Today Italian broadcaster Rai released the rules and regulations governing Italy’s biggest music festival. Sanremo 2024 is set from 6^th to 10^th February at the Ariston Theatre and will be broadcast on Rai1 and RaiPlay.

As of 1^st December 2023, Amadeus will begin announcing the participating artists to the Italian media. The ‘Class of 2024’ will include 26 artists, including three from Sanremo Giovani. This gives us a show with two fewer songs than last year.

Again this year, three groups will be involved in determining the overall rankings and eventual winner of the Festival, but this year it’s out with the demoscopic jury and in with a new radio jury:

• televoting (viewers via SMS or telephone voting)
• press jury (comprised of accredited journalists from the press room comprising print, TV and web)
• radio jury (comprised of selected national and local radio stations)

Here’s a breakdown of what to expect throughout Sanremo week 2024, and how the new voting system will work:

First Evening (Tuesday 6^th February)

All 26 songs will be performed, and voted on by the press jury. At the end of the night, the public will be shown the Top 5 ranking of the press jury.

Second Evening (Wednesday 7^th February)

Half of the songs will be performed. These 13 songs will be voted on by the radio jury (50%) and by televoting (50%). At the end of the night, the public will be shown the Top 5 ranking of the combined radio jury and televote.

Third Evening (Thursday 8^th February)

The other half of the songs will be performed. Again, these 13 songs will be voted on by the radio jury (50%) and by televoting (50%). At the end of the night, the public will be shown the Top 5 ranking of the combined radio jury and televote.

The overall average of the votes obtained by all 26 songs over the three evenings will then determine a general ranking in the competition.

Fourth Evening (Friday 9^th February)

The fourth evening of the Festival is a special “covers” show. This year, the covers can be any song released before 31^st December 2023 – Italian or international – the artists can choose their own song or even sing a medley of songs. Each artist will be accompanied by a guest to sing the cover, and the guest can also be either Italian or an international singer. This also means that the songs can be performed in any language, and not just Italian as in previous years.

All three voting groups will vote – the televote (34%), the radio jury (33%) and the press jury (33%). At the end of the show, the Top 5 will be revealed with a winner of the Covers’ Evening declared.

This will create a new overall ranking of all 26 songs in the competition, going into the final show.

Fifth Evening (Saturday 10^th February)

All 26 artists will perform their songs one final time. Viewers will be shown the overall rankings after the Covers’ Night. The first round of voting will be 100% televote.

This will create – wait for it – yet another updated ranking of all 26 songs, of which viewers will be shown the Top 5. These five songs will either perform again, or be reshown in video clips.

At this point, all previous voting is eliminated, and a new and final vote will take place, comprised of the televote (34%), the radio jury (33%) and the press jury (33%). Whichever of the five songs has the highest overall score from this voting will be declared the winner of the 74^th edition of the Festival di Sanremo!

Are you excited for Sanremo 2024? What do you think of the changes from last year? Leave us a comment below or on our socials @escbubble!

Last year, Marco Mengoni triumphed at Sanremo and went on to a 4^th place finish at Eurovision in Liverpool. You can watch the moment he won the 73^rd Sanremo Festival below.