Sanremo Giovani 2026 adopts single-winner rule: only one artist will go straight to the Campioni of the 2027 Festival

The new rule

Stefano De Martino, artistic director of the Festival di Sanremo 2027, has overhauled the Sanremo Giovani competition. For the first time since 2019, only one winner will be proclaimed at the end of the selection process, and that artist will enter directly into the Campioni category of the 2027 Festival. The regulation will be published online on 7 August 2026, with registrations opening on 17 August. Rai described the change as a move to make the pathway "more competitive and prestigious".

The project confirms itself as a privileged laboratory for the discovery and promotion of emerging talent, but with a novelty destined to make the journey even more competitive and prestigious: at the end of the selection, a single winner will be proclaimed who will enter directly into the Campioni category of the Festival di Sanremo 2027.

Selection process

From the submitted songs, the Musical Commission will choose 60 artists for live auditions. Those auditions will produce 15 participants from Sanremo Giovani, who will be joined by 15 artists from Area Sanremo, creating a pool of 30 young talents. A further round of live auditions will take place in Sanremo over two weekends, with De Martino present. From these, six finalists will emerge: three from Sanremo Giovani and three from Area Sanremo.

Before the decisive evening, each finalist will perform on a prime time Rai 1 show, giving them national television exposure. The final will be broadcast live on Rai 1 from the Casino di Sanremo on 18 December 2026. The Musical Commission will then select the single winner, who will secure a place among the Campioni at the 2027 Festival, scheduled from Tuesday 16 to Saturday 20 February 2027.

Before the decisive challenge, the six artists will have the opportunity to make themselves known to the general public through a special editorial promotion activity: they will perform during as many episodes of an important prime time television appointment on Rai 1, bringing their music to the flagship Rai network in a context of extraordinary visibility.

Historical context

The single-winner format revives a mechanism last used by former artistic director Claudio Baglioni in the 2019 edition. In December 2018, the two winners of Sanremo Giovani, Mahmood and Einar, both gained direct entry to the Big category for the 2019 Festival. Mahmood went on to win the main event with "Soldi", beating the pre-festival favourite Ultimo. Subsequent artistic directors expanded the number of promotions: Amadeus allowed three winners to advance in 2022 (including Tananai with "Sesso occasionale"), then six in 2023, before returning to three in 2024. Carlo Conti maintained the multi-winner approach. De Martino's decision to cut back to a single winner is seen as part of a broader effort to streamline the main competition, which had grown to as many as 30 Campioni in recent years.

City council approval

The municipality of Sanremo has formally endorsed the changes. The city council approved a resolution to implement Rai's proposal, which modifies the organisational model of Area Sanremo on an experimental basis. For the first time, Area Sanremo contestants who reach the final phase will perform on television, on Rai 1 in prime time, before the December final. Mayor Alessandro Mager and tourism assessor Alessandro Sindoni were involved in the discussions through the festival's permanent observatory. The administration stated that the new mechanism will give greater visibility to the Area Sanremo brand and its participants.

What comes next

The full regulation goes online on 7 August, and the submission platform opens ten days later. The live audition phases will unfold through the autumn, with the six finalists revealed after the Sanremo weekends. Their Rai 1 appearances will then build momentum toward the 18 December final, where one artist will earn the right to stand alongside Italy's biggest names on the Ariston stage in February 2027.