Sanremo changes face. On the occasion of the presentation of the Rai schedules for the 2026-2027 season, the artistic director and host Stefano De Martino made official the innovations that will characterize the 77th edition of the Festival, scheduled from 16 to 21 February 2027. The most significant change concerns the relationship with the Eurovision Song Contest: from this year the winner of the event will not automatically be the Italian representative in the European competition.
Friday evening will in fact be entirely dedicated to the selection of the artist who will fly to the Eurovision Song Contest 2027, through a mechanism that will be defined in detail in the coming months. “The artists will have the opportunity to stage their performance according to their creative idea,” explained De Martino. “And I believe this is already a small impetus towards the internationality of the Festival”.
However, the structure of the other evenings remains substantially unchanged. Tuesday 16 and Wednesday 17 February will be dedicated to the songs in the competition, Thursday to the traditional covers evening, while on Saturday all the Champions will return to perform with their own song before the winner of the Festival is announced.
Another novelty concerns the number of participants. After the thirty artists of the last edition, the cast will be reduced. “The choice serves to give breathing space to the performances and the story of the Festival, above all to focus more on the artists”, explained De Martino, without however indicating the definitive number of competitors.
“Sarà Sanremo” has also been confirmed, scheduled for Friday 18 December 2026. The event dedicated to young artists will represent the first official appointment towards the Festival and will also be the opportunity to publicly present the cast of Champions who will take part in Sanremo 2027.
During the presentation of the schedules, the CEO of Rai, Giampaolo Rossi, also spoke and summarized the new philosophy of the event thus: “The public does not disappear, it changes”.
Rai has also announced an important international initiative destined to debut in the spring of 2027. In collaboration with the Latin Recording Academy, “Latin GRAMMY Celebra” will be born, a series of prime time specials dedicated to Italian music. The project will pay homage to the great protagonists of Italian song and the songs that have left a mark in the country's musical history, offering performances by Italian and international artists selected together with the Latin Recording Academy. The specials, produced by the Prime Time Rai Entertainment Directorate in collaboration with Fremantle, will celebrate the contribution of Italian music and its influence on the global cultural panorama.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
