The 65th Sanremo Festival finished with the final tonight. The longest running song contest in the world closed tonight with a spectacular show. After the 16 performances winner of Campioni competition was IL Volo, who will also represent Italy in the upocoming Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna.

Sanremo 2015 said goodbye tonight after 5 nights of music performed by very famous "Campioni" in Italy and a huge tv rate success as more than half of the Italians saw the competition in all the 5 days. The Campioni, the Nuove Proposte and the guest performers have delighted the audience and after a last year not nearly as good, the city of Sanremo and Teatro Ariston returned to the old glory.

The Covers competition and the Nuove Proposte found their winners already from last night. Only the 16 Campioni that remain in the competition are still to discover who is the favorite of the Italian public, juries and the audience. And of course to find out who will be the lucky one that will represent Italy in the 60th Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna. 

The songs:

• Bianca Atzei – Il solo al mondo

A lot of people think that Bianca should be in the Nuevo Proposte competition and not in Campioni, however she managed to quallify for tonight. A typical Italian ballad with a very average voice and unfortunately one of the weaker songs.

• Lorenzo Fragola – Siamo uguali

Lorenzo Fragola is the last winner of X Factor in Italy. He sings with a very unique voice. This is the poppiest song (along with Nek). Lorenzo has a lot of fans that for sure will vote for him, but how will he do score with juries? Not a bad choice for Vienna although.

• Irene Grandi – Un vento senza nome

A typical Italian rock/pop ballad. Beautiful, melodic, well sung, great performance. Not bad, but maybe too average, especially compared to other songs in the competition.

• Il Volo – Grande amore

And here is the second favourite in the night, and maybe the most discussed entry. The song is a mastrepiece of its kind, maybe less dramatic and more pop. Lovely arrangement with piano and violins, the big orchestra really got some work on this one! Huge applause as every night. For many Eurovision fans this is the entry they want to see in Vienna.

• Moreno – Oggi ti parlo così

Another solo male act with the characteristic Italian style all over it. Good vocals and performance, but very common and it doesn’t really stand out. Not a good choice for Vienna, nor here.

• Marco Masini – Che giorno è

Marco Masini has already won both Nuove proposte and Campioni in the past. Typical song of the Italian melodic poprock scene. Maybe not among the stongest entries today, but his voice makes it interesting. Very casual and not the best choice for Viena.

• Nina Zilli – Sola

Nina Zili who has already participated in the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest and reached a respectable 9th place now participates in this year’s Sanremo with a blues song. A 60s’ song, full of her energy and attitude. A nice proposal for Eurovision, but unless she wins the right to do so, it is unlikely she will be asked to go to Vienna.

• Annalisa – Una finestra tra le stelle

We continue with a piano ballad in the classic Italian way. A very sweet voice. Quite Eurovionesque, but not very original. It ain’t bad though, but many might need a second hearing. The song has a pretty melody, lovely piano arrangement, typically Italian and fits Annalisa’s voice. She could be an outsider to win.

• Malika Ayane – Adesso e qui

Malika in her first appearance in Sanremo has a really good song. A song full of elegance and grace. There is a very sophisticated and light arrangement for her ballad. This would be a very classic entry for Vienna, but maybe a bit too difficult for Eurofans and general televoting public across Europe. But a really nice song.

• Chiara – Straordinario

Another typical Italian song here but with a very special voice. Piano intro, melodic, good performance from Chiara, beautiful. Eurovision worthy, we got it all here as well. Sticks out of the dozen similar ones thanks to her voice that is original. It could stand do well in Vienna.

• Gianluca Grignani – Sogni infranti

Maybe the only rock song of the night. A typical Italian rock ballad. He has a very big career and lots of hits in his past, but this ain’t the best he has provided, and it will show.

• Nek – Fatti avanti amore

Back in Sanremo after 18 years for Nek. Since then he has followed many other artists to charts in Latin America and Spain, as well as in Italy of course. Fatti Avanti Amore is a very dynamic song and one of the very few uptempo songs tonight. The audience loves him and after his win in cover’s night he is first in the bets for winning and go to Vienna.

• Dear Jack – Il mondo esplode

A well known group in Italy. A song with very weak vocals and not as much energy as it was expected. However they have a lot of fans and maybe they will get votes from the televoting. Then will have to see about the jury.

• Alex Britti – Un attimo importante

He is a guitarist and he sings with a guitar. The song takes ages to get going which results in it being a bit boring. Not one of the best songs tonight. He has a nice voice however.

• Grazia di Michele e Mauro Coruzzi / Platinette – Io sono una finestra

Important text and idea, performed with feeling here. A cabaret song whose yrics tells about being a woman in man’s body. A very bad choice for Vienna however.

• Nesli – Buona fortuna amore 

A very emotional ballad. Nesli has good vocals on this summer song. A bad choice for Vienna, most likely, but a good song all together.

The show:  

The show kicked off at 20.20 live outside from Teatro Ariston, San Remo, Italy with Carlo Conti, Arisa and the Italian Eurovision 2014 entrant Emma Marrone as the hosts of the Grand Final of the 65th Sanremo Festival as in the previous 4 days. They were conducting interviews with famous Italian and foreign people that attended the event.

Carlo Conti, Arisa and the Italian Eurovision 2014 entrant Emma Marrone were the hosts of the Grand Final of the 65th Sanremo Festival as in the previous 4 days. After that some videos of previous Sanremo’s song was shown before we entered the hall and started the show.

Some humouristic videos of the hosts, backstage videos etc featutured as well. A real big intro of a special night.

Inside the Teatro Ariston in Sanremo, the show starts with some young Italian singers, and some small interviews with them. After that we had a small medley of the 16 candidates songs, and at last the competition start with the first song.

After the 16 songs we saw American actor Will Smith singing along with the main host Carlo Conti. A nice chit chat took place afterwards.

Special guests of the night were Gianna Nannini, Biagio Antonacci, Ed Sheeran and The Avener who all performed among the candidates extending our anguish. 

The voting procedure: 

Carlo Conti, the main host of the night, explained the rules. Similarly to the system used in the semi-final, the finalists will be voted via televoting, the experts jury, and a special geographical audience with 300 judges that will vote from home through an electronic system. The televote will count for 40% of the result, the vote of the experts for 30% and the vote of the audience  for the remaining 30%. None of the results of the previous nights will count in the final voting tonight.

The 16 finalists will perform their entries and first round of votes will take place, with the system described above. The three artists with the highest score in the first round will perform their songs again, and they will be voted again to a second round of votes with the same system.

After that we had the announcements of the winner, the runner-up and the third runner-up.

The winner of the Festival will have the option to represent Italy in the 60th Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna in May. If he or she declined, RAI will select the Italian Eurovision entry among the other participants of the festival.

The results: 

The three contestants that quallified to the final round of voting were:

• Nek
• Il volo
• Malika Alyana 

4th was Annalisa, 5th Chiara, 6th Marco Masini, 7th Dear Jack, 8th Gialunca Grignani, 9th Nina Zilli, 10th Lorenzo Fragola, 11th Alex Briitti, 12th Irene Grandi, 13th Nesli, 14th Bianca Atzei, 15th Moreno, 16th Di Michele e Coruzzi.

After the final voting the winner of the 65th edition of Sanremo was Il Volo, in second place came Nek, and third ended up being Malika Alyana. The difference between the first two was extremely small, only two percent, which shows that it really was a race between the two favourites.

So Il Volo will fly the Italian flag to Vienna with the song Grande Amore.

Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest: 

Italy has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 40 times since making its debut at the first contest in 1956 where it was one of only seven countries that competed at the very first contest. Italy competed at the contest frequently until 1997. After a fourteen-year absence, the country returned to the Eurovision Song Contest in 2011.

The country has won the contest twice. In 1964 with Non ho l’età sung by Gigliola Cinquetti and in 1990 with Toto Cutugno presenting Insieme: 1992. Italy is a member of Big5 in the contest and therefore participates directly in the final.

Below you can watch Il Volo with their song that will represent Italy in the final of the 60th Eurovision Song Contest: