Musicultura 2026: the names of the 16 finalists announced
Musiculture announces the names of the 16 artists who reach the final phase of the 2026 edition of the competition dedicated to popular and authorial songs. Below are the names of the 2026 finalists, with the cities of origin and the titles of the respective songs, of which they are all authors:
Distilled Water sings Ribaltavapori (Trieste) with ‘Gaia’; Alessandro Ragazzo (Venice) with ‘The rite of shadows’; Claudio Hatched (Syracuse) with ‘Chiddu ca ma resta’; DDUMA (Lecce) with ‘Fimmine dewar’; Goddess Culpa, Hi, I’m Vale (Bergamo) with ‘Pelle violet’; Federico Baldi (Bergamo) with ‘The Time Machine’; Giovanni Toscano (Pisa) with ‘Emma’; Giulia Trovò (Treviso) with ‘If I no longer had to return’; Isabella Privitera (Bologna) with ‘Eya’; Manuella (Sassari) with ‘Undi è l’amori?’; Maredè (Senigallia) with ‘Stupid heart’; Mazzoli (Pesaro/Bologna) with ‘Perdita di tempo’; MIDDLE BLACK (Bologna) with ‘Piume’; Urban Storyteller (Turin) with ‘My roommate wants to kill me’; Rosita Brucoli (Milan) with ‘Agente!’; XJIOVE (Porto Sant’Elpidio) with ‘Now that night falls’.
The Musicultura 2026 finalists will be presented as a national preview in Recanati on 23 and 24 April at the Persiani Theatre. Tickets will be available in advance online on Vivaticket and at the theater box office. The two concert evenings, presented by journalists John Vignola, Marcella Sullo and Duccio Pasqua of Rai Radio1, will be broadcast on Rai Radio1, with video-streaming broadcast on Ranews.it and on Musicultura’s social networks.
“I know, I’m a party to the matter, but I’ll say it anyway: I’m in love with the songs of these girls and these boys and I invite everyone to listen to them carefully. – he comments Ezio Nannipieri artistic director of Musiculture – They come to dislodge us from the indolence of listeners who are increasingly accustomed to the inconsistency of reheated soups and they do it in sixteen different ways, because the songs are very different from each other. We are faced with young artists who deserve thanks for the talent, the passion, the determination with which they honor the responsibilities that fall on those who take up the toolbox of the song to tell and tell about themselves”.
The double date will also feature a special guest, Raphael Gualazzi. “Raphael’s participation – adds Nannipieri – is a real pleasure and I’m not just saying this in artistic terms. He is a musician who has shown tenacity in protecting his own nature and authenticity from the pitfalls of show business, I hope that his example can also inspire the path of our finalists”.
The 16 finalist artists were chosen through a complex selection process, which began in November 2025, with the listening and evaluation of the 2,656 songs sent by the 1,328 participants in the 2026 edition, historical record of registrations for the competition. Starting from this flow of creativity, 60 proposals were invited to the Lauro Rossi Theater in Maceratain the month of March, to perform live in front of the Musicultura jury, spectators in the theater, and in video streaming.
The songs of the 16 finalist artistic projects will become part of the compilation of the XXXVII edition of Musicultura and will be taken over and programmed in the Rai Radio1 schedule.
Finally, there will be eight winners of the Competition, designated by the Musicultura Guarantee Artistic Committee, which in this XXXVII edition is made up of: Francesco Amato, Enzo Avitabile, Claudio Baglioni, Diego Bianchi, Francesco Bianconi, Maria Grazia Calandrone, Giulia Caminito, Luca Carboni, Guido Catalano, Ennio Cavalli, Carmen Consoli, Simone Cristicchi, Gaetano Curreri, Teresa De Sio, Cristina Donà, Giorgia, Mariangela Gualtieri, Dario Mangiaracina and Veronica Lucchesi (LRDL), Ermal Meta, Mariella Nava, Piero Pelù, Vasco Rossi, Ron, Tosca, Tricarico, Paola Turci, Roberto Vecchioni, Sandro Veronesi And Margherita Vicario.
The eight winners, together with guests from the national and international music scene, will be protagonists of the final evenings of the Festival, scheduled for 19 and 20 June 2026 at the Sferisterio in Macerata. There the public will vote to elect the overall winner, who will receive the 20,000 euros from the Banca Macerata Prize. The Piero Cesanelli Critics’ Plaque (3,000 euros), the “Frasassi Caves” Award (2,000 euros) and the Award for the best text (2,000 euros) will also be awarded. For information and updates: www.musiccultura.it
