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Festival della canzone italiana

Sanremo Music Festival
(Festival della canzone italiana di Sanremo)
Festival di Sanremo 16 febbraio 2013.JPG
The Teatro Ariston in Sanremo during the last evening of the Festival in 2013
Genre Folk music, pop music, rock music, classical music etc.
Dates February
Location(s) Sanremo, in Italy
Years active 1951–present
Website
Official website
Music of Italy
General topics
Genres
Media and performance
Music awards
Music charts
Music festivals
Music media Music media in Italy
Nationalistic and patriotic songs
National anthem "Il Canto degli Italiani"
Regional music

The Festival della canzone italiana di Sanremo (in English: Italian song festival of Sanremo) is the most popular Italian song contest and awards, held annually in the city of Sanremo, in Italy, and consisting of a competition amongst previously unreleased songs. Usually referred to as Festival di Sanremo, or outside Italy as Sanremo Music Festival or Sanremo Music Festival Award, it was the inspiration for the Eurovision Song Contest.

It is the music equivalent to the Premio Regia Televisiva for television, the Premio Ubu for stage performances, and the Premio David di Donatello for motion pictures, but with a longer history and contest associated with.

The first edition of the Sanremo Music Festival, held between 29 and 31 January 1951, was broadcast by RAI's radio station Rete Rossa and its only three participants were Nilla Pizzi, Achille Togliani and Duo Fasano. Starting from 1955 all the editions of the Festival have been broadcast live by the Italian TV station Rai 1.

From 1951 to 1976, the Festival took place in the Sanremo Casino, but starting from 1977, all the following editions were held in the Teatro Ariston, except 1990's one, held at the Nuovo Mercato dei Fiori.

Between 1953 and 1971, except in 1956, each song was sung twice by two different artists, each one using an individual orchestral arrangement, to illustrate the meaning of the festival as a composers' competition, not a singers' competition. During this era of the festival, it was custom that one version of the song was performed by a native Italian artist while the other version was performed by an international guest artist.

The festival is used as the way of choosing the Italian entry to the Eurovision Song Contest and it has launched the careers of some of Italy's most successful singers, including Andrea Bocelli,Paola e Chiara, Giorgia,Laura Pausini,Eros Ramazzotti, and Gigliola Cinquetti.


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