While Italian broadcaster Rai is busy planning their hosting of Eurovision 2022, they are also putting together the 72nd edition of the iconic Sanremo Music Festival. Rai has released the official rules of Sanremo 2022, including the new show format and Eurovision requirements.

Unlike some song contests, the rules of Sanremo tend of change a little each year. The tweaks to the show structure and voting system adds fresh elements to the iconic song contest.

This year, 24 acts will compete in the Sanremo shows. This will be made up of 22 Big Artists and the two winners of the Sanremo Giovani competition held in December 2021. This means there will be no seperate newcomers content at Sanremo in February.

Other changes include the covers night moving to the Friday night show. There are also changes to the voting system. This year, the Sanremo orchestra will not have a vote, while the media in Sanremo’s press centre will the be ones deciding the votes on the first two nights.

The Big Artists will be decided by Sanremo 2022 artistic director Amadeus. He will consider “the quality and originality of the songs, as well as the interpretation and requirements of contemporaneity, fame and recognised value of the performing artists.”

The rules are focused on the unique Sanremo experience rather than being tailored for Eurovision. The maximum length for a Sanremo entry is four minutes — one minute longer than the Eurovision maximum.

The Sanremo 2022 rules are clear that Italy’s act for Eurovision 2022 will be decided through Sanremo. All competing acts will need to confirm in advance if they wish to also be a contender for Eurovision. If the winner of Sanremo 2022 has said yes to Eurovision, they will get the ticket to Turin. However, if the winning act does not wish to go to Eurovision, then broadcaster Rai will select another act from any of the Sanremo competitors.

Sanremo Music Festival 2022 format

First night: Tuesday 1 February

  • The first 12 artists will perform their competing songs for the first time.
  • Voting will be done by media juries, made up of a print and TV jury (33%), a radio jury (34%) and a web media jury (33%).
  • There will be no eliminations, but a ranking of the 12 acts will be announced at the end of the night.

Second night: Wednesday 2 February

  • The other 12 artists will perform their competing songs.
  • Again, the voting will be decided by the three media juries.
  • There will also be no eliminations, and a ranking of these 12 acts will be announced. There will also be a combined ranking of all 12 competing songs.

Third night: Thursday 3 February

  • The 24 artists will perform their competing songs throughout the night.
  • This time, the voting will be decided by demoscopic jury (50%) and televote (50%).
  • The voting from the third night will be combined with the voting of the first and second nights for a new overall ranking.

Fourth night: Friday 4 February

  • Covers night. All 24 competing artists will each perform an iconic Italian or international song from the 1960s, ’70s or ’80s. Artists will be able to sing songs with non-Italian lyrics. The artists will be able to perform the song solo or together with an acclaimed Italian or international guest artist.
  • Voting will be done by televote (34%), combined press jury (33%) and demoscopic jury (33%).
  • An average will be made of all voting to date and a new ranking will be announced.

Fifth night: Saturday 5 February

  • The 24 competing artists will perform their songs for the third and final time.
  • Voting will be determined by public televote and a new overall ranking will be announced. The top three ranked acts will then compete in the super final.
  • Voting will then be reset. Of the top three acts, the winner will be decided by 34% televoting, 33% press jury and 33% demoscopic jury.

The Sanremo Music Festival has been held since 1951 and was first televised in 1955. It was an inspiration for the creation of the Eurovision Song Contest, which began in 1956.

Since Italy’s 2011 Eurovision return, Sanremo acts have given Italy eight top-ten finishes, including Måneskin’s 2021 victory.

Read more Italy Eurovision news here

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There is a light guiding my way
There is a light guiding my way
2 years ago

Wait, I don’t understand: are the submissions for Sanremo 2022 starting only now, cause from your article about Sanremo Giovani I got that the submissions for both shows have been opened back in September?? I am confused. Eitherway I still keep my fingers crossed tight to see Davide Van De Sfroos back at Sanremo with one of the songs from Maader Folk. _||_ Only that it will be pretty hard to shorten the song so drastically (two times if he wins), as most of them are longer than 4 minutes. Since Turin was chosen as the host city the chances… Read more »

Last edited 2 years ago by There is a light guiding my way
Jenny
Jenny
2 years ago

The submission period should be already done, they just released the voting rules to the public

Vale
Vale
2 years ago

chances for a Lombard artist to be invited as an interval act to Eurovision’….Are you serious? First of all, it is Eurovision. Clearly this artist is not a mainstream singer and not very well known in Italy. So why should be invited?

Chessguy99
2 years ago

Looking at those vote percent, this could be the highest televote has counted to determining the super finalists in many years. I remember recent years where televote wasn’t even counted until the last night. Interesting that they are bringing back the potential of foreign artists partners for the cover night.

Moshe Melman
2 years ago

My question is whether they will have to make a short version of their song that will comply with the Eurovision rules that the song has to be 3 minutes long or they will simply shorten the song

Last edited 2 years ago by Moshe Melman
Chessguy99
2 years ago
Reply to  Moshe Melman

Depends on the song. Since Sanremo uses a live orchestra, many entries have parts that are only used with the orchestra at Sanremo, the radio version are shorter without the orchestral parts. But, it has been a problem or sorts in previous years. There has been verses cut out or shortened, chorus repeats cut back and bridges shortened or eliminated, with mixed results. RAI also have given the artists an option of creating another song to fit the time limit, though I don’t recall anybody doing that.

Thanos
Thanos
2 years ago

If I understood correctly, the televote will play a larger part this year compared to the 2020 and 2021 editions which is great! I would prefer though the 2019 system where we didn’t know the rankings of every night exactly. This system offered us a more suspenful show. Nevertheless, I can’t wait for this year’s show!

hzalfa
hzalfa
2 years ago
Reply to  Thanos

I don’t remember how it worked in 2020, but if I remember 2021 correctly each night a different jury voted, televote included, so the 4 different juries ended up having 25% of the voting power each, whereas this year we have: First two nights: only press votes, so the press gets 25% of the total voting power (The exact distribution of the voting power within the press is not important). Third night: demoscopic + televote, they get 12,5% of the total voting power each. Fourth night: The televote gets 8,5% of the total voting power, the press and demoscopic jury… Read more »

Thanos
Thanos
2 years ago
Reply to  hzalfa

Yes I agree. For example Madame would have ended higher if the televote had more power. Sanremo needs to have a higher televote percentage!

Jonas
Jonas
2 years ago
Reply to  Thanos

Soldi would never have made it to Tel Aviv if the televoters had decided, and Diodato would have lost too.

Chessguy99
2 years ago
Reply to  Thanos

I also liked it when they gave an overview of the rankings with top, middle and bottom.

Thanos
Thanos
2 years ago
Reply to  Chessguy99

Yes that’s what I mean when I say “the 2019 system”.

Fast Food Music Lover
Fast Food Music Lover
2 years ago

After years of following Sanremo, I think this time I’m not gonna pay too much attention on the voting until the final night. Everyone votes drastically different and the rankings change a lot. Good thing Italy always sends great songs to Eurovision so whoever triumphs in the end is sure to continue the legacy.

Maxim
Maxim
2 years ago

When it comes to Italy, you can always be sure of two things: they’re going to use Sanremo and they’re going to change the rules every year haha.

It’s interesting how the rules can change everything. On the final night of Sanremo 2021, Måneskin first ended up in second place behind Francesca Michielin & Fedez in the first round of televoting. It was only in the superfinal that Måneskin got the biggest score. So if the organisers hadn’t chosen to organise a superfinal, Måneskin wouldn’t have won Sanremo and we would have had another Eurovision winner …

sucof
sucof
2 years ago
Reply to  Maxim

sometimes there is a tendency to change the rules not because it is Italy, but to make the most famous artists compete who do not like to be eliminated directly, especially on the first night. It is not the first time that these rules have been applied, and usually it is a prelude to the arrival of really BIG singers, in short, they try to prepare a crazy edition with very important songs compared to the average (the request to participate is very high ) Then every artistic director has the right to organize the festival he wants with his… Read more »

Extinguir
Extinguir
2 years ago

At the end of Night 5, before the SuperFinal podium, we’ll see the final ranking of the 24 songs/artists based on the average result collected along all the previous nights, last one included. From this 24 songs-ranking, the 3 most voted songs will be judged by the new voting of the SuperFinal. So, out of these 3, the winner of Sanremo is decided by 34% televoting, 33% demoscopic and 33% media journalists jury.

Last edited 2 years ago by Extinguir
Sale
Sale
2 years ago

So in the end the votings from the first 4 nights don’t mean anything since the super final 3 are decided by the televote and then in the super final everything goes back to 0? Did I catch that right?

Alo
Alo
2 years ago
Reply to  Sale

I think they collecting all the votes of the first 4 nights together with the final televotes (as was last year and in recent years.)

Extinguir
Extinguir
2 years ago
Reply to  Sale

The contrary. If you rank very low on the first nights (by the journalists) and don’t get an exceptional result on the other nights, it won’t be impossible but indeed very difficult to reach the top 3 needed to go to the SuperFinal

mamaaa oooh
mamaaa oooh
2 years ago

i always try to catch sanremo whenevr i can, because its always a riot

also the fact that the format is no longer knock-out does reduce the competitiveness quite a bit i think, but its still interesting