Twenty-six Big names will compete at Sanremo 2026, and in the Newcomers category, two artists will be from Area Sanremo, joining the two selected during the Sanremo Giovani final on December 14, broadcast on Rai 1.
Once again, three juries will vote on the competing artists: the public televote; the Press, TV, and Web Jury; and the Radio Jury, with weights of 34%, 33%, and 33%, respectively.
These are among the highlights of the regulations for the 76th edition of the Festival, the fifth for Carlo Conti, artistic director and host, broadcast from February 24 to 28.
Moving on to the analysis of the individual evenings, on the first (Tuesday) the 26 Big/Champions will perform and the songs will be voted on by the Press Room, TV and Web Jury. During the second (Wednesday) 13 Big/Champions will perform, voted on by the public - through televoting - and by the Radio Jury, each with a weight of 50%.
For the Newcomers category, the four artists will be divided into two pairs, and each pair will perform a direct challenge. The artists will be judged by the public through televoting, by the Press, TV, and Web Jury, and by the Radio Jury. The two winning artists from the challenges will advance to the Third Evening.
The same rules will apply on the third evening (Thursday) for the Big/Champions; for the Newcomers, a final challenge will take place between the two artists who gained access to the evening. The song with the most votes from televoting, the Press Room, TV and Web Juries, and the Radio Juries will be declared the winner of the category.
The Covers evening has been confirmed for Friday, with a winner: the Big Artists, accompanied by a guest artist, will reinterpret an Italian or international song. Voting in this competition will not affect the final result of the Festival. The covers will be judged by all three juries. In the final round of the fifth and final evening (Saturday), all 26 songs by the Big Artists/Champions competing, as voted on by the three juries, will be performed. The results of this vote will be combined with those from previous evenings (except the "Covers" evening) to determine a ranking of the songs/artists. A new performance and voting will be held for the top five songs.
The result will be added to the overall result of the previous ones to determine a new ranking with the five songs and the winner of the 76th edition of the Italian Song Festival .
(Unioneonline)