Tonight the glamorous and most prestigious festival in Italy will kick-off. The 65th edition of the Sanremo Festival will start tonight in the Ariston Theatre. This festival is considered to be the father of the Eurovision Song Contest as the founders of Europe’s favourite show conceived the idea of Sanremo, which started five years earlier.
The first out of five nights will feature ten acts out of twenty acts in contention to win the established singers category. Tonight’s line-up include Belgian-born top star Lara Fabian.
The press and public will have 50% of the vote at stake. No-one will be eliminated but the combined vote will be crucial in the competition. The first six acts from tonight’s vote will be announced while the other four will still have a second chance to turn things around and try to make it to the grand final on Saturday.
Another eight artists in the newcomers category will also be presented tonight. Two of the special guests of tonight are Albano Carrisi and Romina Power. The duo represented Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest on two occasions i.e. 1976 and 1985.
The line-up for tonight in the established singers category will all be accompanied by a live orchestra
- Annalisa – Una finestra tra le stelle
- Malika Ayane – Adesso è qui
- Alex Britti – Un attimo importante
- Chiara – Straordinario
- Dear Jack – Il mondo esplode
- Grazia Di Michele e Mauro Coruzzi (Platinette) – Io sono una finestra
- Lara Fabian – Voce
- Gianluca Grignani – Sogni infranti
- Nek – Fatti avanti amore
- Nesli – Buona fortuna amore
The Sanremo Festival will be hosted by Carlo Conti, assisted by last year’s Italian Eurovision hopeful, Emma Marrone and Arisa (winner of Sanremo 2014). Spanish actress and model, Rocio Munoz Morales is expected to stun the stage along with Conti.
The first night of Sanremo will begin at 20:30 CET and you can watch the show by clicking here. In September, the Italian broadcaster (RAI) stated that the winner of the Sanremo Festival will go on to represent Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest. It is not yet clear whether the winning song will automatically go to Eurovision, or just the artist
Stay tuned on escXtra.com as we will be publishing reports about Sanremo throughout the week.