Carlo Conti has revealed the thirty artists who will compete in the Big category of the Festival di Sanremo 2026.
The thirty Big artists competing in the 76th edition of Festival della canzone italiana have been revealed this afternoon. The announcement came on TG1 on Rai 1, with Carlo Conti revealing the names. The participants revealed are:
- Tommaso Paradiso
- Chiello
- Serena Brancale
- Filminacci
- Ditonellapiaga
- Fedez & Masini
- Leo Gassman
- Sayf
- Arisa
- Tredicipietro
- Sal da vinci
- Samurai Jay
- Malika Ayane
- Luchè
- Raf
- Bambole di Pezza
- Ermal Meta
- Nayt
- Elettra Lamoborghini
- Michele Bravi
- J-Ax
- Enrico Nigiotti
- Maria Antonietta & Colombre
- Francesco Renga
- Mara Sattei
- LDA & Aka 7even
- Dargen D’Amico
- Levante
- Eddie Brock
- Patty Pravo
Ermal Meta represented Italy alongside Fabrizio Moro at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. Raf represented Italy alongside Umberto Tozzi at the Eurovision Song Contest 1987.
As has been the case in previous years, the winner of Festival di Sanremo will receive the right to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest. Should the winner decline to go to Eurovision, then it will be offered to the runner-up. Should they choose to decline, it will continue to be offered in order of the final results.
How the Big Contest will work
Night One – All 30 competing artists will perform with the press room voting. At the end of the night the top five artists will be revealed in a random order.
Night Two & Three – Half of the artists will perform on each night, with the radio juries and televoters voting for their favourites, each will have a 50% say in the result. At the end of the night, the top five artists will be revealed in a random order.
Night Four – As is tradition, the fourth night will see the artists performing covers alongside guest acts. They will perform either Italian songs or international songs that were released before December 31, 2025. The results of this night will not contribute to the overall result.
Night Five – All thirty artists will return to the stage with their songs, with all three juries voting. Televoting will account for 34% of the result and the press room and radio jury voting will have a 33% say each. The nights results will be combined with those of nights one to three, with the acts placing 30th to 6th revealed. The top five will then progress to a final round of voting. The three juries will vote again and those results will be combined with all previous results to name the winner.
Lucio Corsi represented Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 with “Volevo essere un duro”. He finished 5th, scoring a total of 256 points.
Image Source: Eurovision.tv
Italy debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1956 and has participated a total of 42 times to date. Italy returned to the Eurovision Song Contest in 2011 having last participated in the contest in 1997. The country has withdrawn from the contest on a number of occasions in the past. Italy has won the contest three times, the first time being in 1964 and the latest being in 2021. Since their return in 2011, Italy has finished in the top 10 on eleven occasions.
