The Sanremo Music Festival 2014 (), officially the 64th Italian Song Festival (), was the 64th annual Sanremo Music Festival, a televised song contest held at the Teatro Ariston in Sanremo, Liguria, between 18 and 22 February 2014 and broadcast by (RAI). Fabio Fazio and Italian comedy actress Luciana Littizzetto presented the show.
The rules of the festival were was based on those adopted for the previous contest. Competing artists were split in two different sections—Big Artists and Newcomers. The Big Artists section included 14 established Italian artists. During the first and the second night of the show, each act performed two songs, and only one song per act was allowed to continue the competition, as a result of votes received by public and journalists. After the third night, Riccardo Sinigallia's entry, "Prima di andare via", was disqualified for being performed during a concert preceding the competition. During the final night, Arisa's "Controvento" was announced as the winning song for the Big Artists section of the contest. The Newcomers' section featured eight songs performed by debuting or little known artists. The winning entry, Rocco Hunt's "Nu juorno buono", was announced during the semi-final of the contest. For the first time since 2011, the Sanremo Music Festival was not used as a selection for the .
The show featured guests including Luciano Ligabue, Cat Stevens, Damien Rice, Paolo Nutini, Stromae, Gino Paoli, Raffaella Carrà, Laetitia Casta and Rufus Wainwright. Despite this, it received significantly lower ratings than the previous edition, with the final receiving the lowest share percentage since the introduction of Auditel measurements in 1989.
Presenters and personnel
Following the success of the Sanremo Music Festival 2013, since May of the same year, negotiations started to confirm Fabio Fazio and Luciana Littizzetto as the presenters for the contest in 2014. In September 2013, Fazio confirmed he would present the 64th Sanremo Music Festival, during an interview released to Italian newspaper Il Messaggero. A few days later, he confirmed Littizzetto as his co-presenter.
Mauro Pagani was later confirmed as the music director of the show. He also conducted the Sanremo Festival Orchestra during the contest. The scenography was created by Emanuela Trixie Zitkowsky, while Duccio Forzano was the television director of the show, as in 2013.
Italian television presenter Pif was also involved in the Sanremo Music Festival, presenting a 10-minutes pre-show titled Sanremo & Sanromolo.
Selections Newcomers' section The selection process for the acts competing in the Newcomers' section included two different contests–Area Sanremo, which served to choose two of the eight entries for the contest, and Sanremo Giovani, a contest which selected six acts for the main competition.
Area Sanremo Area Sanremo is a contest patrolled by the Comune di Sanremo. The 2013 edition was launched in October, and featured three days of lectures organized by Bruno Santori, followed by internal auditions. 323 acts entered the Area Sanremo competition. On 15 November 2014, the number of acts was reduced to 40 by a commission composed of singer-songwriters Ron and Omar Pedrini, and rapper Dargen D'Amico. The 8 winners of the contest—Lavinia Desideri, Le Gemelle Fontana, Bianca (pseudonym for Emma Fuggetta), Stefano Gelmini, Antonio Pirozzi, Juli (pseudonym for Giulia Saguatti), NaElia (pseudonym for Eliana Antonia Tumminelli) and Vadim (pseudonym for Vadim Valenti)—were announced on 11 December 2013. Among them, Vadim and Bianca were selected on 12 December 2013 by the artistic commission of the Sanremo Music Festival to become the first two confirmed acts of the 64th Sanremo Music Festival. During the same day, their songs, "La modernità" and "Saprei", respectively, were made available on RAI's website.
Sanremo Giovani The remaining six contestants of the contest were directly selected by RAI through a different contest. Among the applications, 60 songs were pre-selected on 5 December 2013. Their songs were immediately made available through RAI's official website. Starting from 6 December 2013, live auditions were held in Rome, in front of a commission composed of president Mauro Pagani, Claudio Fasulo, Andrea Guerra, Massimo Martelli and Stefano Senardi. The selected acts and songs—Diodato with "Babilonia", Filippo Graziani with "Le cose belle", Rocco Hunt with "Nu juorno buono", The Niro with "1969", Veronica De Simone with "Nuvole che passano" and Zibba with "Senza di te"—were announced on 13 December 2013.
Big Artists section The artists competing in the Big Artists section were chosen by RAI through an internal selection. The commission which screened the received songs included all the members of the artistic direction of the show—Fabio Fazio, Claudio Fasulo, Pietro Galeotti, Massimo Martelli, Francesco Piccolo, Stefano Senardi, Michele Serra—and was supervised by Mauro Pagani, musical director of the Sanremo Music Festival 2014. The chosen artists were announced by Fabio Fazio on 18 December 2014, during the 13.30 edition of Italian news-programme TG1. Immediately before reading the names of the 14 acts, Fazio shared a photo of the list through his Twitter account. During the same day, the titles of competing songs were revealed by RAI.
Participants and results summary +Competing songs and artists, showing writers, orchestra conductor and results achievedBig Artists sectionSong Artist(s) Songwriter(s)OrchestraconductorFinalrankSanremo Music Festival Awards "" Arisa Giuseppe Anastasi1 Winner of the Big Artists Section "" Renzo Rubino 2 Second place in the Big Artists Section "" Raphael Gualazzi & The Bloody Beetroots 3 Third place in the Big Artists Section "" Francesco Renga Elisa Toffoli4 "" Noemi Enrico Melozzi5 "" Perturbazione Andrea Mirò6 Press, Radio & TV Award "Lucio Dalla" "" Cristiano De André Davide Rossi7 "" Frankie hi-nrg mc Stefano Barzan8 "" Giusy Ferreri Beppe Vessicchio9 "" Francesco Sarcina Francesco SarcinaBeppe Vessicchio10 "" Giuliano Palma Beppe Vessicchio11 "" Antonella Ruggiero 12 "" Ron Vittorio Cosma13 "" Arisa Saverio Lanza "" Raphael Gualazzi & The Bloody Beetroots Daniele Parziani "" Renzo Rubino Andrea Rodini Best Arrangement Award "" Francesco Renga Roberto CasalinoBeppe Vessicchio "" Noemi Enrico Melozzi "" Perturbazione Andrea Mirò "" Cristiano De André Davide Rossi Critic's Award "Mia Martini" "Sergio Bardotti Award" for Best Lyrics "" Frankie hi-nrg mc Stefano Barzan "" Giusy Ferreri Beppe Vessicchio "" Francesco Sarcina Francesco SarcinaBeppe Vessicchio "" Giuliano Palma Beppe Vessicchio "" Antonella Ruggiero Roberto Colombo "" Ron Rosalino CellamareVittorio Cosma "" Riccardo Sinigallia Vittorio Cosma "" Riccardo Sinigallia Vittorio CosmaNewcomers sectionSong Artist(s) Songwriter(s)OrchestraconductorFinalrankSanremo Music Festival Awards "" Rocco Hunt Roberto Rossi1 Winner of the Newcomers' Section Assomusica Award Emanuele Luttazzi Award "" Diodato Antonio DiodatoRodrigo D'Erasmo2 Second place in the Newcomers' Section "" Zibba Andrea Mirò3 Third place in the Newcomers' section Critic's Award "Mia Martini" Press, Radio & TV Award "Lucio Dalla" "" The Niro Davide CombustiRoberto Poraccini4 "" Filippo Graziani Filippo GrazianiBeppe Vessicchio "" Bianca Alex GaydouAlex Gaydou "" Veronica De Simone Pietro CantarelliPietro Cantarelli "" Vadim Vadim ValentiBeppe Vessicchio
Shows First night
During the first night, held on 18 February 2014, seven out of fourteen artists competing in the Big Artists section presented their two songs. At the end of the night, a song for each artist was eliminated, as a result of televotes combined with votes given by music journalists. For each competing act, the chosen song was announced by a different presenter.
The night was opened by a monologue by Fazio, which was interrupted by the suicide threat of a man protesting against unemployment and economic conditions in Campania. After returning to the show, Fazio paid tribute to Italian singer-songwriter Fabrizio De André, together with his widow, Dori Ghezzi. Luciano Ligabue then performed De André's "Creuza de mä", togher with music director Mauro Pagani.
The second guest of the night was French actress and model Laetitia Casta, who promoted her film Una donna per amica. During a sketch, Fazio performed "Ne me quitte pas" for her, while she sang Domenico Modugno's "Meraviglioso". After performing a choreography based on Alberto Sordi and Monica Vitti's "Ma 'n do'... Hawaii", Casta joined Fazio for a tribute to Italian singer Enzo Jannacci, who ended with the appearance of Enzo's son, Paolo.
After Raphael Gualazzi & The Bloody Beetroots performances, Raffaella Carrà appeared on stage, singing "Fun Fun Fun" and "Cha Cha Ciao". She also dueted with Luciana Littizzetto, performing "Rumore". Carrà also promoted the second season of the talent show The Voice of Italy, in which she appears as a coach. The last guest of the night was Cat Stevens, who performed "Peace Train", "Maybe There's a World" and a cover of The Beatles' "All You Need Is Love".
Big Artists performances during the first night +Performances of the acts in the "Big Artists" section during the first night, with competing songs and voting resultsArtistOrderSongVoting detailsWinning entry presenter(s)JournalistsTelevotesTotalResultArisa1"Lentamente (Il primo che passa)"28.30%44.46%36.38%EliminatedTito Stagno2"Controvento"71.70% 55.54%63.62%AdvancedFrankie hi-nrg mc3"Un uomo è vivo"25.00% 26.27% 25.64%EliminatedTania Cagnotto, Francesca Dallapè4"Pedala"75.00% 73.73% 74.37%AdvancedAntonella Ruggiero5"Quando balliamo"25.47% 39.13% 32.30%EliminatedAmaurys Pérez6"Da lontano"74.53% 60.87% 67.70%AdvancedRaphael Gualazzi & The Bloody Beetroots7"Tanto ci sei"22.52% 52.21% 37.37%EliminatedLuigi Naldini8"Liberi o no"77.48% 47.79% 62.63%AdvancedCristiano De André9"Invisibili"54.55% 40.15% 47.35%EliminatedCristiana Capotondi10"Il cielo è vuoto"45.45% 59.85% 52.65%AdvancedPerturbazione11"L'unica"77.00% 70.79% 73.90%AdvancedMassimo Gramellini12"L'Italia vista dal bar"23.00% 29.21% 26.10%EliminatedGiusy Ferreri13"L'amore possiede il bene"44.76% 40.97% 42.87%EliminatedMarco Bocci14"Ti porto a cena con me"55.24%59.03% 57.13%Advanced
Second night The second night of the contest took place on 19 February 2014. The show was based on the selection of one song for each of the seven acts in the Big Artists section which did not perform during the previous night. Each act performed two entries, among which only one advanced in the competition, as a result of televotes combined with votes given by music journalists. As for the first night, the winning entry was announced by a different guest for each act. During the second night, the competition for the Newcomers' section was launched. In the final part of the show, four newcomers performed their entries and, after receiving votes by journalists and by the public, two of them were eliminated from the competition.
The first musical guest of the night was actor Claudio Santamaria, promoting the fiction Non è mai troppo tardi, based on the story of Italian school teacher Alberto Manzi. The Kessler Twins later appeared on stage, singing and dancing the track "Quelli belli come noi" with co-presenter Luciana Littizzetto. After Renzo Rubino's performances, Italian actress Franca Valeri acted the part of her character Sora Cesira, and later performed a sketch with Littizzetto.