Sanremo Festival: all about the history and origins of a legendary Italian event

Sanremo is now known as the "City of Flowers and Song", but its name derives from the dialectal pronunciation of its patron saint "San Romolo". An otherwise quiet town on the Riviera dei Fiori, during the week of the "Kermesse" it transforms into a global stage. The Festival is also increasingly becoming a cultural phenomenon: publicity, slogans, high-profile protests, big-name guests, celebrities and gossip all contribute to creating the unique atmosphere of the event. On the streets of Sanremo, it's common to bump into the big names, take part in live TV shows, and get caught up in reality TV.

The idea for a song contest focusing on Italian music, following similar events in the 1930s and 1940s, came from Angelo Nicola Amato, director of events and public relations at the Sanremo Casino, and Angelo Nizza, a radio presenter, while Pier Bussetti and Giulio Razzi put together the rules for the event: the first Sanremo Italian Song Festival was born.

The first edition of the Festival was held in Sanremo in 1951, in the Casino Theatre (which played host until 1976). In the first edition, three performers took it in turns to sing the 20 songs in the competition: Nilla Pizzi, Achille Togliani and the Duo Fasano. The winner was Grazie dei fiori, performed by Nilla Pizzi.

In the post-war period, songs such as Grazie dei fiori and Vola colomba – with which Nilla Pizzi won the first two festivals in 1951 and 1952 – were the image of an Italy that was getting back on its feet. Non ho l'età by Gigliola Cinquetti (1964) and Zingara (1969) by Iva Zanicchi described a country that had learned to enjoy life again.

Tragedy struck in 1967: Luigi Tenco, who was not admitted to the final with his song "Ciao amore ciao", was found dead in room 209 of the Hotel Savoy on 27 January 1967.

The events held up until 1954 were broadcast only on the radio, but soon the festival became a television event broadcast on Eurovision by Raiuno.
From 1955 onwards, even those who were not lucky enough to be in Sanremo could watch the festival. That year, it was broadcast live on television for the first time, and Claudio Villa won with the song "Buongiorno tristezza".

The most famous Italian song in the world, "Nel blu dipinto di blu" (or "Volare"), debuted in 1958 on the Sanremo Festival stage, sung by Domenico Modugno and Johnny Dorelli, and won.

In 1975, the Sanremo Festival was broadcast in colour for the first time on all Eurovision television channels, although Rai, the event's television producer, still broadcast it in black and white. From that point, it was finally possible to see the colours of Sanremo's wonderful flowers.

The event was held at the Casino Theatre until 1976, then moved to the Ariston Theatre in 1977, except in 1990, when the PalaFiori of the new Flower Market in the Armea valley, in the hamlet of Bussana, was chosen to mark the 40th edition.

Since 2010, thanks to the Festival, Sanremo has joined the group of 22 Italian cities that are part of the special edition of Monopoly Italia.

Liguria has won the festival six times: Matia Bazar (1979 and 2002), Toto Cutugno (1980), Ricchi e Poveri (1985), Alexia (2002) and Olly (2025) with the song Balorda nostalgia.

After years of decline, the 1990s marked a moment of triumph for the Sanremo Festival in Italian society: the opening theme song for the 1995 and 1996 events, "Perché Sanremo è Sanremo" ("Why Sanremo is Sanremo"), became a catchphrase, a way of defining the festival that is popular to this day. Under the direction of Pippo Baudo, "new voices" emerged, such as Laura Pausini (winner of the Youth category in 1993), Biagio Antonacci, Andrea Bocelli and Giorgia, who won the Sanremo Festival in 1995.

The editions hosted by Pippo Baudo (thirteen) and Mike Bongiorno (eleven), to whom a statue stands in the centre of Sanremo, are particularly memorable. Two Ligurians on stage in 1999: Fabio Fazio and Nobel Prize winner for medicine, Renato Dulbecco.

In the 2018 and 2019 editions, under the artistic direction and leadership of Claudio Baglioni, the maximum length of the songs was increased from three and a half minutes to four. This improves the quality of the songs in the competition.

 Amadeus' hosting, from 2020 to 2024, has revolutionised the format with a balanced mix of old favourites and new talent. It has been a great success, but has also set an unwanted record: the 2021 festival was marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, with the event being broadcast without a live audience due to the containment measures in place in early 2021.