The press has listened and delivered a verdict – according to the journalists and bloggers all around Italy, Loredana Berte has the best song in this year’s Sanremo.

Although we will not hear the 30 competing entries until the first night of the competition on February 6, it has been a tradition for more than 20 years that the press listens to the songs in advance and releases their reviews. This year is no exception and media houses including Vanity Fair and iMusicFun have scored each song from 1 to 10. Below is the combined table with the average score that each submission earned:

Loredana Berte got the highest combined score earning a perfect 10 from Vanity Fair. This will be her 12th time competing in Sanremo. Most recently, Loredana Berte competed in 2019 with ‘Cosa ti aspetti da me’ and placed fourth. The song achieved major success and went platinum in Italy.

Annalisa got the second highest score earning two 9s, but also some low scores indicating that her song might polarise viewers. Annalisa last competed in 2021 where she placed seventh with ‘Dieci.’ Last year was her most successful year with her single ‘Mon Amour’ earning platinum four times while ‘Disco Paradise’ which she released with Fedez and Articlo 31, went platinum three times.

Rounding out the press’ top three is Angelina Mango. A new name in the Italian music scene, Angelina Mango placed second in the 2023 edition of Amici Di Maria Filippi and became a huge success since then. Her single ‘Che t’o dico a fa’ achieved the best debut by a solo Italian female in the Daily Top 200 Songs Italia ranking of Spotify in 2023 (excluding the Sanremo 2023 songs). The song was played 197 thousand times.

Other notable positions in the press reviews include previous winners Diodato in fourth, Mahmood in fifth and Emma Marrone in ninth. Il Volo, who won Sanremo in 2015 and placed third in 2019 only made it to 23rd place.

Newcomers with huge fanbases like Gazzelle, Geolier and Alessandra Amoroso find themselves in 8th, 12th and 14th respectively, while anticipated returnees Irama and Sangiovanni got mixed reviews and find themselves in 17th and 26th respectively.

How accurate are these first reviews historically?

As years go by we tend to see more diversions between the reviews and the results – especially with artists whose songs have a completely separate arrangement for the orchestra. Last year, the reviews had Marco Mengoni first but they did not get excited for Mr. Rain who came in third. In 2022, the press only ranked Mahmood and Blanco fifth even though they ended up winning. Instead, they had La Rappresentate Di Lista in the first position, and they ended up finishing seventh.

One artist in this lineup who never gets high reviews but always surpasses them is Irama. In his last two appearances, Irama finished in the top 5. However, he was never in the Top 10 with the press reviews. So in reality, it is safe to say that the reviews give us the right idea of who the hype is around, but when it comes to results it is by no means an accurate measure.

Who do you expect to see do well in this year’s Sanremo?