| Sanremo Music Festival | |
| Year: | 2025 |
| Theme: | Italian: Tutti cantano Sanremo |
| Venue: | Italian: [[Teatro Ariston]]|i=no Sanremo, Liguria, Italy |
| Presenters: | Carlo Conti |
| Artistic Director: | Carlo Conti |
| Final: | 15 February 2025 |
| Semi1: | 11 February 2025 |
| Semi2: | 12 February 2025 |
| Semi3: | 13 February 2025 |
| Semi4: | 14 February 2025 |
| Section1: | Big Artists section |
| Entries1: | 24 |
| Vote1: | Televote, press jury and radio jury |
| Section2: | Newcomers' section |
| Entries2: | 4 |
| Vote2: | Televote, press jury and radio jury |
The Sanremo Music Festival 2025 (Italian: Festival di Sanremo 2025), officially the 75th Italian Song Festival (Italian: 75º Festival della canzone italiana), is set to be the 75th edition of the annual Sanremo Music Festival, a television song contest held at the Italian: [[Teatro Ariston]]|i=no in Sanremo, organised and broadcast by RAI. It is scheduled to be held between 11 and 15 February 2025 and presented by Carlo Conti, who will also serve as the artistic director for the competition.[1] [2]
As has been the case since 2015, the winner of the festival will earn the right of first refusal to represent in the Eurovision Song Contest 2025.[3]
RAI initially announced that the contest would be held from 4 to 8 February 2025. The dates were later changed to 11–15 February as they overlapped with the quarter finals of Italian: [[Coppa Italia]]|i=no, broadcast on Mediaset channels.[2] [4]
In June 2024, it was announced that the Sanremo 2025 stage will be designed by Riccardo Bocchini, the same designer of the 2015, 2016 and 2017 editions.[5]
In June 2023, Amadeus, Sanremo's host and artistic director from 2020, announced that he would step down from his position after 2024.[6] Despite proposals by RAI to remain for 2025,[7] Amadeus confirmed during a press conference on 5 February 2024 that the 2024 edition would be his final time in the role.[8]
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.[9] [10]
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 2018, and that of the special Italian: DopoFestival broadcast after each of the shows, which will be reduced in length compared to previous editions; the "cover night" will be retained, and once again none of the entries will be eliminated before the final.[11] [12]
The complete rules were published on 20 August. It was confirmed that the number of entries would decrease from 30 to 24, and the only change to the voting system was that the results of the "cover night" would not be added to the score obtained on the other shows.[3]
Voting will occur again through the combination of three methods:
Their voting will be articulated as follows:
The four artists competing in the Newcomers' section will be determined through the Italian: Sanremo Giovani format, with the contestants, aged 16 to 26, being selected via a standard selection and the separate Italian: Area Sanremo competition. The contest will be held from 12 November to 18 December 2024, and will take place in three stages:[13]
Online submissions for the standard selection are open between 10 July and 8 October 2024. At least 40 acts will be selected by a musical committeecomposed of professionals and chaired by the artistic director (Conti)to take part to an audition round in Rome, where 24 artists will be selected to compete.[13]
Italian: Area Sanremo will be an internal selection whereby the musical committee will choose two artists to take part in the final of Italian: Sanremo Giovani.[13]
The contest will feature a Big Artists section and a Newcomers' section. A total of 24 entries will compete in the former, which will be selected by the artistic director both from public submissions and by direct invitation;[1] [11] [14] 4 acts, as determined through the Italian: Sanremo Giovani format, will compete in the latter.[13] 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.[15]
All 24 artists will perform their competing songs. The top 5 will be announced in a random order.[1]
Twelve of the competing artists will perform their competing songs for a second time. The top 5 will be announced in a random order.[1]
The remaining twelve artists will perform their competing songs for a second time. The top 5 will be announced in a random order.[1]
The artists each will perform an Italian or international song from the past (or a medley thereof), duetting with one or more guest performers. Unlike the previous years, a winner of the night will be proclaimed, rather than adding the results to the overall score.[1]
All 24 artists will perform their competing songs. The top 5 artists of the combined rankings of this and the first three shows will advance to the superfinal. Here they will get to perform their song for a second time, while juries and televote will vote to determine the winner.[1]
Rai 1 and Rai Radio 2 will bring the official broadcasts of the festival in Italy. The five evenings will also be streamed online via the broadcaster's official online platform RaiPlay.