The Sanremo Music Festival 2018 (), officially the 68th Italian Song Festival (), was the 68th annual Sanremo Music Festival, a television song contest held in the Teatro Ariston of Sanremo and organised and broadcast by (RAI). The show was presented by Claudio Baglioni, who also served as the artistic director, with Michelle Hunziker and Pierfrancesco Favino.
The competition was divided in two sections. The winners of the Big Artists section were Ermal Meta and Fabrizio Moro with "", who thus earned the right to represent in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. The Newcomers' sections was won by Ultimo with the song "".
Format Presenters
Singer-songwriter and musician, Claudio Baglioni, was the main host and artistic director of Sanremo Music Festival 2018, alongside co-hosts Michelle Hunziker and Pierfrancesco Favino.
Voting Voting during the five evenings occurred through different combinations of four methods: Public televoting, carried out via landline, mobile phone, the contest's official mobile app, and online voting. Press jury voting, expressed by accredited journalists that followed the competition from the Roof Hall at the Teatro Ariston. A demoscopic poll, composed of a sample of 300 music fans, which voted from their homes via an electronic voting system managed by Ipsos. Expert jury voting, resulting from points assigned by personalities from the world of music, entertainment and culture. The jury is composed by Pino Donaggio (president), Giovanni Allevi, Serena Autieri, Milly Carlucci, Gabriele Muccino, Rocco Papaleo, Mirca Rosciani and Andrea Scanzi.
The three voting systems had a percentage weight so distributed: First, Second and Third Evening: 40% Public televoting; 30% Demoscopic poll; 30% Press jury voting Fourth and Fifth Evening: 50% Public televoting; 30% Press jury voting; 20% Expert jury voting In the final part of the fifth evening, a new rank indicating the first three acts -determined by the percentage of votes obtained in this evening's vote and those obtained in previous evenings- was drawn up.
Selections Newcomers' section The artists competing in the Newcomers' section were selected through two separate contests: Sanremo Giovani and Area Sanremo.
Sanremo Giovani On October 31, 2017, Rai Commission for Sanremo Music Festival 2018 announced a list of 650 acts, but only 68 artists coming from all Italian regionsexcluding Basilicata and Valle d'Aostaand from abroad were selected in the first phase.
On November 10, 2017, Rai Commission announced the sixteen finalists.
Group 1 Santiago – "Nessuno" (eliminated) Lorenzo Baglioni – "Il congiuntivo" Nyvinne – "Spreco personale" Dave Monaco – "L'eternità è di chi sa volare" (eliminated) Group 2 Mirkoeilcane – "Stiamo tutti bene" Luchi – "Gli amori della mente" (eliminated) Eva – "Cosa ti salverà" Iosonoaria – "Un cerchio" (eliminated)
Group 3 Giulia Casieri – "Come stai" Davide Petrella – "Non può far male" (eliminated) Jose Nunes – "Parlami ancora" (eliminated) Antonia Laganà – "Parli" Group 4 Mudimbi – "Il mago" Carol Beria – "Nessuna lacrima" (eliminated) Ultimo – "Il ballo delle incertezze" Aprile & Mangiaracina – "Quell'attimo di eternità" (eliminated)
On December 15, 2017, the sixteen finalists performed their songs at Villa Ormond in Sanremo, with the show Sarà Sanremo broadcast on Rai 1 presented by Claudia Gerini and Federico Russo. The six selected by the jury were added to the two entries of Area Sanremo, for a total of eight young emerging artists in the category of the Newcomers' section of the Sanremo Music Festival 2018. Lorenzo Baglioni, Mudimbi, Eva, Mirkoeilcane, Giulia Casieri and Ultimo were chosen as contestants of the Newcomers' section of the Sanremo Music Festival 2018.
Area Sanremo After the auditions, RAI Commission -composed by Massimo Cotto, Stefano Senardi, Antonio Vandoni, Maurizio Caridi and Maurilio Giordana; plus the participation of Franco Zanetti and Amara- identified 8 finalists for the competition among the 145 acts:
Martina Attili Alice Caioli Diego Esposito Manuel Foresta Andrea Maestrelli Leonardo Monteiro Giorgia Pino Daniele Ronda
Newcomers' Finalists
Lorenzo Baglioni - "Il congiuntivo" Mirkoeilcane - "Stiamo tutti bene" Eva - "Cosa ti salverà" Giulia Casieri - "Come stai" Mudimbi - "Il mago" Ultimo - "Il ballo delle incertezze" Leonardo Monteiro - "Bianca" Alice Caioli - "Specchi rotti"
Big Artists section The Big Artists section of the contest will revert to 20 artists, after briefly going up to 22 last year. Unlike in previous years, there will be no eliminations during the four weeknight shows. All the artists will perform several times and will be scored during the week, but they will all advance to the final night.
Competing entries +Competing songs and artists, showing writers, orchestra conductor and results achievedBig Artists section Song Artist(s) Songwriter(s) Orchestra conductor Rank Sanremo Music Festival Awards "" Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro Diego Calvetti1 Winner of the "Big Artists" section – Golden Lion TimMusic Award for Most-Streamed Song on the Final's Day "" Lo Stato Sociale Fabio Gargiulio2 Press, Radio, TV & Web Award "Lucio Dalla" "" Annalisa Pino Perris3 "" Ron Lucio DallaPeppe Vessicchio4 Critics' Award "Mia Martini" "" Ornella Vanoni feat. Bungaro & Pacifico Antonio Fresa5 "Sergio Endrigo" Award for Best Interpretation "" Max Gazzè Clemente Ferrari6 "Giancarlo Bigazzi" Award for Best Arrangement "" Luca Barbarossa Luca BarbarossaClemente Ferrari7 Lunezia Award for Best Music-letterary Value "" Diodato & Roy Paci Antonio DiodatoVincenzo Presta8 "" The Kolors Luca Chiaravalli9 "" Giovanni Caccamo Stefano Nanni10 "" Le Vibrazioni Luca Chiaravalli11 "" Enzo Avitabile feat. Peppe Servillo Roberto Rossi12 "" Renzo Rubino Renzo RubinoMarcello FaneschiPaolo PalazzoOnly in the 4th night.13 "" Noemi Diego Calvetti14 "" Red Canzian Fabio Gurian15 "" Decibel Roberto Rossi16 "" Nina Zilli Valeriano Chiaravalle17 "" Roby Facchinetti & Riccardo Fogli Danilo Ballo18 "" Mario Biondi Peppe Vessicchio19 "" Elio e le Storie Tese Peppe Vessicchio20Newcomers' section Song Artist(s) Songwriter(s) Orchestra conductor Rank Sanremo Music Festival Awards "" Ultimo UltimoDiego Calvetti1 Winner of the Newcomers' section – Silver Lion Lunezia Award for Best Music-letterary Value "" Mirkoeilcane MirkoeilcaneFio Zanotti2 Critics' Award "Mia Martini" "Enzo Jannacci" Award for Best Performance "" Mudimbi Umberto Iervolino3 Assomusica Award for Best Stage Presence "" Lorenzo Baglioni Diego Calvetti4 "" Alice Caioli Massimo Morini5 Press, Radio, TV & Web Award "Lucio Dalla" "" Eva Clemente Ferrari6 "" Giulia Casieri Massimo Morini7 "" Leonardo Monteiro Dariana Koumanova8
Shows First evening The 20 Big Artists each performed their song for the first time. Artist Song Votes Place Public(weight 40%) Demoscopic Jury(weight 30%) Press Jury(weight 30%) Average 1 Annalisa"Il mondo prima di te"11th (3.83%)3rd9th4.66%3rd2Ron"Almeno pensami"4th (6.58%)6th6th6.27%4th 3 The Kolors"Frida (mai, mai, mai)"2nd (10.60%)9th10th6.54%8th 4 Max Gazzè"La leggenda di Cristalda e Pizzomunno"6th (4.61%)5th5th6.26%6th 5Ornella Vanoni feat. Bungaro & Pacifico"Imparare ad amarsi"7th (4.39%)8th4th6.26%5th 6 Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro"Non mi avete fatto niente"1st (21.98%)1st2nd16.12%1st 7 Mario Biondi"Rivederti"13th (3.45%)11th17th3.19%15th 8 Roby Facchinetti & Riccardo Fogli"Il segreto del tempo"3rd (6.77%)18th19th3.81%11th 9 Lo Stato Sociale"Una vita in vacanza"8th (4.27%)2nd1st9.53%2nd 10Noemi"Non smettere mai di cercarmi"14th (3.09%)4th16th3.86%10th 11Decibel"Fuori dal tempo"15th (2.81%)15th10th3.10%16th 12 Elio e le Storie Tese"Arrivedorci"20th (1.72%)12th18th2.41%20th 13 Giovanni Caccamo"Eterno"10th (3.97%)13th12th3.71%12th 14 Red Canzian"Ognuno ha il suo racconto"12th (3.53%)20th13th2.83%17th 15 Luca Barbarossa"Passame er sale"5th (4.93%)10th15th3.91%9th 16 Diodato & Roy Paci"Adesso"17th (2.60%)16th3rd5.08%7th 17 Nina Zilli"Senza appartenere"19th (1.83%)7th19th2.61%18th 18 Renzo Rubino"Custodire"16th (2.78%)19th13th2.56%19th 19 Enzo Avitabile feat. Peppe Servillo"Il coraggio di ogni giorno"9th (4.16%)17th8th3.67%13th 20 Le Vibrazioni"Così sbagliato"18th (2.10%)14th7th3.61%14th
Second evening The first ten Big Artists each performed their song again and the first four Newcomers each performed their song for the first time.
Big Artists Artist Song Votes Place Public(weight 40%) Demoscopic Jury(weight 30%) Press Jury(weight 30%) Average 1 Le Vibrazioni"Così sbagliato"8th (7.71%)6th5th8.44%6th 2 Nina Zilli"Senza appartenere"7th (8.88%)2nd8th8.95%5th 3 Diodato & Roy Paci"Adesso"5th (9.32%)5th1st13.26%4th 4 Elio e le Storie Tese"Arrivedorci"10th (3.66%)8th10th4.30%10th 5Ornella Vanoni feat. Bungaro & Pacifico"Imparare ad amarsi"3rd (12.35%)4th2nd13.94%2nd 6 Red Canzian"Ognuno ha il suo racconto"4th (9.59%)10th8th6.49%9th 7Ron"Almeno pensami"2nd (14.96%)3rd3rd13.87%3rd 8 Renzo Rubino"Custodire"6th (9.09%)9th7th7.29%8th 9 Annalisa"Il mondo prima di te"1st (17.54%)1st3rd16.10%1st 10 Decibel"Lettera del Duca"9th (6.90%)7th6th7.36%7th
Newcomers Artist Song Votes Place Public(weight 40%) Demoscopic Jury(weight 30%) Press Jury(weight 30%) Average 1 Lorenzo Baglioni"Il congiuntivo"1st (49.91%)2nd2nd35.32%1st 2 Giulia Casieri"Come stai"4th (8.17%)3rd3rd17.18%4th 3 Mirkoeilcane"Stiamo tutti bene"2nd (25.18%)4th1st28.87%2nd 4 Alice Caioli"Specchi rotti"3rd (16.74%)1st4th18.63%3rd
Third evening The other ten Big Artists each performed their song for the second time and the other four Newcomers each performed their song for the first time.
Big Artists Artist Song Votes Place Public(weight 40%) Demoscopic Jury(weight 30%) Press Jury(weight 30%) Average 1 Giovanni Caccamo"Eterno"8th (4.86%)7th7th6.31%8th 2 Lo Stato Sociale"Una vita in vacanza"4th (7.94%)1st1st15.63%2nd 3 Luca Barbarossa"Passame er sale"2nd (12.43%)5th6th10.21%4th 4 Enzo Avitabile feat. Peppe Servillo"Il coraggio di ogni giorno"6th (6.86%)9th5th7.00%7th 5 Max Gazzè"La leggenda di Cristalda e Pizzomunno"5th (7.34%)4th2nd12.08%3rd 6 Roby Facchinetti & Riccardo Fogli"Il segreto del tempo"7th (5.49%)10th10th3.28%10th 7 Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro"Non mi avete fatto niente"1st (41.18%)2nd3rd25.38%1st 8Noemi"Non smettere mai di cercarmi"9th (2.98%)3rd8th7.34%6th 9 The Kolors"Frida (mai, mai, mai)"3rd (8.71%)6th4th9.12%5th 10 Mario Biondi"Rivederti"10th (2.21%)8th9th3.65%9th
Newcomers Artist Song Votes Place Public(weight 40%) Demoscopic Jury(weight 30%) Press Jury(weight 30%) Total 1 Mudimbi"Il mago"2nd (32.69%)1st2nd31.77%2nd 2 Eva"Cosa ti salverà"3rd (11.40%)2nd3rd18.75%3rd 3Ultimo"Il ballo delle incertezze"1st (48.18%)2nd1st38.42%1st 4 Leonardo Monteiro"Bianca"4th (7.73%)4th4th11.06%4th
Fourth evening The 20 Big Artists performed their songs as duets and the eight Newcomers also performed their songs again.