Sanremo 2027: Gialappa's Band to host ControFestival, replacing the DopoFestival

The announcement on Tg1

Stefano De Martino, artistic director and presenter of Sanremo 2027, announced during the 20:00 edition of Tg1 on Thursday, 5 November 2026, that the DopoFestival will not return. In its place a ControFestival will air after the evenings of the Festival, which runs from 16 to 20 February 2027, and the Gialappa's Band will host it. De Martino appeared in a sketch in which he played a Tg1 anchorman announcing the 'disappearance' of the DopoFestival, a fictional gag that was interrupted by the voices of the duo. He was connected from Milan and sat behind the news desk for the segment. Rai presented the ControFestival as the last piece of a multiplatform and multi-programme package covering the period before, during and after the Festival evenings. The change is mostly one of naming rather than structure, because a show will still follow each evening under a different title.

The Gialappa's Band and Sanremo

Giorgio Gherarducci and Marco Santin now work as a duo after Carlo Taranto left the group, and they return to the Festival after more than ten years. The pair hosted the DopoFestival at the Ariston in 2016 and 2017 alongside Nicola Savino. Their link with the Festival dates to 2001, when the trio debuted on Rai Radio2 with 'Rai dire Sanremo', a radio commentary delivered in the group's irreverent style. That programme ran until 2009, and after a break in 2010 the group moved between stations, including Rtl 102.5 and R101, with a different format almost every year. In 2013 it commented on three of the five evenings of 'Stile Libero', and it returned to Rtl 102.5 in 2014 before stopping the following year.

Reported lineup and reaction

Fanpage.it reported that Mago Forest will handle studio hosting and that Paola Iezzi, currently a judge on X Factor, will join the Gialappa's Band on the programme. Those details come from Fanpage.it and were not part of the Tg1 announcement. Fanpage.it also reported that the duo's return would bring the Gialappa Show team, including Mago Forest and his comedians, to the Festival. Fanpage.it had reported on 3 November that De Martino's staff were working to bring the pair back. Before the announcement, Gherarducci and Santin told SuperGuidaTv that De Martino might already have contacted them, or that they were waiting for his call. They also joked that they had commented on the Festival on radio for years, so they did not need an invitation. The Gialappa's Band is the second new name in the Festival's satellite programming after The Jackal, a Neapolitan comic collective named the previous week to lead the PrimaFestival.

Open questions on the Festival lineup

Rai said the names of the co-hosts and the official list of Big singers in competition are still to come in the coming weeks. Fanpage.it reported that the Big announcement may leave the 13:00 Tg1 slot and air in prime time on 11 December, during the Sarà Sanremo broadcast. It also reported the Sanremo Giovani final on the same date as a possible alternative. Fanpage.it further suggested that De Martino may be dropping hints about guests in his game show Affari Tuoi, where artists including Noemi, Stash, Gaia and Serena Brancale have appeared in the weeks before this announcement. None of these lineup reports has been confirmed by Rai.