The Italian national broadcaster RAI has just published the rules and regulations of next year’s Sanremo Music Festival, which will take place from the 1st until the 5th of February in Teatro Ariston in San Remo. The rules include some changes in the voting system, and counting of the votes of the Press Jury, which will be done in three different press categories.

A total of 24 acts are going to be competing in next year’s edition of Sanremo – 22 will be chosen by the Artistic Director – Amadeus, and two will be selected through Sanremo Giovani. Once again, there will be no eliminations, as all 24 artists are going to compete in the Final night, where the winner will then have to decide whether they want to represent Italy in Eurovision 2022.

On the first two nights, on the 1st and 2nd of February, the 24 acts will present their songs (12 acts each night), and they will be voted on by the press jury only, however – the press jury will be divided into three different categories: Print, Radio & TV, and Web, and the votes of each category will be weighed equally. On the third night (3rd of February), all 24 acts will perform their songs once again, but this time people all over Italy will get a say in televoting which will count as 50% of the result, and the other 50% will come from the “Demoscopic 1000” jury.

The fourth night on the 4th of February will be a night of covers, where each of the 24 contestants will cover a hit from the 60s, 70s or 80s – they have the option to perform alone, or joined by another Italian star in agreement with RAI, and the song they are covering can be an International hit, not necessarily Italian.

On the Final night on the 5th of February, the first results will be decided by televoting, and an average score of the different juries in the previous evenings. The top three acts will either perform again, or their previous live performances will be shown once more, and the lines will be open once again. The winner of Sanremo 2022 will then be decided by 33% Press voting (Print + Radio & TV + Web), 33% “Demoscopic 1000” jury, and 34% televoting.

The winner of Sanremo will then have the first say in whether they want to go on to represent Italy in the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest in Turin, or not. The last five winners all went on to represent Italy in Eurovision as well, with Maneskin winning the Contest last year in Rotterdam. The last Sanremo winner who chose not to do Eurovision were Stadio in 2016, when Francesca Michielin was then chosen.