The Sanremo Music Festival 2020 (), officially the 70th Italian Song Festival (), was the 70th edition of the annual Sanremo Music Festival, a television song contest held at the Teatro Ariston of Sanremo and organised and broadcast by (RAI). The show was held between 4 and 8 February 2020 and was presented by Amadeus, who also served as the artistic director for the competition, alongside Fiorello.
The competition was divided in two sections. The winner of the Big Artists section was Diodato with the song "", while Leo Gassmann won the Newcomers' section with "". As a result of his victory, Diodato earned the right to represent in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 before that event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic; he subsequently performed "" in the non-competitive replacement show '.
The 2020 edition of the Sanremo Music Festival took place at the Teatro Ariston in Sanremo, organized by the Italian public broadcaster RAI. The artistic director and the presenter for the competition was Amadeus.
On 2 August 2019, RAI officially confirmed Amadeus as the presenter of the 70th edition of the Sanremo Music Festival. Together with Amadeus, ten co-hosts alternated during the five evenings: Laura Chimenti, Antonella Clerici, Emma D'Aquino, Rula Jebreal, Diletta Leotta, Francesca Sofia Novello, Georgina RodrÃÂguez, Sabrina Salerno, Alketa Vejsiu and Mara Venier. Actress Monica Bellucci was set to participate as special guest, but she quit two weeks before the festival started.
Voting occurred through the combination of four methods:
Voting during the five evenings:
The artists competing in the Newcomers' section were selected through two separate contests: Sanremo Giovani and Area Sanremo.
On 23 October 2019, Rai Commission for Sanremo Music Festival 2020 announced a list of 842 acts, but only 65 artists coming from all Italian regions -excluding Basilicata and Valle d'Aosta- and from abroad were selected in the first phase.
On 3 November 2019, the jury of Sanremo Festival 2020 selected the 20 semi-finalists. The selection was followed by a subsequent skimming during four episodes of the daytime show Italia sì, hosted by Marco Liorni, in which the artists and their entries were presented and the 10 finalists were selected.
On 19 December 2019, the ten finalists performed their songs at Sanremo Casino in Sanremo, with the show Sanremo Giovani 2019 broadcast on Rai 1 presented by Amadeus. The evening is divided into 5 duels, the five selected by the jury, televote, music commission and demoscopic jury were added to the two entries of Area Sanremo and Sanremo Young's winner, for a total of eight young emerging artists in the category of the Newcomers' section of the Sanremo Music Festival 2020. Leo Gassmann, Fadi, Marco Sentieri, Fasma and Eugenio in Via Di Gioia were chosen as contestants of the Newcomers' section of the Sanremo Music Festival 2020.
After the auditions, RAI Commission - composed by Massimo Cotto, Vittorio De Scalzi, Teresa De Sio, Andrea "Andy" Fumagalli and Petra Magoni; plus the participation of Gianni Testa - identified 8 finalists for the competition among the 750 acts:
The Big Artists section of the contest will see the participation of 24 artists. All the artists performed several times and were scored during the week, but every competing artist advanced to the final night.
The first twelve Big Artists each performed their song and the first four Newcomers each performed their song for the first time in two matches, two for each one.
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The other twelve Big Artists each performed their song and the other four Newcomers each performed their song for the first time.
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All the twenty-four Big Artists each performed a song that are part of the history of the Sanremo Music Festival. In this case, the artists can choose whether or not to be accompanied by Italian or foreign guests.
All the twenty-four Big Artists each performed once again their songs. Also, the winner of the 4 remaining songs in the Newcomers section was determined.
During the evening, Bugo & Morgan were disqualified for failing to deliver their performance.
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The 23 Big Artists each performed their entry for a final time. The top three then faced a superfinal vote, where the winner was decided.
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The special guests of Sanremo Music Festival 2020 were:
Rai 1 and Rai Radio 2 carried the official broadcasts of the festival in Italy. The five evenings were also streamed online via the broadcaster's official website RaiPlay.
The audience is referred to that of Rai 1.
The international television service Rai Italia broadcast the competition in the Americas, Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe. The contest was also streamed via the official Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.tv. Omni Television broadcast all five shows in Canada on a delay from February 10 to the 14th. RTSH, TVR and RTCG also broadcast Sanremo 2020.