The Sanremo Music Festival 2018 (), officially the 68th Italian Song Festival (), was the 68th annual Sanremo Music Festival, a television song contest held in the Teatro Ariston of Sanremo and organised and broadcast by (RAI). The show was presented by Claudio Baglioni, who also served as the artistic director, with Michelle Hunziker and Pierfrancesco Favino.
The competition was divided in two sections. The winners of the Big Artists section were Ermal Meta and Fabrizio Moro with "", who thus earned the right to represent in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. The Newcomers' sections was won by Ultimo with the song "".
Singer-songwriter and musician, Claudio Baglioni, was the main host and artistic director of Sanremo Music Festival 2018, alongside co-hosts Michelle Hunziker and Pierfrancesco Favino.
Voting during the five evenings occurred through different combinations of four methods:
The three voting systems had a percentage weight so distributed:
In the final part of the fifth evening, a new rank indicating the first three acts -determined by the percentage of votes obtained in this evening's vote and those obtained in previous evenings- was drawn up.
The artists competing in the Newcomers' section were selected through two separate contests: Sanremo Giovani and Area Sanremo.
On October 31, 2017, Rai Commission for Sanremo Music Festival 2018 announced a list of 650 acts, but only 68 artists coming from all Italian regionsexcluding Basilicata and Valle d'Aostaand from abroad were selected in the first phase.
On November 10, 2017, Rai Commission announced the sixteen finalists.
On December 15, 2017, the sixteen finalists performed their songs at Villa Ormond in Sanremo, with the show SarÃÂ Sanremo broadcast on Rai 1 presented by Claudia Gerini and Federico Russo. The six selected by the jury were added to the two entries of Area Sanremo, for a total of eight young emerging artists in the category of the Newcomers' section of the Sanremo Music Festival 2018. Lorenzo Baglioni, Mudimbi, Eva, Mirkoeilcane, Giulia Casieri and Ultimo were chosen as contestants of the Newcomers' section of the Sanremo Music Festival 2018.
After the auditions, RAI Commission -composed by Massimo Cotto, Stefano Senardi, Antonio Vandoni, Maurizio Caridi and Maurilio Giordana; plus the participation of Franco Zanetti and Amara- identified 8 finalists for the competition among the 145 acts:
The Big Artists section of the contest will revert to 20 artists, after briefly going up to 22 last year. Unlike in previous years, there will be no eliminations during the four weeknight shows. All the artists will perform several times and will be scored during the week, but they will all advance to the final night.
The 20 Big Artists each performed their song for the first time.
The first ten Big Artists each performed their song again and the first four Newcomers each performed their song for the first time.
The other ten Big Artists each performed their song for the second time and the other four Newcomers each performed their song for the first time.
The 20 Big Artists performed their songs as duets and the eight Newcomers also performed their songs again.
The 20 Big Artists will again each perform their entry for a final time. The top three will face a superfinal vote, then the winner of Sanremo 2018 will be decided.
The special guests of Sanremo Music Festival 2018 were:
Sergio Assisi and Melissa Greta Marchetto present Primafestival, a small show on air on Rai 1 immediately after TG1. The show features details, curiosities and news relating to Sanremo Music Festival 2018.
Edoardo Leo and Carolina Di Domenico, with the participation of Sabrina Impacciatore, Rolando Ravello, Paolo Genovese, Rocco Tanica and a group of journalists of Italian press, presents ...tanto siamo tra amici al Dopofestival, a talk show on air on Rai 1 immediately after Sanremo Music Festival. The show features comments about the Festival as well as interviews to the singers competing in the song contest.
Rai 1 and Rai Radio 2 are the official broadcasters of the festival in Italy. The show is also available in streaming via website on Rai Play.
The audience is referred to the one of Rai 1.
The international television service Rai Italia broadcast the competition in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Australia. The contest will be broadcast in Albania by RTSH and Russia by Vremya. The contest is also visible via website on Eurovision.