The Sanremo Music Festival 2025 (), officially the 75th Italian Song Festival (), was the 75th edition of the annual Sanremo Music Festival, a television song contest held at the in Sanremo, organised and broadcast by (RAI). It was held between 11 and 15 February 2025 and presented by Carlo Conti, who also served as the artistic director for the competition. The festival was won by Olly with "", earning him the right of first refusal to represent in the Eurovision Song Contest 2025; however, he ultimately declined the opportunity in favour of runner-up Lucio Corsi with "".
RAI initially announced that the contest would be held from 4 to 8 February 2025. The dates were later changed to 11âÂÂ15 February as they overlapped with the quarter-finals of , broadcast on Mediaset channels.
In June 2023, Amadeus, Sanremo's host and artistic director from 2020, announced that he would step down from his position after 2024. Despite proposals by RAI to remain for 2025, Amadeus confirmed during a press conference on 5 February 2024 that the 2024 edition would be his final time in the role.
On 22 May 2024, RAI announced Carlo Contiwho had previously taken on the role in 2015, 2016 and 2017as the artistic director and main host of the 2025 and 2026 editions. In October 2024, Conti announced that the special broadcast after each of the shows would be hosted by Alessandro Cattelan. The following month, Cattelan was announced as one of the co-hosts of the final night of the festival. In mid-January 2025, the complete line-up of the hosts was announced, which includes: Antonella Clerici (2005 co-host and 2010 host) and Gerry Scotti on the first night; Bianca Balti, Cristiano Malgioglio and Nino Frassica on the second night; Miriam Leone, Elettra Lamborghini and Katia Follesa on the third night; Mahmood (2019 and 2022 winner) and Geppi Cucciari on the fourth night; Alessia Marcuzzi in addition to Cattelan on the final. In late December 2024, the hosts of , the introductory segment aired before each of the nights and during the opening red carpet, were announced to be Bianca Guaccero, Gabriele Corsi and Mariasole Pollio; comedy duo was added to the cast on 3 February 2025.
In June 2024, it was announced that the Sanremo 2025 stage would be designed by Riccardo Bocchini, the same designer of the 2015, 2016 and 2017 editions.
The official musical theme of the festival, "", was composed by Gabry Ponte and was released on 31 January 2025.
On 13 June 2024, Conti announced the first changes in the rules and the organisation of the contest: these include the reintroduction of the separate Newcomers' section, which was last featured in 2021, and that of , which would be reduced in length compared to previous editions; the "cover night" was retained, and once again none of the entries was eliminated before the final.
The complete rules were published on 20 August. It was initially confirmed that the number of entries would decrease from 30 to 24. As for the voting system, the results of the "cover night" would not be added to the score obtained on the other shows. On the final night, after the top five songs have been announced, there would be another round of voting, but unlike previous years, the results would then be added to the overall score. The song with the highest overall score would win the contest. In November, Conti announced that the number of entries would instead be higher than 24, as well as clarifying that competing artists would be able to duet with each other during the "cover night"; the entries were ultimately revealed to be 30 as in the previous edition.
Voting occurred again through the combination of three methods:
Their voting was articulated as follows:
The four artists competing in the Newcomers' section were determined through the format, with the contestants, aged 16 to 26, being selected via a standard selection and the separate competition. The contest was held from 12 November to 18 December 2024, and took place in three stages:
Online submissions for the standard selection were open between 10 July and 8 October 2024. On 17 October 2024, it was announced that 564 acts had applied, 46 of which were selected by a musical committeecomposed of professionals Ema Stokholma, , Manola Moslehi, and Daniele Battaglia, and chaired by the artistic director (Conti) with RAI director to take part in an audition round in Rome on 23 October, where 24 artists were selected to compete. Their songs were released on 31 October 2024.
The rules of the selection, organised by the Municipality of Sanremo alongside the Sanremo Symphonic Orchestra Foundation, were released on 3 September 2024, with the opening of an online application platform lasting until 18 October 2024. The 336 submitting acts were auditioned by a musical committee between 16 and 21 November 2024 at the Sanremo , with the 24 qualifiers from this phase attending a final round on 22 November; there, ten winners were proclaimed, among whom two finalists were selected on 23 November. The choice was revealed on 10 December, during the semi-final.
The contest featured a Big Artists section and a Newcomers' section. The entries competing in the former were selected by the artistic director both from public submissions and by direct invitation, and were announced on 1 December 2024; the number of entries, originally planned to be 24, was later announced to be higher and finally revealed to be 30. Four acts, as determined through the format, competed in the latter section. The titles of the Big Artists' entries were announced during , a special broadcast of 18 December 2024 in which the final was included.
Upon the announcement of the new artistic director, Italian consumers association issued a statement requesting that Conti establish a professional committee to select the competing entries, to ensure that they meet musical standards and that their selection is not based on the artists' "number of social media followers, web views or temporary fame deriving from their participation in singing talent shows", as well as the inclusion of a Codacons representative in each phase of the preparations in order to guarantee public transparency. However, this was not granted, and shortly before the announcement of the competing artists, Codacons filed a complaint to RAI over some of the rumoured participants, requesting that any songs featuring "wrong, miseducative or dangerous messages" be banned from the festival.
On 29 January 2025, Emis Killa, who was among the selected entrants with the song "", announced his intention to withdraw from the competition due to legal issues. RAI stated that he would not be replaced.
All 29 artists performed their competing songs. The top 5 were announced in a random order.
Fifteen of the competing artists performed their competing songs for a second time. The top 5 were announced in a random order.
The night was opened by the Newcomers' semi-final.
The remaining fourteen artists performed their competing songs for a second time. The top 5 were announced in a random order.
The night was closed by the Newcomers' final.
The artists each performed an Italian or international song from the past (or a medley thereof), duetting with each other or with one or more guest performers. A winner for the night was proclaimed, but, unlike previous years, the results for the night were not added to the overall score. During the night, only the top 10 were announced.
All 29 artists performed their competing songs. The top 5 artists of the combined rankings of this and the first three shows advanced to the superfinal, where the juries and televote determined the winner.
Special guests included:
In addition, special lifetime achievement awards were handed to Iva Zanicchi (a decades-long recurring contestant and three-time winner of the festival) and Antonello Venditti on the third and fifth night, respectively, and a tribute to late pianist Ezio Bosso was included in the opening night.
Rai 1 and Rai Radio 2 brought the official broadcasts of the festival in Italythe latter with commentary by and Ema Stokholma. The five evenings were also streamed online via the broadcaster's official online platform RaiPlay.
Outside Italy, RAI aired the festival on its international channel Rai Italia and made the RaiPlay broadcast available worldwide, including all member countries of the European Broadcasting Union; the festival, serving as the Italian national final for the Eurovision Song Contest, was also broadcast on the Eurovision network.