represented Italy in Eurovision in Lisbon with their song “Non mi avete fatto niente”. The Italian duo achieved an honorable 5th place in the Grand final with 308 points and a remarkable 3rd placing in the public voting.
In 2019 , Mahmood, winner of Sanremo 2019 represented the country in Tel Aviv with his entry Soldi. The Italian representative kept the good results for Italy achieving a 2nd place in the Grand Final in Tel Aviv while his entry has broken all records in streaming and now the most listened Italian song.
