With 5 nights of shows and 4 different ways to vote, all with different percentage bearings, a lot goes into picking the winner for Sanremo. This is all you need to know about the 2018 competition, how the voting is going to work, and who is in the running to represent Italy in Lisbon.
For many years, the winner of Sanremo has been eligible to be chosen as the Italian representative for Eurovision, and this year is no exception. The representative for 2018 will be the winner of the ‘Big Artists’ category at the Sanremo Festival.
Voting
There is a combination of 4 different voting methods that are used throughout the Sanremo festival, and these are:
- Public voting (carried out via landline, mobile, contest website or official mobile app)
- Press Jury voting (accredited journalists cast their votes and they follow the competition from the Roof Hall at Teatro Ariston)
- A demoscopic poll (a sample of 300 music fans are gathered, and their votes are cast via an e-voting system managed by Ipsos)
- Expert Jury voting (people from the world of music, entertainment and culture)
The voting systems will have the following weight distribution:
- 1st, 2nd and 3rd evening: 40% Public voting, 30% demoscopic poll, 30% press jury voting
- 4th and 5th evening: 50% public voting, 30% press jury voting, 20% expert jury voting
Big Artists competing acts
The following acts competing in the ‘Big Artists’ category are eligible to be selected to be the Italian representative at Eurovision in Lisbon:
- Roby Facchinetti & Riccardo Fogli – “Il segreto del tempo” (The secret of time)
- Nina Zilli – “Senza appartenere” (Without belonging)
- The Kolors – “Frida” (Frida)
- Diodato & Roy 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 feat. Peppe Servillo – “Il coraggio di ogni giorno” (The courage of every day)
- Ornella Vanoni feat. Bungaro & 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 & 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 – “Arrivedorci” (Goodbye)
Former Eurovision participants returning to Sanremo
In this list of 20 there are 4 acts that have competed at Eurovision before. Nina Zilli represented Italy with her song L’amore è femmina (Out of Love), she placed 9th overall in the Grand Final. Luca Barbossa represented Italy in 1988 with his song Vivo (Ti scrivo) which translates into English as (Alive, I write to you). He placed 12th out of 21 entries that year. Riccardo Fogli came 11th in 1983 with his song ‘Per Lucia’ and Enrico Ruggeri , the lead singer of Decibel, came 12th in 1993 with the song ‘Sole d’Europa’.
Scores in full
The scores from each night, and each act (in full) are as follows:
Night 1 results
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Night 2 results
| Artist | Draw | Song | Votes | Place | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public (weight 40%) |
Demoscopic Jury (weight 30%) |
Press Jury (weight 30%) |
Average | ||||
| Le Vibrazioni | 1 | “Così sbagliato” | 8th (7.71%) | 6th | 5th | 8.44% | 6th |
| Nina Zilli | 2 | “Senza appartenere” | 7th (8.88%) | 2nd | 8th | 8.95% | 5th |
| Diodato & Roy Paci | 3 | “Adesso” | 5th (9.32%) | 5th | 1st | 13.26% | 4th |
| Elio e le Storie Tese | 4 | “Arrivedorci” | 10th (3.66%) | 8th | 10th | 4.30% | 10th |
| Ornella Vanoni feat. Bungaro & Pacifico | 5 | “Imparare ad amarsi” | 3rd (12.35%) | 4th | 2nd | 13.94% | 2nd |
| Red Canzian | 6 | “Ognuno ha il suo racconto” | 4th (9.59%) | 10th | 8th | 6.49% | 9th |
| Ron | 7 | “Almeno Pensami” | 2nd (14.96%) | 3rd | 3rd | 13.87% | 3rd |
| Renzo Rubino | 8 | “Custodire” | 6th (9.09%) | 9th | 7th | 7.29% | 8th |
| Annalisa | 9 | “Il mondo prima di te” | 1st (17.54%) | 1st | 3rd | 16.10% | 1st |
| Decibel | 10 | “Lettera del Duca” | 9th (6.90%) | 7th | 6th | 7.36% | 7th |
Night 3 results
| Artist | Draw | Song | Votes | Place | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public (weight 40%) |
Demoscopic Jury (weight 30%) |
Press Jury (weight 30%) |
Average | ||||
| Giovanni Caccamo | 1 | “Eterno” | 8th (4.86%) | 7th | 7th | 6.31% | 8th |
| Lo Stato Sociale | 2 | “Una vita in vacanza” | 4th (7.94%) | 1st | 1st | 15.63% | 2nd |
| Luca Barbarossa | 3 | “Passame er sale” | 2nd (12.43%) | 5th | 6th | 10.21% | 4th |
| Enzo Avitabile feat. Peppe Servillo | 4 | “Il coraggio di ogni giorno” | 6th (6.86%) | 9th | 5th | 7.00% | 7th |
| Max Gazzè | 5 | “La leggenda di Cristalda e Pizzomunno” | 5th (7.34%) | 4th | 2nd | 12.08% | 3rd |
| Roby Facchinetti & Riccardo Fogli | 6 | “Il segreto del tempo” | 7th (5.49%) | 10th | 10th | 3.28% | 10th |
| Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro | 7 | “Non mi avete fatto niente” | 1st (41.18%) | 2nd | 3rd | 25.38% | 1st |
| Noemi | 8 | “Non smettere mai di cercarmi” | 9th (2.98%) | 3rd | 8th | 7.34% | 6th |
| The Kolors | 9 | “Frida (Mai Mai Mai)” | 3rd (8.71%) | 6th | 4th | 9.12% | 5th |
| Mario Biondi | 10 | “Rivederti” | 10th (2.21%) | 8th | 9th | 3.65% | 9th |
No scores were given in the penultimate night
Night 5 results (Super final)
| Artist | Draw | Song | Votes | Place | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Demoscopic Jury (weight 30%) |
Press Jury (weight 20%) |
Public (weight 50%) |
Average | ||||
| Annalisa | 1 | “Il mondo prima di te” | 3rd | 1st | 2nd (23,44%) | 26,94% | 3 |
| Lo Stato Sociale | 2 | “Una vita in vacanza” | 1st | 3rd | 3rd (22,10%) | 28,40% | 2 |
| Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro | 3 | “Non mi avete fatto niente” | 2nd | 2nd | 1st (54,41%) | 44,66% | 1 |
Awards
There are a total of 9 awards that are awarded throughout the Sanremo Festival in the big artists category. The awards, and the artists who received them are as follows:
| Award | Artist | Song |
| Winner | Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro | Non mi avete fatto niente |
| Runner up | Lo Stato Sociale | Una vita in vacanza |
| Third classified | Annalisa | Il mondo prima di te |
| Mia Martini award | Ron | Almeno pensami |
| Lucio Dalla Award | Lo Stato Sociale | Una vita in vacanza |
| Sergio Endrigo Award for the best interpretation |
Ornella Vanoni feat. Bungaro & Pacifico | Imparare ad amarsi |
| Giancarlo Bigazzi Award | Max Gazzè | La leggenda di Cristalda e Pizzomunno |
| TIM Music Award | Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro | Non mi avete fatto niente |
| Lunezia Award for the song with best music-letterary value |
Luca Barbarossa | Passame er sale |
2016: Stadio gives the Eurovision ticket to Francesca Michielin
It is the winners of the ‘Big Artists category’ who receive the right to represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest. However, if the winner declines, then the organiser of The San Remo festival reserves the right to select the the Italian entry. In 2016, Stadio won the category with their song “Un giorno mi dirai”, however, they turned down the chance to represent Italy at that years Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm. In the end, that honour was given to the runner up of the category, Francesca Michielin and her song Nessun grado di separazione (No degree of separation).
Last year, Francesco Gabbani won Sanremo with his song Occidentali’s Karma (Westerner’s Karma). He won in 2017, having won the new comers section of the festival the previous year with the song “Amen”.
2018 Sanremo vote share (audience figures from RAI 1)
| Live show | timeslot
(UTC+1) |
Date | 1st time
9PM – 12.00am |
2nd time
12.00am – 1.00am |
Overall audience | |||
| Viewers | % share | Viewers | % share | Viewers | % share | |||
| 1st | 9PM | 6th February | 13,766,000 | 51.4% | 6,624,000 | 55.4% | 11,603,000 | 52.1% |
| 2nd | 9PM | 7th February | 11,458,000 | 46.6% | 5,870,000 | 52.9% | 9,687,000 | 47.7% |
| 3rd | 9PM | 8th February | 12,657,000 | 51.1% | 6,146,000 | 54.4% | 10,825,000 | 51.6% |
| 4th | 9PM | 9th February | 12,246,000 | 49.1% | 6,985,000 | 57.1% | 10,108,000 | 51.1% |
| 5th | 9PM | 10th February | 13,240,000 | 54.0% | 10,404,000 | 69% | 12,125,000 | 58.3% |
Follow Sanremo 2018 at ESCDaily
Stay tuned to ESCDaily for the latest update from the prestigious Sanremo Festival 2018. We will provide you with the results and in-depth analysis of the shows, with the first set of results due on Tuesday night after the first show. We will be updating this article with the results from each night throughout the week, so don’t forget to keep on reading to be up to date with the 2018 results of Sanremo.