Italian national broadcaster RAI has announced the participants in the Campioni category of the Sanremo Festival 2018. Among the twenty acts are four artists that took part in the Eurovision Song Contest before.
Nina Zilli is the artist who represented Italy most recently. She came eighth in 2012 with ‘L’amore è femmina’. Enrico Ruggeri, the lead singer of Decibel, came twelfth in 1993 with ‘Sole d’Europa’, Luca Barbarossa took part in 1988 and also came twelfth ‘Ti Scrivo’. Riccardo Fogli respresented Italy in 1983 with the song ‘Per Lucia’ and finished in eleventh place.
The twenty participants in the 2018 Campioni category are:
Roby Facchinetti e Riccardo Fogli – “Il segreto del tempo” (The secret of time)
Nina Zilli – “Senza appartenere” (Without belonging)
The Kolors – “Frida”
Diodato and Rosy Paci – “Adesso” (Now)
Mario Biondi – “Rivederti” (Seeing you again)
Luca Barbarossa – “Passame er sale” (Pass me the salt)
Lo stato sociale – “Una vita in vacanza” (A life on holiday)
Annalisa – “Il mondo prima di te” (The world before you)
Giovanni Caccamo – “Eterno” (Eternal)
Enzo Avitabile and P. Servillo – “Il coraggio di ogni giorno” (The courage of every day)
Ornalla Vanoni, Bungaro and Pacifico – “Imparare ad amarsi” (Learning to love oneself)
Renzo Rubino – “Custodire” (Cherish)
Noemi – “Non smettere mai di cercarmi” (Never stop looking for me)
Ermal Meta e Fabrizio Moro – “Non mi avete fatto niente” (You never did anything to me)
Le vibrazioni – “Così sbagliato” (So wrong)
Ron – Almeno pensami” (At least think of me)
Max Gazzè – “La leggenda di Cristalda e Pizzomunno” (The legend of Cristalda and Pizzomunno)
Decibel – “Fuori dal tempo” (Outside of time)
Red Canzian – “Ognuno ha il suo racconto” (Everyone has their story)
Elio e le storie tese – “Arrivederci” (Goodbye)
Sanremo takes place in early February
The 68th edition of the Sanremo Festival will take place from February 6 – 10 in the Ariston Theatre in Sanremo. The winner of the Campioni Category receives the right to represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest. However they are not obliged to take part in Eurovision, as seen in 2016 when Stadio declined to participate in the contest.
Should the winner decide not to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest, broadcaster RAI will decide out of the other 19 participating acts who will be the Italian entrant.