RAI has officially revealed the stage for the Festival di Sanremo 2026, which will be held later this month.
Riccardo Bocchini’s stage for the 76th edition of the Festival di Sanremo has been revealed by the Italian public broadcaster Rai. The stage is set across three levels, with the intention of the stage being to eliminate the distance between the performers and the audience. Bocchini explained that:
“At the center of the stage front, there will be a technological, sliding, motorized curtain with various configurations, each time modifying the type of stage front. Just like a melody that It is never a straight line, so the stage space will bend and extend to accommodate the sound, creating a dynamic harmony that will embrace the artist according to a concept of spatial expansion where the physical limit of the Ariston stage will seem to dissolve. A Stage at the service of Emotion where architecture will be placed at the service of the immaterial.โย
Festival di Sanremo 2026
Festival di Sanremo 2026 will take place between February 24 and 28, with Carlo Conti and Laura Pausini hosting all five nights. The complete line-up of Festival di Sanremo 2026 is the following:
- Arisa โ โMagica favolaโ (Magical tale)
- Bambole di pezza โ โResta con meโ (Stay with me)
- Chielloย โ โTi penso sempreโ (Iโm always thinking of you)
- Dargen DโAmico โ โAi aiโ
- Ditonellapiaga โ โChe fastidio!โ (How annoying!)
- Eddie Brock โ โAvvoltoiโ (Vultures)
- Elettra Lamborghini โ โVoilร โ
- Enrico Nigiotti โ โOgni volta che non so volareโ (Every time I canโt fly)
- Ermal Meta โ โStella stellinaโ (Star, little star)
- Fedez & Masini โ โMale necessarioโ (Necessary evil)
- Francesco Renga โ โIl meglio di meโ (The best of me)
- Fulminacci โ โStupida sfortunaโ (Stupid bad luck)
- J-Ax โ โItalia Starter Packโ
- LDA & Aka 7even โ โPoesie Clandestineโ (Clandestine poems)
- Leo Gassmann โ โNaturaleโ (Natural)
- Levante โ โSei tuโ (Itโs you)
- Luchรจ โ โLabirintoโ (Maze)
- Malika Ayane โ โAnimali notturniโ (Nocturnal animals)
- Mara Sattei โ โLe cose che non sai di meโ (The things you donโt know about me)
- Maria Antonietta & Colombre โ โLa felicitร e bastaโ (Happiness, thatโs all)
- Michele Bravi โ โPrima o poiโ (Sooner or later)
- Nayt โ โPrima cheโ (Before)
- Patty Pravo โ โOperaโ
- Raf โ โOra e per sempreโ (Now and forever)
- Sal Da Vinci โ โPer sempre sรฌโ (Forever yes)
- Samurai Jay โ โOssessioneโ (Obsession)
- Sayf โ โTu mi piaci tantoโ (I really like you)
- Serena Brancale โ โQui con meโ (Here with me)
- Tommaso Paradiso โ โI romanticiโ (The romantics)
- Tredici Pietro โ โUomo che cadeโ (Man who falls)
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 โ 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 โ 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 โ 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 โ 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 โVolevo essere un duroโ. He finished 5th, scoring a total of 256 points.
Source: RAI
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 twelve occasions.