Stefano De Martino details Sanremo 2027: new Eurovision selection night, fewer competing songs, and a dream invite for Vasco Rossi

The new five-night format

Stefano De Martino, named artistic director and host for both 2027 and 2028, revealed the structure during the Rai palinsesti event in Ancona. The festival will open on Tuesday 16 February at the Teatro Ariston and close with the grand final on Saturday 20 February. The middle night, Thursday, remains the traditional cover evening. But the biggest innovation comes on Friday, which De Martino calls the "serata performance".

The Friday night will determine a winner who will represent Italy at Eurovision.

Fewer songs, more focus on artists

De Martino confirmed that the number of competing entries will drop from the 30 featured in the last edition. "The idea is to reduce the number to give breathing space to the performances and the storytelling of the Festival, above all to focus more on the artists," he said. Early submissions already show a wide range: "There's really everything. A lot of new Italian music is coming, many new singer-songwriters, a great return to played music, and many performers."

There are many different realities that I hope to bring to the Ariston stage.

He also teased a change to the "Nuove Proposte" section for emerging talents, calling it "a surprise" and delaying details.

Eurovision selection on Friday

Friday's performance night will be a contest within the contest. All artists will re-propose their competition song but stage it as a full live-show concept, drawing on their personal aesthetic and concert experience. The winner of that evening earns the ticket to the Eurovision Song Contest. De Martino framed the night as a deliberate step toward internationalising the Festival. "Studying Sanremo, I realised it is the only event so substantial entirely dedicated to music. For five nights a country stops to listen to songs. That is extremely romantic and says a lot about Italian culture."

The idea is to let Europe and the world peek a little more at Sanremo.

International guests and Vasco Rossi

Rai is already working to bring "international guests" to the Ariston, De Martino confirmed, with names to be announced later. On the prospect of luring Vasco Rossi, who will mark 50 years of his career in the Jubilee year, De Martino offered an open invitation: "He has the keys to the Ariston; when he wants, he comes in. Having him would be a dream."

A generational handover

De Martino takes over from Carlo Conti, who the Rai CEO Giampaolo Rossi described in the same press conference as "an act of generational trust." De Martino said he feels "very happy" and "invested with the trust" he received, adding, "I hope to repay it with a lot of effort. I hope they didn't get it wrong." Preparation, he noted, is already well underway because Conti gave him the role early, allowing his team to "start grinding and building the framework of the machine" as soon as the previous festival ended.