Italy: Francesco Gabbani wins Sanremo 2017!

After a week full of Italian music, the 2017 Sanremo music festival has just come to an end inside the Ariston Theatre. Sixteen out of the twenty-two initial acts have performed at today’s show, but only one of them have got the big prize and the right to represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest.

Francesco Gabbani has been declared the winner of the 67th edition of Sanremo with the song «Occidentali’s karma» after two voting rounds.

The winner of Sanremo 2017 has been selected after two voting rounds including a super-final. In the first round, the results were decided by a combination of televote (40%), jury panel (30%) and special poll (30%). The top 3 of the scoreboard after the first round competed in a superfinal in which the points were reset:

  1. Francesco Gabbani – Occidentali’s karma
  2. Fiorella Mannoia – Che sia benedetta
  3. Ermal Meta – Vietato morire

A new voting was then open and the act with the most votes following the previous combination was named the winner of this year’s Italian music festival.

The line-up for today’s final was as it follows:

  • Alessio Bernabei – Nel mezzo di un applauso
  • Elodie – Tutta colpa mia
  • Ermal Meta – Vietato morire
  • Fabrizio Moro – Portami via
  • Fiorella Mannoia – Che sia benedetta
  • Lodovica Comello – Il cielo non mi basta
  • Samuel Umberto Romano – Vedrai
  • Chiara – Nessun posto è casa mi
  • Francesco Gabbani – Occidentali’s karma
  • Marco Masini – Spostato di un secondo
  • Michele Bravi – Il diario degli errori
  • Michele Zarrillo – Mani nelle mani
  • Paola Turci – Fatti bella per te
  • Sergio Sylvestre – Con te
  • Bianca Atzei – Ora esisti solo tu
  • Clementino – Ragazzi fuori

Once again, the artist who wins the Campioni category of Sanremo 2017 gets the right to represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest. However, Francesco doesn’t need to accept the invitation to perform in Kyiv. If the artist declines to perform at Eurovision, RAI will internally choose another artist, whose name will be announced in the coming days.

Remember that last year Stadio won this festival category, but their choice was not to present their song to the wider European audience in Stockholm due to touring commitments. Instead, the runner-up Francesca Michielin was chosen to perform at Eurovision with her song «No Degree Of Separation».  

Sanremo 2017 has been hosted by Carlo Conti accompanied by Maria De Filippi as co-host of all five shows.