Sanremo 2026, the (small) changes to the voting system

The regulations of the Sanremo Festival 2026 introduce, compared to last year, small changes to the voting system. The juries involved in the voting on the five evenings are the same as last year.

In the first evening (here is the detail with what happens from evening to evening) the performances of the 30 big names will be voted by the Jury of the Press Room, TV and Web. In the second evening the performances of 15 of the 30 big names will be voted via Televoting (with a weight of 50% on the end of evening ranking) and the Radio Jury (with a weight of the remaining 50%). The second evening will also see the semi-final of the New Proposals: the 4 artists will be divided into pairs, with the winners who will advance to the final of the category. The performances will be voted by the jury of the press room, TV and Web (with a weight of 33% on the final outcome), by the radio jury (33%) and by the public at home via televoting (34%). On the third evening, the performances of the other 15 of the 30 big names will be voted via Televoting (with a weight of 50% on the end-of-evening ranking) and Radio Jury (with a weight of the remaining 50%). In the final of the New Proposals, the winner will be proclaimed through a joint vote by the press room, TV and Web jury (33%), by the radio jury (33%) and by the public at home via televoting (34%). The fourth evening, the one dedicated to the covers, which will not influence the final ranking, will involve the press room, TV and web jury (33%), the radio jury (33%) and the public at home via televoting (34%) in voting. On the fifth evening, the 30 big names perform on stage again, voted by the press room, TV and Web jury (33%), by the radio jury (33%) and by the public at home via televoting (34%). At the end of the voting, the final ranking will be drawn up, determined by the average between the percentages of the final evening and those of the previous evenings, which will establish the definitive ranking from thirtieth to sixth position. Final Top 5 announced. A new vote will then be carried out by the press room jury (33%), the radio jury (33%) and the public at home via televoting (34%). The total of the votes of the three components, added to the votes of the previous general ranking, will finally decide the winning song of the Festival.

The new features introduced concern the radio jury voting. Prime Time Rai entertainment deputy director Claudio Fasulo explains: «We take the AudiRadio system: this allows us to create an even more faithfully representative sample of Italian radios because we are linked to the audience ratings of Italian radios. We will divide the radios into three sectors: national, regional and local radios. For local radios for each region there is a number of votes proportionate to the number of users.”