Sanremo makes people do funny things

The granddaddy of them all, the Sanremo music festival, has been busy during the off-season.  Not only have they changed artistic director, with Amadeus being replaced with Carlo Conte, but they have announced some rules changes and format changes.

If you remember, it’s the Test Match cricket of Eurovision with FIVE nights.

Night one – All thirty artists below will sing their songs – bring snacks, this is going to be a long one.  A round of voting happens.

Nights two and three – Half each on each night will sing their songs again and rounds of voting happen.

Night four –  This is covers night where the artists perform an international or Italian song from the past with an established guest performer.  For the last few years this result has been added to the overall score but this time it is a stand alone contest.

Night five – The thirty songs will be sung again, just in case you had forgotten them, and the top 5 artists with the highest combined scores of Nights 1-2-3 and 5 will advance for a super final with televote and jury deciding the winners.

Those thirty artists are listed below and contain some memorable names from Eurovisions past.

Four previous Eurovision entrants are amongst the list plus some famous Italian names – lets hope the television production is as batshit as last year, remember John Travolta??