Italy’s iconic Sanremo Music Festival 2020 starts on Tuesday 4 February and continues for five nights until the final on Saturday 8 February. And while local fans can catch the 70th edition of the festival by switching their televisions to RAI 1, international viewers will need to try alternative means.
Here’s when and how you can watch Sanremo online.
Watch Festival di Sanremo 2020 online
RAI will stream all five nights of Sanremo on RAIPlay.
Typically, the on-demand player is geo-blocked for viewers outside Italy. However, RAI lifts restrictions during the live shows.
Watch Sanremo 2020 on RAIPlay.
All performances are uploaded to YouTube immediately after the broadcast. Alas, RAI usually removes them shortly after the last night of the Festival.
Watch Sanremo 2020 performances on YouTube.
First evening — Tuesday 4 February
Time: 20:40 CET to 00:30 CET
Twelve of the 24 acts will perform tonight. They are:
- Achille Lauro “Me ne frego”
- Anastasio “Rosso di rabbia”
- Bugo e Morgan “Sincero”
- Diodato “Fai rumore”
- Elodie “Andromeda”
- Irene Grandi “Finalmente io”
- Raphael Gualazzi “Carioca”
- Marco Masini “Il confronto”
- Rita Pavone “Niente (Resilienza 74)”
- Riki “Lo sappiamo entrambi”
- Le Vibrazioni “Dov’è”
- Alberto Urso “Il sole ad est”
Four of the eight newcomers will also perform.
Second evening — Wednesday 5 February
Time: 20:40 CET to 00:35 CET
The rest of the 24 sing tonight. They are:
- Giordana Angi “Come mia madre”
- Francesco Gabbani “Viceversa”
- Paolo Jannacci “Voglio parlarti adesso”
- Junior Cally “No grazie”
- Elettra Lamborghini “Musica (e il resto scompare)”
- Levante “Tikibombom”
- Enrico Nigiotti “Baciami adesso”
- Piero Pelù “Gigante”
- Pinguini Tattici Nucleari “Ringo Starr”
- Rancore “Eden”
- Tosca “Ho amato tutto”
- Michele Zarrillo “Nell’estasi o nel fango”
The remaining four newcomers will also perform.
Third evening — Thursday 6 February
Time: 20:40 CET to 00:45 CET
Thursday is covers night! Each of the 24 acts will pair up with a non-competing artist to duet on a cover of a Sanremo classic. You can find the full list of duets here.
Fourth evening — Friday 7 February
Time: 20:40 CET to 00:45 CET
All 24 acts will perform their songs once more.
The last four newcomers — top two from Tuesday and top two from Wednesday — will also sing their entries.
Fifth evening: The final — Saturday 8 February
Time: 20:45 CET to 01:15 CET
The 24 acts will perform their songs one final time. By the end of the night, we will have a new Sanremo champion.
Unlike other Eurovision-related festivals, the winner will not necessarily be the act that goes to the song contest. Before the contest, acts were required to tell the broadcaster whether they would be willing to represent Italy at Eurovision or not. If the Sanremo winner has agreed to do Eurovision, they’ll get the ticket to Rotterdam. If not, RAI will internally select one of the other competitors.
Italians always come with good songs but I’ll be pissed for a while if they don’t vote on Anastasio. He has soo much passion and the song is really catchy in a non-cliché way, it’s perfect for eurovision and he freaking deserves it!
So I just got back from my own rehearsal (that’s nothing to do with Eurovision). I see that RAI has started to upload performances to YouTube, so I thought I would go through them one-by-one. I just started with Achille Lauro. Kind of hard to forget that outfit now, lol.
Loving the live orchestra so far. 🙂
Was Raphael worth waiting until 01.05 for? I think so.
He was. He always true to himself. Doing whatever he wants to do. It was really enjoyable
Why are people downvoting? I agree, Raphael Gualazzi was surprisingly brilliant. I would have no problem with Italy sending that.
For me diodato was the best tonight! Great song and awesome singer.
I expected a bit more from elodie.. But maybe it’s a grower we’ll see.
Anastasio was good but not for ESC..
Achille has good song but vocals were mess haha.
I totally see Anastasio for ESC. Italy and risks work well. Its not a safe choice but his passion really sells it.
Diodato was amazing agree
Anastasio would be an outstanding choice.
Out of everything that’s on YouTube so far, I really like Anastasio, Rita Pavone and the Tsunami song. Only the first two seem to be competing, so those are my clear faves for now.
That first song Emma sang is one of the best of the night! What was it, I feel I should know it? Tiziano Ferro also impressed.
Song is Stupida Allegria, such a good song
I don’t know what to think about Andromeda. I love the “sudden stops” and the urban style, but I’m not really into its poppy verses….
let’s see…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCqgh20ZVh0
Viceversa just leaked.
Personally, I like Occidentali’s Karma a bit more, but this is still a pretty good song. This song’s got like more of a chill and relaxed vibe to it. It’s kind of happy sounding.
Ah crap, the video just got removed I think.
Anyway, the song has a lot of whistling in it. You heard it from me first.
The song may be gone, but the lyrics are still leaked!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7o0rmQBN5I
check the description of this video
I loved Elodie! Others too, but I think this is maybe my favourite so far.
Elodie for me was a bit meh. I liked Achille Lauro and Le Vibrazioni the most so far
I liked Achille’s song but I think it fell flat because of the way it was staged – of course that could all change the next time it’s performed. The outfit was nice, though.
I can never remember what a demiscopic jury is.
Judging from the very first newcomers duel, I bet this is going to be one very s*itty sanremo, ggggreat. The conservative geezers still ruling over this fking contest.
The first “newcomers” song was great.
Now it’s out. 🙁
For some reason I can’t access Rai to see Sanremo. Does anyone know if the geoblock has been lifted
Read Sucof’s comment below if you’re having trouble.
I have read it I just wanted to see it from Rai since we don’t know if the livestream will take place tomorrow and the rest of the days as well!
The block has been lifted! About 20 minutes into the show, but yay.
Yeah I am watching now! Great festival so far!
It’s weird to explain to foregneirs because it’s a really weird show even by Italian standards. It’s so long because it’s the most watched program in all Italian television, and rai makes a lot of money from advertisement even if it’s a really expensive show to produce. The singing starts at the beginning of the night and then goes on until the end, but it’s not like esc where you have all the songs together and then the interval acts. All through the night in between competing acts you have italian and international guest who promote their music or movies… Read more »
You can watch the live broadcast of sanremo on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr7ltdXSVC4
I’m fascinated by Sanremo, so I have a few questions for locals:
– How big it is in Italy? I know it’s bigger than Eurovision, but does it reach audiences from all ages and places?
– Do people watch all the nights? Or most people just show up for the final?
– Are there parties to watch it, or it’s more like something you watch with your family?
– Are there complaints and jokes about the lenght of the shows?
I hope they keep uploading the entries to Youtube, it’s how I decided to follow Sanremo last year.
OK so I am not Italian, but a lot of people know it even in Slovenia, especially the older ones. But I know it’s huge in Italy
I was told by my grandma that Sanremo used to be broadcasted in Brazil, many decades ago. Probably because there’s a huge Italian community here, especially in São Paulo. The contest also inspired a Brazilian song contest that was quite successful but sadly stopped existing a long time ago.
1)1 out of 2 TVs in Italy watch Sanremo (almost 50% share) this year, further large ratings are expected, but tomorrow there will be data from the TV share.
It is the most popular TV show in Italy with an average ranging from 12 to 13 million viewers with peaks of up to 16 -17 million depending on the time slot. The first evening of the festival is a trending topic on Twitter worldwide every year. It costs 16 million euros and earns 30 million with advertising
2) every evening
3)both
4) yes, this is italy 🙂
It is very huge. Rai spends around 15 20 million € each year. Lately trying to open to a wider range of audience. It isn’t only a song contest but something rooted into. The Italian culture and identity. Music fashion style gossip scandals international guests ( from Lous Armstrong to Ray Charles, from Madonna to Whitney Huston. QUEEN Duran Duran U2 Tina Turner Elton John and more and more) make Sanremo magical.
Because Sanremo IS Sanremo. This is the slogan.
Nothing to compare to Esc which is mostly considered like cloured circus show. But lately things have changed a bit.
Yeah, I’m familiar with the slogan, that it’s a great one by the way! And just by looking at the stage, it’s noticeable RAI put a lot of money on it. I hope Italy can win Eurovision soon, maybe it could help making the contest more popular there. Sure, Eurovision will have a camp entry here and there, but I feel it already can be respected by the level of the songs, at least when people look at it without further prejudice.
Tried to reply twice, but got filtered. Thanks for your input, Nudiecrudi. 🙂 I’m familiar with the slogan, which is great by the way! There’s nothing like Sanremo, really.
1) Sanremo is the most watched non-sports show in Italy, it is broadcast via Rai International and the various national state channels all over the world. (this year the Romanian TVR will broadcast all 5 evenings live on tvr1), it is very popular in switzerland, malta, east europe, balkans, south america, russia etc .. Every year in Italy, 1 in 2 TVs (50% share) watch sanremo, to which all direct streaming must be added. on average it goes from 11 to 13 million spectators on average, with peaks of 16-17 million. Higher ratings are expected this year. Every year the… Read more »
Thank you so much, Sucof! For the answers and also for the Youtube link, since sadly RAI geoblocked the broadcasting. 50% share is a lot in these days of cable TV and streaming services. And now knowing that I definitely can see why they take the opportunity to keep people watching for so many hours.
Sabrina, the block has been lifted, at least where I am! The RAI stream is about ten seconds behind the YouTube stream.
Thank you! I guess I’ll stay in Youtube for now, since its connection is pretty stable. But it’s good to know that RAIPlay is available in case the link stops working.
Omni Television in Canada will be airing all 5 Sanremo shows, however on a 6-day delay – they will be shown starting February 10 at 6:30pm Eastern time. So if any Canadian fans miss the shows, they know where to find them
Five evenings, 3-4 hours each? I’d like to, but since there are no eliminations, I’ll probably just watch the last evening. Will the songs be available online before that? Also, while RAI knows exactly on who accepted the ESC invitation and who didn’t, do we?
Ah right, I wanna know that, too. I don’t remember from last year. Are the studio versions made available before the shows, or does every artist release them whenever they want? I think my first impression last year were the uploads of the performances on YouTube.
You’ll be able to listen to all the first 12 songs from tonight’s performances from the very tomorrow on Spotify – searching the official album or by looking the only singer. On 6 of February the other 12 songs.
Last year each song was released on the RAI youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/rai) one by one immediately after its performance on the stage
Yes, but they are eventually removed (in a couple of weeks, as I remember)
All the artists are signed to major recording contracts. So, most will release official music videos, many right after the show ends.
Tvr1 Is going to show live all the nights for all Romanian audience. Have a nice #Sanremo70!
Also RTSH is broadcasting (actually every year) RTSH.al and this year host of Fik 58 is co-hosting in Sanremo also
I hope this delivers a Eurovision winner !! Would be very happy with Roma , Milano or Torino 2021
Still cant watch this. Its says that only italians can do it when im pressing on some video or live.
Thank You so much!
I enjoyed watching the show both live and on-demand last year. It has gotten a lot easier now to watch from their website but it still sucks that all the performances uploaded to RAI’s Youtube channel get taken down soon after the festival ends.
Being a university student in the US makes watching the show in its entirety pretty much impossible. I might be able to catch the final though at least.
I will not watch as it is way too time-consuming but I am looking forward to the YouTube clips a lot. I hope there is another pearl like last year’s timeless ‘Abbi cura di me’ for me in there. This song has truly stood the test of time.
abbi cura di me was my last place last year, oop-
Bad boy. I liked numerous songs but this was by far my uncontested number one. My number two was Irama.
Cool, I’ll probably not be able to watch live this year again-_- (time zone differences and work aren’t fun) but at least we will be able to hear the songs finally XD