Stefano De Martino immediately laid out his cards: 24 artists, no rush to expand the cast, three competitions with different rules, an audience vote from the opening night, an international jury for the performance that will award the Eurovision pass, and a crackdown on artificial intelligence. For the first time in the Festival's history, the rules were presented at a dedicated press conference from the RAI studios on Via Mecenate in Milan.
The first key point for Sanremo 2027, airing February 16-20, is the number of artists: there will be 24, no exceptions. Twenty-three chosen by the artistic director and one from "Sarà Sanremo" 2026. "I'm telling you right now that there will still be 24," De Martino specifies, "despite anyone who tells me 'but you'll see, it'll expand later.' No, because this system is designed specifically to accommodate, to provide space for 24 artists, otherwise we won't have enough time for everyone."
On Tuesday, February 16th, and Wednesday, the 17th, the artists will perform their unreleased songs, voted on respectively by the Press Room, TV, and Web channels along with the People's Jury, and then by the Radio stations along with the People's Jury. Thursday will be dedicated to Covers, which will have no bearing on the final rankings: artists may bring a guest, but it is not mandatory. The three juries will vote there, as they did on Saturday. Friday will be the turn of the "Performance Evening," in which the 24 artists will perform their songs with different performance and staging styles. The winner will be chosen by Rai to represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest 2027.
The home audience will therefore be involved immediately: "We'll start having people vote at home right away to add some diversity to the vote, to see what the sentiment is among those watching at home," De Martino explained. "We all know that from the next day, in real life, it's the audience that determines the success of artists and songs, so it's simply a matter of immediately taking a look at what the charts tell us the next day." Online voting will also be implemented for the first time, alongside traditional televoting.
