The Sanremo Festival: a Ligurian story. This is how a legend is born

Want to know all about the Festival?
If you’re interested in scandals and gossip, where to find VIPs, or simply what to eat at the Festival, you’ve come to the right place. Here are many side events that will immerse you in the magic of Sanremo during the Festival.
But let’s start with the history, a Ligurian history. To know the Festival, is largely to know the history of Italy. Thanks to stars, amarcords, starlets, easy rhymes, records, flowers and catchphrases, we can understand how the Sanremo Festival has become part of Italian culture and has adapted to the times. This is how.

Because Sanremo is Sanremo

The Festival par excellence is now much more than a singing event. Closely linked to Italian history, from the post-war period to the present day, it has become a mirror of our society, part of our culture, of which it offers us a bit of a reflection. The Festival is also increasingly a phenomenon of tradition: announcements, slogans, sensational protests, great guests, VIPs, gossip, everything contributes to the Festival’s unique atmosphere. Sanremo is known as the ‘City of Flowers and Songs’, but its name derives from the dialectal pronunciation of its patron saint ‘San Romolo’.
During the ‘gathering’, hotels, such as the (former) ‘Des Estrangers’, the ‘Astoria’, the ‘Londra’, are taken by storm by fans and in the streets of Sanremo itself or on the harbour it is not uncommon to meet VIPs, take part in live TV broadcasts, or throw yourself into the reality show. In short, enjoying your five minutes of fame.
From 1951 to the present day, the Sanremo Festival has been the most important fixture of the Italian winter, the pop mirror that reflects our society, our culture: thanks to its form, unstable but flexible, in constant transformation, it has been able to change and adapt itself to society and the times, without renouncing the inevitable reactions and controversies, but without fossilising and dying.
Sanremo Festival slogans are practically eternal. Some examples From ‘Cari amici vicini e lontani‘, the radio greeting of Nunzio Filogamo’s first festival, to ‘Perché Sanremo è Sanremo’, the 1995 theme song composed by Pippo Caruso and Sergio Bardotti, to Gabry Ponte’s ‘Tutta l’Italia‘ in 2025.

The beginnings of the Festival

After some similar experiences in the 1930s and 1940s, the idea of a musical event for Italian songs came to Angelo Nicola Amato, director of events and public relations at the Sanremo Casino, and Angelo Nizza, radio presenter, while Pier Bussetti and Giulio Razzi fine-tuned the competition rules: the Sanremo Italian Song Festivalwas born.
The first edition of the Festival was held in Sanremo in 1951, in the Teatro del Casinò (which hosted it until 1976). In the first edition, three performers took turns singing the 20 songs in the competition: Nilla Pizzi, Achille Togliani and the Duo Fasano. Grazie dei fiori, performed by Nilla Pizzi, won the competition.

While songs such as Grazie dei fiori and Vola colomba – with which Nilla Pizzi won the first two editions in ’51 and ’52 – were the image of Italy that was rising again in the post-war period, Non ho l’età by Gigliola Cinquetti (1964) or Zingara (1969) by Iva Zanicchi, portrayed a country that had relearned to enjoy life.
Since 1955, even those who are not lucky enough to attend Sanremo can watch the festival. That was the year it was broadcast live on television for the first time and Claudio Villa won with the song ‘Buongiorno tristezza’.

The world’s most famous Italian song ‘Nel blu dipinto di blu‘ (or ‘Volare’) debuted in 1958 on the Sanremo Festival stage sung by Domenico Modugno and Johnny Dorelli, and won it.

With Chi non lavora non fa l’amore, Adriano Celentano sang of a boom that was coming to an end in 1971. While Vita spericolata (1983) by Vasco Rossi or Donne (1985) by Zucchero – two songs that did not shine at the Festival – provided the most vivid image of the 1980s.

The event was held in the Teatro del Casino’ until 1976, then in 1977 it moved to the Teatro Ariston, except in 1990, on the occasion of the 40th edition, when the PalaFiori of the new Flower Market in the Armea Valley, in the hamlet of Bussana, was chosen as the location for the event.
Thanks to Festival, since 2010 Sanremo has been a part of the group of 22 Italian cities that are part of the special edition of Monopoly Italia.

The history of the Sanremo Festival amid scandals and tragedies

The editions up to 1954 were only broadcast on radio, but, the event soon became a televised event broadcast on Eurovision by Raiuno. Controversy in 1961 when Adriano Celentano singing ’24 mila baci’ turned his back on the audience and caused a scandal.
Tragedy in 1967: Luigi Tenco, who did not advance to the finals with the song ‘Ciao amore ciao’, was found dead in room 209 of the Hotel Savoy on 27 January 1967.
The relationship that the Festival has always had with Italian television is a special one, even symbiotic. They grew in parallel, so much so that they influenced each other, almost penetrating each other. Italians, from being a people of saints, navigators and poets, now seem to have become not only coaches of the national football team and ministers of finance, but also presenters of the Sanremo Festival: memorable editions are the ones hosted by Pippo Baudo (thirteen) or Mike Bongiorno (eleven), of whom there is a statue in the centre of Sanremo, in Via Escoffier, the same street a stone’s throw from the Ariston Theatre that will probably host the tribute to Pippo Baudo (who passed away on 16 August 2025). 1986 saw the first female main presenter of the event: Loretta Goggi (that year the comedy was entrusted to the trio formed by Marchesini, Lopez and the Genoese Solenghi). Here are the presenters who have hosted the festival several times:
Pippo Baudo: 13 editions.
Mike Bongiorno: 11 editions.
Nunzio Filogamo: 5 editions (including the first in 1951).
Amadeus: 5 editions (2020 to 2024).
Fabio Fazio: 4 editions (1999 two Ligurians hosted the Festival: Fabio Fazio and Nobel Prize winner for medicine Renato Dulbecco)
Carlo Conti: 4 editions (2015, 2016, 2017, 2025)

In 1975 , the Sanremo Festival was broadcast for the first time in colour on all the Eurovision circuit televisions, even though on the RAI channel, which produced the event, it was still in black and white. Finally you can see the colours of San Remo’s wonderful flowers

Since 1984 (except in 2004), in addition to the Big category, there has been the Nuove Proposte (or Young Singers), and since 1982 there has been a press award, known as the Critics Award , which has been dedicated to Mia Martini since 1996. Other prizes and special mentions are awarded to the competing songs, such as the Premio Volare for best lyrics, music and arrangement, the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Liguria Region Prize.
The history of the Festival also includes great international guests: the biggest stars, from David Bowie to Queen, Kiss, Madonna, Duran Duran and Take That have performed on the Ariston stage, taking the name of the seaside resort around the world. On 9 February 1985, Duran Duranarrived at the Sanremo Festival: the Hotel Royal in Corso Imperatrice, which hosted Simon Le Bon’s band, was literally besieged by fans, and the following year part of the film ‘I will marry Simon Le Bon’ was filmed in Sanremo.

Still a myth today

The 1990s were a moment of consecration of the Sanremo Festival in Italian society: the opening theme song of the 1995 and 1996editions, ‘Perché Sanremo è Sanremo’, became a ‘catchphrase’, a way of defining the festival that is still in vogue today. Pippo Baudo’s direction brought out ‘new voices’, such as Laura Pausini (winner of the 1993 Youth category), Biagio Antonacci, Andrea Bocelli and Giorgia who won the Sanremo Festival in 1995.

So far, six singers have won the Festival in both the Nuove proposte and Big categories: Eros Ramazzotti, Aleandro Baldi, Annalisa Minetti, Marco Masini, Arisa and Francesco Gabbani.

Since the 2015 edition, the Sanremo Festival has been definitively linked to the Eurovision Song Contest: the festival’s winning song was automatically designated to represent Italy at the European song contest. In the 2018 and 2019editions, under the artistic direction and conduction of Claudio Baglioni, the maximum length of the songs was increased: from three and a half minutes to four. This increases the quality of the songs in the competition. Signs of new musical genres also arrived: in the 2019 edition, Mahmood won with the song ‘Soldi’ belonging to the ‘urban’ genre, which remained on the fringes of the Sanremo Festival. Moreover, the participation of many contestants hailing from talent shows and its heavy presence on social networks bring the younger audience closer to the Festival and ensure the attention of record companies.

The 52nd Sanremo Festival saw a Ligurian hat-trick: first place went to Matia Bazar from Genoa with “Messaggio d’amore”, second place to Alexiafrom La Spezia, making her debut with “Dimmi come…”, third Gino Paoli with the song “Un altro amore”.

In 2020 the Festival was directed and presented by Amadeus, who revamped the formula with a balanced presence of old glories and new proposals. It was successful, and even set a record: the 2021edition was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and, due to the containment measures in force in early 2021, the Festival was held for the first time in its history without an audience inside the Ariston Theatre. For the first time, a rock band, Måneskin, won the Eurovision Song Contest, achieving worldwide success.

Since 2020 the host and artistic director of the Sanremo Festival has been Carlo Conti. His presence has confirmed the trend of recent years characterised by record ratings and a large increase in younger audiences.
The most recent winners have been Mahmood and Blanco with the song Brividi (2022), Marco Mengoni with the song Due vite (2023), and in 2024, Angelina Mango won with ‘La Noia’. In 2025, it was the turn of Olly, with the song Balorda nostalgia. The 2026 artistic director and presenter will once again be Carlo Conti. Six Ligurian victories at the festival: Matia Bazar (1979 and 2002), Toto Cutugno (1980), Ricchi e Poveri (1985), Alexia (2002) and Olly (2025).