Sanremo 2016: RAI reveals the jury’s names. Get ready for the semifinal

We are getting closer than ever to finding out who will be Il Volo’ s successor, as only two shows are left in the Sanremo 2016 Music Festival. Today is the most important night because we have the semifinal. Four artists in the Campioni section will be eliminated, while tonight the winner of the Newcomers will be declared. RAI has announced the jury who will have a 30% share of the results for the remaining 2 days of the contest.

After last night’s unexpected victory from Stadio in the Covers section; in tonight and tomorrow’s final shows, the voting gets more complicated and interesting. The fourth evening of Sanremo 2016 features performances from all twenty acts competing in the Campioni section. The voting will be divided into three parts: 40% televote, 30% expert jury (composed of eight personalities from the world of music, entertainment and culture), 30% demoscopic poll (composed of a sample of 300 music fans, who will vote from their homes via an electronic voting system). These votes will be added to the votes from the first and the second night, and in the end the top fifteen entries will qualify to the final. The bottom five entries from the fourth evening will enter an extra voting round and face an additional public televote to determine the one entry that will be re-admitted to compete in the final. The other four entries will be eliminated.

Click on the names of the artists and the songs to watch the video clip they released:

RAI has announced the names of the jury members which as we said hold a 30%  share of the votes for today and tomorrow:

  • Franz Di Cioccio – Singer
  • Laura Valente – Singer
  • Fausto Brizzi – Director
  • Nicoletta Mantovani – Wife of the deceased opera singer Luciano Pavarotti
  • Massimiliano Pani – Member of the Italian jury at Junior Eurovision 2014
  • Valentina Correani – Presenter of the Voice of Italy and commentator for Italy in 2015 Eurovision
  • Paola Maugeri – Radio presenter
  • Federico L’Olandese – Radio presenter

Tonight as well as the semifinal in the Campioni section we will have the final in the Newcomers. The four artists that have qualified from the previous two days will perform their songs and will be voted by the threesome (40% televote, 30% experts, 30% amateurs) and the winner will be declared for that category. A lot of famous Italian artists have started their career by winning this section. The artists that compete in tonight’s final are below (click on the names and the songs to watch the video of their songs):

Carlo Conti will present the show as usual, together with Virginia Raffaele, Mădălina Diana Ghenea and Gabriel Garko. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, guest performers will include Renato Zero and Cristina D’Avena. Sanremo’s semifinal starts at 20.30 CET and you can watch it live on the Sanremo official site.

The suspense culminates as we approach tomorrow’s final of Sanremo 2016 where the winner of the 66th Music Festival will be chosen. The winner of Sanremo will be offered the chance to represent the nation at Eurovision. If the winner doesn’t wish to represent Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest, RAI will select another artist who took part in the Campioni division of Sanremo.

The remaining schedule of Sanremo 2016 is as follows:

Serata 4: February 12th (Friday)

Serata 5: FINALE – February 13th (Saturday)

Enjoy our compilation of the last 5 years of Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest as we wait patiently for tonight’s semifinal of Sanremo 2016.

Source: EuroVisionary, Wikipedia, RAI
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