Amici 2026, the evening starts: students, judges, teams and guests

Tonight, March 21st, the twenty-fifth edition of “Friends of Maria De Filippi” enters the decisive phase with the first evening episode. There are seventeen students who, between dancing and singing, managed to win one of the gold jerseys which allows them access to the final phase to compete for the victory of “Amici 2026”. Young talents are now called upon to face each other every Saturday in prime timeover a series of challenges, in the respective categories up to final next May 2026. In this edition, of which the artistic direction for the sixth consecutive year is by the international choreographer Stephane Jarnythe jury seats become four and the cast counts on the participation of Alessandro Cattelan – “a role still to be discovered”, as stated in a press release – and of over 35 professional dancers.

The announced guests of the first evening episode are Pio and Amedeo and Annalisa.

Students and teams

The students ready to face each other on the stage of the “Amici 2026” evening are seventeen, divided into three teams and called on every episode to perform in front of the four judges. Among those who have been awarded access to the decisive phase of the program are eight dancers – Emiliano, Alex, Michele, Alessio, Simone, Kiara, Nicola and Antonio – e 9 singers – Angie, Gard, Valentina, Opi, Plasma, Riccardo, Lorenzo, Caterina and Elena.

Unlike previous editions, the structure of the teams has been clearly revised, especially after the return of Veronica Peparini among the professors. This has reshuffled the balance and led to a different organization of the teams. The new subdivision therefore sees three well-defined pairs: Rudy Zerbi with Alessandra Celentano, Emanuel Lo flanked by Anna Pettinelli and finally Veronica Peparini together with Lorella Cuccarini.

The team captained by Rudy Zerbi and Alessandra Celentano brings together seven students divided between singing and dancing: Elena, singer; Emiliano, dancer; Riccardo, singer; Nicola, dancer; Plasma, singer; Antonio, dancer and Caterina, singer.

The group led by Emanuel Lo and Anna Pettinelli it is instead made up of five competitors: Gard, singer; Opi, singer; Valentina, singer; Kiara, dancer and Alessio, dancer.

To complete the picture there is the team of Veronica Peparini and Lorella Cuccariniwhich features five talents: Alex, dancer; Simone, dancer; Michele, singer; Angie, singer and Lorenzo, singer.

The judges

For the twenty-fifth edition of “Amici”, the jury seats become four with Gigi D’Alessio, Elena D’Amario, Cristiano Malgioglio and Amadeus lined up. The latter’s presence was only made official on Thursday 19 March, through the program’s social channels with a video message in which the host solved the mystery linked to the clues and accepted the evening’s iconic golden shirt.

Running of the episodes and voting

The bet is divided into three rounds, each of which pits two teams against each other and is played to the best of three points. At the end of each challenge – at least for the first episode – the professors or students of the winning team, or both members, indicate two or three names (based on the production’s indications) among the members of the losing team: they will end up in the direct elimination ballot.

From the second episode onwards, the mechanism changes slightly: at the end of each round, the three competitors at risk compete against each other to establish a provisional elimination. At the end of the evening, the various provisionally eliminated players compete in a final ballot, which decrees the definitive exit of one of them.

All the tests, from the individual challenges to the run-offs, are evaluated exclusively by the jury.