Sanremo Festival 2026: Eros Ramazzotti, Alicia Keys and Laura Pausini on the Ariston Stage

The third installment of the Sanremo festival provided viewers with a spectacle combining a sentimental journey into the past with modern entertainment accents. The highlight of the program was the anniversary of Eros Ramazzotti, who returned to the Ariston Theatre exactly forty years after his victory with the song "Adesso tu". The artist did not hide his emotion while performing his generational anthem, and then invited American star Alicia Keys to the stage. Their joint performance of the song "L'aurora" became an instant social media hit, even though the live broadcast had to be interrupted for a moment. A serious technical failure forced the artistic director, Carlo Conti, to order an unexpected commercial break, which sparked a wave of online comments. After returning to air, Keys delighted the audience with a performance of "Empire State of Mind", dedicating the song to the Italian capital of song. The next significant moment was Laura Pausini's performance. The vocalist, supported by the Piccolo Coro dell'Antoniano, presented an interpretation of "Heal the World". It was a strong pacifist message directed at world leaders in an era of escalating armed conflicts. Pausini also showed a sense of humor in her interaction with Irina Shayk, jokingly commenting on the height of the model's heels and eventually changing her own shoes for comfortable slippers right on stage. Shayk herself, while stunningly beautiful, received mixed reviews. Some commentators considered her presence a "missed opportunity" due to her sparse remarks and avoidance of political topics, including the issue of the war in Ukraine. The Sanremo Italian Song Festival, inaugurated in 1951, is the oldest and most prestigious music competition in Europe, serving as the direct inspiration for the creation of the Eurovision Song Contest. The comedic layer of the evening belonged to Virginia Raffaele and Fabio De Luigi, who, as supposed multi-instrumentalists, provoked bursts of laughter with a series of planned blunders. Vincenzo De Lucia, in turn, presented a brilliant imitation of Laura Pausini, leading to a funny meeting of "two Pausinis" in front of the cameras. However, there was no shortage of controversy related to Belen Rodriguez's performance; the media widely criticized her glaring lack of synchronization with the backing track, suggesting misuse of playback. In the competition part of the evening, the highest recognition in the combined voting of TV viewers and radio jurors went to Arisa, Sayf, Luchè, Serena Brancale, and Sal Da Vinci. Particularly Arisa's performance with the song "Magica favola" and Sal Da Vinci's emotional presentation strengthened their positions as favorites for the final victory in Saturday's finale. „A 40 anni di 'Adesso tu', speriamo che le cose nel mondo cambino presto.” — Eros Ramazzotti The evening closed with social and local accents. Carlo Conti recalled the story of Paolo Sarullo, a young man who survived a brutal assault, promoting a message of forgiveness and hope. This event, like the entire third day of the festival, showed that Sanremo remains not only a song contest but, above all, a national platform for manifesting values and community in difficult times.