After several successful years hosting and directing the Sanremo Music Festival, the Italian national selection for Eurovision, the 2024 edition will be the fifth and final to feature Amadeus Sebastiani.
Sanremo, which has been considered the inspiration for the Eurovision Song Contest, has featured the massively recognizable Amadeus since 2020. He has held the top job of Artistic Director as well as hosted the week long contest.
The entirety of Italy tunes in every year to the popular festival, as well as its new-artist festival Sanremo Giovani, which Amadeus has hosted since 2019 and was a judge for in 2016.
Amadeus announced his intention on ending his soon to be five year run on Sanremo to FQ Magazine, saying that he felt working on five contests in a row was a lot and that he was honored to have matched the five year accomplishment of Pippins Baudo and Mike Bongiorno.
The contests five editions of Sanremo featuring Amadeus of each produce massively successful singers and songs. Diodato won in 2020 and was seen as a contender for the Eurovision trophy before the cancelation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Måneskin placed first in Rotterdam at the 2021 grand final and went on to have world wide success and bring Eurovision back to Italy after 40 years. Mahmood and Blanco ended at a respectable 6th place in 2022 with Marco Mengoni taking 4th place in 2023.
It was reported by FQ Magazine that Amadeus wants to go big with his last Sanremo and do something never seen before in the over 70 years it’s been televised. He has already raised the number of competitors in previous years, so it is yet to be seen what changes will be made.
There is hope for a return to Sanremo for Amadeus, as he told FQ Magazine that he’d return if asked in a few years and even said he hopes to host alongside Rosario Fiorello one day.
There has been no word on who the 2025 host and artistic director will be, as preparations for the 2024 edition are currently underway.
Watch Marco Mengoni on the 2023 Sanremo stage: