The Lunezia Award returns with its 31st edition: the first evening is scheduled Thursday 23 July 2026 to Aullain the province of Massa-Carrara. The event dedicated to the musical-literary value of songs presents itself this year with an important innovation: for the first time in over thirty years of history, the creative leadership of the project passes to a new team. In this article, which is constantly updated, we collect all the information on the 2026 edition: the new direction, the program, the winners and the dates as they are announced.
Article being updated. The line-up of the winners, the guests and the complete calendar of the evenings will be communicated in the coming weeks. We will update the page with each new official announcement.
Lunezia Prize 2026: the new creative guide
The 31st edition marks a change in the governance of the Award. For the first time the event is entrusted to the creative direction of Camilla Salerno And Filippo Madellaof the Milanese agency SBAM Noisy Ideassupported by Roberto Razzini in the new role of Senior Music Advisor. They remain in place, in the continuity of the project, Stefano De Martinopatron and creator of the event, e Loredana D'Angheraartistic director of the New Proposals section.
Salerno and Madella will take care of the artistic planning and strategic coordination, with the declared aim of opening the Prize to new languages without dismantling its historical identity. Their plans also include a project dedicated to promising young people, which will take shape in the coming months. The choice to involve Razzini, with his experience at the top of music publishing, aims to give specific weight to this transition phase.
As Filippo Madella And Camilla Salerno explain their entry into the project: “Taking on this top role entrusted to us by the Lunezia Prize means for us putting all the energy and creative skills of SBAM Noisy Ideas at the service of an extraordinary tradition. Our objective will be both to bring new value from an authorial and creative point of view to this historic prize, but also, and above all, to begin a path of structural evolution”.
For his part Roberto Razzini he frames his involvement like this: “I believe that combining the prestige of such an important event for our territory with the energy of a new creative team represents the best omen for the new path that the Lunezia Prize intends to undertake”.
Lunezia Award 2026: dates, venue and program
The first evening of the 2026 edition is held Thursday 23 July in Aulla (Massa-Carrara), historic venue of the event. As in the last editions, the Prize is spread over several events between summer and autumn, distributed between Aulla and the other stages that will be confirmed.
The Lunezia Prize 2026 commission is made up of Riccardo Benini, Roberto Benvenuto, Loredana D'Anghera, Stefano Ferro, Vincenzo Incenzo, Mariella Nava, Selene Pascasi, Marina Pratici, Alessandro Quarta, Dario Salvatori, Beppe Stanco, Lorenzo Varese and Savino Zaba. Registrations for the New Proposals section, directed by Loredana D'Anghera, are open on the official website, with the presence of BMG and other majors to support the finalists.
The names of the winners, the guests of the evenings and the complete calendar will be updated on this page as soon as they are made official.
What is the Lunezia Prize
Founded ad Aulla in 1996 by Stefano De Martino and baptized by Fernanda Pivano And Fabrizio De Andréthe Lunezia Prize is the Italian event dedicated to the musical-literary value of songs, or the encounter between words and music as a measure of their communicative power. It is the only major recognition on the national scene not to be named after a deceased artist.
Over the course of thirty years, the Prize has awarded its recognitions to many of the central names of Italian and international music, from Fabrizio De André to Vasco Rossi, from Claudio Baglioni to Elisa, up to Anggun and Charles Aznavour. Alongside the awards for the big names, the New Proposals section, active since 2001, selects emerging bands, songwriters and lyricists every year. The Prize also awards, on the eve of the Sanremo Festival, the Lunezia Award for Sanremoamong the first awards to evaluate the lyrics of the competing songs.
For further information, here are some articles from All Music Italia on recent editions of the Award:
Serena Brancale wins the Lunezia Prize for Sanremo 2026 with “Qui con me”
Francesca Michielin, Luk3 and La Niña among the winners of the 2025 Lunezia Prize
Claudio Baglioni wins the Lunezia Antologia 2025 Award and announces six new live dates
