Italy: Marco Mengoni wins Sanremo 2023

The iconic Festival di Sanremo has come to a close for another year, and it's been one to remember! With five nights consisting of countless performances, notable acts, laughs, memories, and of course, the cherry on top, Marco Mengoni has been crowned Sanremo 2023 winner!

Tonight, all 28 artists performed their songs for a third time. Once the first round of voting (determined by 100% televoting) to decide who moves on to the Super-final was complete, the top five artists sang their songs one last time in hopes of claiming a victory in the 73rd edition of Festival di Sanremo.

For the Super-final, voting was made up of 34% televoting, 33% press jury (TV and print, radio, online media), and 33% public poll. With this, a new ranking for the final five was formed, where Marco Mengoni secured the win with his song Due vite.

This doesn't come as a surprise as Marco Mengoni was the front runner in odds, as well as in our poll for who people thought should win.

Marco Mengoni represented Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 with the song L'Essenziale.

Marco Mengoni

Marco Mengoni is an Italian pop singer, born in Ronciglione, Italy. Mengoni quickly rose to fame on the Italian music scene in 2009 after winning the third season of Italian X-Factor. He has sold an impressive 2.8 million records since then, as well having all of his seven albums chart, and 15 top-10 singles to his name.

Along with this year, Mengoni competed in Sanremo in both 2010 and 2013. In 2013, he won the 63rd edition of Sanremo with his song L'essenziale. In that same year, he represented Italy at Eurovision with his winning Sanremo song, and placed a respectable 7th, receiving 126 points.

Sanremo 2023

• 7 February 2023: Sanremo Night 1
• 8 February 2023: Sanremo Night 2
• 9 February 2023: Sanremo Night 3
• 10 February 2023: Sanremo Night 4
• 11 February 2023: Sanremo Final

Nights 1 and 2 (Tuesday and Wednesday): 14 artists performed their songs on each night. At the end of both nights, each song was ranked by the press jury which consisted of TV/print media, radio media, and online media to determine the results.

Night 3 (Thursday): All 28 songs were performed on this night. Voting was 50% public poll (consisting of 1,000 people) and 50% televoting to produce the results for that night. With this, a new ranking was established with the combination of the results from the first two nights.

Night 4 (Friday): All 28 artists performed a song from 1960-2009 either as a solo or with an acclaimed Italian artist or international guest artist.

Night 5 (Saturday): The final night! All 28 artists performed their song for a third time in hopes of making to the second round, the superfinal. The superfinal consisted of the top 5 songs and were performed again in hopes of winning the festival. The winner was determined by whoever received the most votes in the final voting.

All shows took place in the legendary Teatro Ariston in Sanremo, and were hosted by the iconic Amadeus, Gianni Morandi, and Chiara Ferragni.

Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest

Italy has participated in 47 Eurovision contests. They have won three times:

• 1964: Gigliola Cinquetti – Non Ho L'étà
• 1990: Toto Cutugno – Insieme: 1992
• 2021: Måneskin – Zitti e buoni

Their worst result came in 1966, when they finished last.

Italy's most well-known song is "Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu," better known as "Volare" from 1958. It is also the most covered Eurovision Song Contest song ever. The song has been covered by famous stars such as Dean Martin, Cliff Richard, David Bowie and many more.

Italy took a long pause from the Eurovision Song Contest between 1998 and 2010. Since then, Italy has been a "Big-5" country, which means they don't have to go through the Semi-final round and are automatically qualified for the Grand Final.