ITALY – Italy will host the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Turin, having won the previous edition with “Zitti e buoni” by Mรฅneskin.
Soon after their victory, Italian broadcaster RAI announced that the winning performer(s) of the Sanremo Music Festival 2022 will earn the right to represent the nation at the contest.
As both the host country and a member of the “Big Five”, Italy automatically qualifies in the final.
Italian broadcaster RAI confirmed that the performer that would represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 would be selected from the competing artists at the Sanremo Music Festival 2022, the 72nd edition of the event.
According to the rules of Sanremo 2022, the winner of the festival earns the right to represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest, but in case the artist is not available or refuses the offer, the organisers of the event reserve the right to choose another participant via their own criteria.
The competition will take place between 1 and 5 February 2022 with the winner being selected on the last day of the festival.
For the third year in a row, Amadeus will serve as the artistic director and presenter of Sanremo, and will be joined on stage in one of the shows by Fiorello. 24 artists, two of which directly qualify from the newcomers’ section Sanremo Giovani (to be held on 15 December 2021), will compete in the festival. This will take place over the course of five consecutive nights, articulated as follows:
- On each of the first two nights, 12 of the entrants will perform their songs and will be judged by three separate panels from a jury of journalists.
- On the third night, all of the songs will be performed and voted through a 50/50 split system by means of televoting and a demoscopic jury. The results will be combined with those of the previous nights.
- On the fourth night, the contestants will each perform a cover of a song from the 60s, 70s or 80s, and will be voted by the same system used on the first three nights.
- On the last night, the 24 entries will once again be performed, going through televoting alone, to be added up to the results obtained that far; ultimately, a final voting round (again a sum of televoting and the two juries) will be held among the top 3, which will determine the winner.
