And because this is Sanremo, naturally they involve five nights, four different voting systems, three separate prizes, 24 artists, a new international jury and enough percentages to make you reach for the calculator before the Festival has even started.Thankfully, you don’t need one.
Rai has now published the official regulations for the 77th Festival di Sanremo, which will take place at the Teatro Ariston from 16 to 20 February 2027, with Stefano De Martino making his debut as both host and Artistic Director.
We’ve already talked about the biggest headline: Sanremo will now have a separate Serata Performance to choose Italy’s Eurovision representative, meaning the Sanremo winner and the artist heading to Eurovision could be completely different people.
But what about everything else?
Who votes on Tuesday? Does Cover Night still count? What exactly is the Giuria Popolare? Why are the artists performing their songs so many times? And how on earth do we actually get a winner on Saturday?
Here is Sanremo 2027 explained night by night, without the headache.
First: there are 24 artists — and they all compete together
Let’s begin with the easy bit.
Sanremo 2027 will have 24 competing artists, all in one single Campioni category.
Twenty-three will be selected by Stefano De Martino and Rai, while one place is reserved for the winner of Sarà Sanremo 2026, who will move directly into the main Festival competition.
That also means there will be no separate Nuove Proposte competition during Sanremo week.
Instead of emerging artists sitting in their own category, one young performer earns the right to compete directly against the established names.
And unlike some recent editions, where the artists were divided across different evenings, all 24 contestants will appear every night.
Yes. Every night.
Get comfortable.
Before we start: who actually votes at Sanremo 2027?
There are four voting groups you need to know about.
The Giuria Popolare is the public. Importantly, this is no longer just the traditional televote. For 2027, viewers will also be able to vote online for free through RaiPlay.
Then there is the Giuria della Sala Stampa, TV e Web, made up of accredited media covering the Festival.
The Giuria delle Radio represents radio broadcasters.
And finally, there is a brand-new Giuria Internazionale di Esperti, made up of figures from the international music and entertainment industries. This jury appears specifically on Friday’s Serata Performance and helps select Italy’s Eurovision representative.
Got them?
Good.
Now we can survive the week.
Tuesday 16 February: everyone performs, and the press has the most power
Sanremo begins on Tuesday with the first performance of all 24 competing songs.
And unlike previous formats where the opening night could feel like the beginning of a very long introduction, these votes actually matter.
On Tuesday, the result is determined by:
67% — Press, TV and Web Jury 33% — Giuria Popolare
So the media have the biggest say on Night One, but viewers immediately contribute a third of the result.
And remember: the public component now includes both the traditional televote and online voting.
Tuesday’s score is important because it will eventually form part of the accumulated result used to determine who reaches the final stage on Saturday.
In other words: Sanremo starts counting immediately.
Wednesday 17 February: the radio jury takes control
Wednesday brings the same 24 songs back to the Ariston.
But the jury changes.
This time it is:
67% — Radio Jury 33% — Giuria Popolare
The idea is quite simple.
Tuesday asks the press what it thinks.
Wednesday asks radio.
And on both nights, the Italian public gets a significant voice too.
This also means a song that struggles with journalists on Tuesday could potentially recover if radio loves it on Wednesday — and vice versa.
Both results matter towards the main Sanremo competition.
Which takes us to Thursday, when things work very differently.
Thursday 18 February: Cover Night is back — but it cannot help you win Sanremo
Thursday is Cover Night, one of Sanremo’s most loved traditions.
Each of the 24 artists performs a song from the Italian or international repertoire alongside one or more Italian or international guests.
The voting becomes much more evenly balanced:
34% — Giuria Popolare 33% — Press, TV and Web Jury 33% — Radio Jury
At the end of the night, we get a Cover Night winner.
But here is the important part:
none of those votes count towards the main Sanremo ranking.
Cover Night has its own classification and its own winner.
So an artist could absolutely deliver the performance of the entire Festival on Thursday, win Cover Night by a landslide and still have gained precisely zero extra points towards winning Sanremo itself.
Think of Thursday as its own little competition living inside Sanremo.
One trophy down.
Two to go.
Friday 19 February: the new Performance Night chooses Italy for Eurovision
Friday is where Sanremo 2027 becomes genuinely different.
The official name is Serata Performance.
All 24 contestants perform their competing songs again, but this time they are allowed to present them through different interpretative, performance or staging choices from those used during the rest of the Festival.
Essentially, this is their opportunity to show what their song could look like as a bigger television performance.
And there’s a reason for that.
Friday chooses Italy’s Eurovision 2027 representative.
Voting is beautifully simple for once:
50% — Giuria Popolare 50% — International Jury of Experts
And whoever wins Friday night represents Rai and Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest 2027.
That’s it.
No waiting for Saturday.
No offering the opportunity to whoever wins Sanremo.
No working down the final ranking if the winner says no.
Italy’s Eurovision artist will already have been chosen.
But Friday’s result does not count towards the main Sanremo competition.
So we can add another winner to our growing collection:
Thursday: Cover Night winner.
Friday: Performance Night winner — and Italy’s Eurovision representative.
Saturday: Sanremo winner.
Three different prizes. Three potentially different artists.
Simple, right?
Well… mostly.
Saturday 20 February: this is when Sanremo itself is finally decided
Now we get serious.
On Saturday, all 24 artists perform their competing songs once again.
The vote is split:
34% — Giuria Popolare 33% — Press, TV and Web Jury 33% — Radio Jury
Those Saturday results are then combined with the results from Tuesday and Wednesday.
Notice what’s missing?
Thursday’s Cover Night doesn’t count.
Friday’s Performance Night doesn’t count.
The actual Sanremo ranking is therefore built from Night One + Night Two + the Saturday Final.
That produces the general classification.
But we’re still not finished.
Of course we’re not. It’s Sanremo.
Then comes the finalissima
Once the Saturday ranking has been calculated, the highest-placed artists move into the final stage.
Rai says there will be between three and five finalists, depending on the results.
Their songs are presented again and another vote begins.
This time, the Giuria Popolare alone casts the new vote.
That final public vote accounts for 50% of the decisive result.
The remaining 50% comes from the scores the finalists have already accumulated during the nights that counted towards the main Sanremo competition.
Put simply:
Half = what the public says at the very end.
Half = everything those artists have already earned.
Combine the two and finally — finally! — we have the winner of Sanremo 2027.
You may now go to bed.
So which nights actually count towards winning Sanremo?
This is probably the easiest way to remember the entire system.
Tuesday: YES.
Wednesday: YES.
Thursday Cover Night: NO.
Friday Performance / Eurovision Night: NO.
Saturday: YES.
Then the best-ranked artists enter the finalissima, where a new public vote is combined with their existing score.
That’s the main competition in one paragraph.
You’re welcome.
And yes, you can now vote online for free
One of the quieter but potentially significant changes for 2027 is the introduction of online voting.
Traditionally, Sanremo’s public vote has been heavily associated with the televote. From 2027, Rai is adding a free digital voting system through RaiPlay.
The televote isn’t disappearing.
Instead, televoting and online voting together form part of the new Giuria Popolare.
This could make participation significantly easier for viewers and, depending on exactly how people use it during Festival week, potentially broaden the number of people actively voting.
For a Festival that increasingly lives not only on television but across social media, streaming and second-screen viewing, bringing the public vote properly online feels somewhat overdue.
Welcome to the internet, Sanremo.
We knew you’d get here eventually.
What about the songs themselves?
The new regulations also establish some fairly clear rules for the music.
The 24 competing songs must be new and previously unreleased and can last a maximum of three minutes and 30 seconds.
The lyrics must remain predominantly in Italian, although words or phrases in dialect, other languages or newly created expressions can be included provided the overall Italian character of the song remains intact.
Cover Night performances can be longer, with a maximum duration of four minutes.
There’s an interesting Eurovision detail hidden in there too.
Eurovision songs themselves cannot exceed three minutes.
So if Friday’s winning Italian entry happens to use Sanremo’s full three-minute-and-thirty-second allowance, somebody will eventually have to find thirty seconds to cut.
Good luck with that conversation.
Is AI banned from Sanremo 2027?
Not exactly — and this is worth explaining properly.
Some headlines have described the new regulation as an AI ban, but the actual rule is more specific.
Rai says Sanremo songs must remain an expression of human creativity and prohibits the use of artificial-intelligence systems when they replace or alter the creative contribution of the authors or artists.
So the principle isn’t simply “computer bad”.
It’s about preserving identifiable human creative authorship.
Rai and the Artistic Direction also reserve the right to use technological checks where necessary to investigate potential misuse.
Interestingly, Stefano De Martino has separately clarified that Auto-Tune is not automatically excluded, recognising that for genres such as rap, trap and drill it can itself be part of the artistic language.
So Sanremo is drawing a line between technology being used as an artistic tool and technology replacing the artist altogether.
In 2027, at least, humans are still required.
The easiest Sanremo 2027 cheat sheet
Still confused?
Here’s your five-night survival guide.
TUESDAY 24 original songs. Press 67% + Public 33%. Counts towards Sanremo.
WEDNESDAY 24 original songs again. Radio 67% + Public 33%. Counts towards Sanremo.
THURSDAY Cover Night. Public 34% + Press 33% + Radio 33%. Separate winner. Does NOT count towards Sanremo.
FRIDAY Performance Night. Public 50% + International Jury 50%. Winner represents Italy at Eurovision. Does NOT count towards Sanremo.
SATURDAY 24 original songs again. Public 34% + Press 33% + Radio 33%. Counts towards Sanremo.
FINALISSIMA Between three and five top artists. 50% new public vote + 50% accumulated score. Winner = Sanremo 2027 champion.
Screenshot it. Save it. Tattoo it somewhere if necessary.
We’ll understand.
Why Eurovision fans should still pay attention to the whole week
Friday may now be the crucial night for Eurovision fans, but dismissing the rest of Sanremo would be a mistake.
By the time the artists reach the Serata Performance, viewers will already have heard their songs twice and watched them interact with the Ariston stage, the orchestra and the Italian audience.
Friday then offers something different: the chance to imagine those same songs outside Sanremo.
That distinction between the song Italy wants to crown at home and the performance it wants to send abroad is the biggest structural change of 2027.
We’ve already explored in detail why separating the two prizes could transform Italy’s relationship with Eurovision. But from a purely practical point of view, this new rule also makes Sanremo much easier to understand.
For the first time, each of the Festival’s special nights has a very clear job.
Thursday celebrates the cover.
Friday chooses Eurovision.
Saturday chooses Sanremo.
And somehow, after decades of wonderfully complicated Italian television, that actually makes perfect sense.
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