The Sanremo Music Festival 1976 (), officially the 26th Italian Song Festival (), was the 26th annual Sanremo Music Festival, held at the Sanremo Casino in Sanremo between 19 and 21 February 1976. It was organised by under sponsorship from the municipality of Sanremo and broadcast by (RAI). The shows were presented by the radio disc jockey .
For the first and only time in the festival's history, the format involved a competition between teams of artists. The winning team consisted of the artists I Camaleonti, Opera and Sandro Giacobbe. The winning song was "" written by , and , and performed by Peppino di Capri.
Format Following the commercially unsuccessful 1975 edition, the municipality of Sanremo chose not to continue organising the festival directly and instead sponsor an established impresario to organise the event. In November, they appointed a commission composed of representatives from each of Italy's political parties, tasked with selecting the organiser for the 1976 edition. On 12 December, the commission unanimously decided to entrust the festival's organisation to , who had served in the role for the 1974 edition, over proposals from Gianni Ravera, and Mario Salinelli. Salvetti's proposal for the festival involved making numerous changes to the format in an attempt to renew interest in the event, such as dividing the competing artists into teams for the first time.
Due to a series of renovations scheduled in the ballroom of the Sanremo Casino, which were postponed until after the event's conclusion, the 1976 edition was the last to be held in the casino, after it became unable to host the following editions and the Teatro Ariston eventually became the festival's permanent venue. The large orchestra in the ballroom traditionally featured at the event was announced to be replaced by a smaller orchestra relegated to performing instrumental pieces between the competing songs as well as the opening and closing themes, while artists performed their songs to a backing track. Salvetti stated the change was made to "better appeal to young people accustomed to hearing flawless studio recordings". Although intended to be an 18-piece orchestra, the number of instruments was doubled after a request from musician unions. was appointed as the festival's musical director and the musicians , Bruno Martino, Glauco Masetti, Ely Neri and Tullio De Piscopo were included as guest soloists.
Salvetti invited numerous foreign artists to perform at the festival as guests, marking the event as the "first international Sanremo". Nine foreign artists performed during the shows, each presenting new songs and representing a city in their country of origin. The artists' performances were recorded in the days preceding the final; two minutes of each were shown during the show, with the intention of airing them in full as television specials at a later date.
Voting A total of thirty artists were chosen to compete, initially divided into five teams of six artists. Two artists from each team were designated team captains given an automatic place in the final, performing during the first two nights without facing a vote, while the other four artists risked elimination. After the vote, the first-placed artist in each team qualified directly to the final, joining the team captains, while the second-placed artists qualified for a spot in a repechage round held during the second night. Through the repechage, an additional three artists were selected for the final, forming a sixth team. In the final night, the six teams, which now consisted of three artists each, performed their songs again and were voted on individually to determine the winning song. The team that received the most points across its three songs was declared the winning team.
The voting was conducted by fifteen juries formed by as many newspapers in Italy and stationed at their respective editorial offices during the shows. Juries consisted of twenty-five members drawn randomly for each night from a pool of applicants, with fifteen members required to be between the ages of 15 and 25, five between the ages of 25 and 40, and five over the age of 40. Each jury member voted for one song from each team during the first two nights and one song in the final. The vote in the repechage round was conducted by one correspondent from each of the fifteen newspapers.
Competing entries In a change from previous years, the festival's song selection process did not involve the organisers appointing a commission. Instead invited artists directly to the competition, each of whom was allowed free choice over their competing song. Also unlike previous years, artists did not have to pay a registration fee to participate. Thirty artists were selected and divided into five teams, with ten of the most popular artists serving as team captains. The competing teams, including the artists and their songs, were announced on 12 February.
+Competing entries Song Artist Songwriter(s) "" Albatros "" "" "" "" Daniel Sentacruz Ensemble "" Drupi "" "" "" I Camaleonti "" I Profeti "" La Nuova Gente "" "" Leano Morelli "Sing My Song" Maggie Mae "" Miko "" Opera "" Orietta Berti "" "" Patrizio Sandrelli "" Peppino di Capri "" Ricchi e Poveri "" Romina Power "" Rosanna Fratello "" Sandro Giacobbe "" Santino Rocchetti "" Sergio Endrigo "" Silvano Vittorio "" "" Vanna Leali "" Wess and Dori Ghezzi
Shows
The festival consisted of three shows held between 19 and 21 February 1976, presented by the radio disc jockey . The radio director for the shows was , while the television director was Enrico Moscatelli. The song "" performed on saxophone by Glauco Masetti and composed by the festival's musical director, , served as the event's opening theme.
The shows were presented in a similar format to a radio show; Guardabassi sat at a booth to the side of the stage for the entirety of each night, introducing the artists and guests. He was accompanied by two models in each show with non-speaking roles: Serena Albano and Maddalena Galliani for the first night, Stella Luna and Lorena Rosetta Nardulli for the second night, and Tiziana Pini and Karla Strano Pavese for the final night. Salvetti initially announced Domenico Modugno would be the festival's presenter, but Modugno refuted the claim during an interview shortly after, and had to be replaced last-minute with Guardabassi after invitations to Renzo Arbore and Carole André to fill the role were rejected.
The actors Marcello Mastroianni and Claudia Mori were scheduled to perform their song "" during the festival as guest performers, but withdrew a few days before the start of the event. Additionally, as late as the day of the final, the operatic tenor Mario Del Monaco was listed by press as a guest performer for the night performing a rendition of "" and his song "", but did not attend the festival because of illness.
A charity gala dedicated to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) was held on 22 February in the ballroom of the Sanremo Casino as a collateral event to the festival, organised by Mario Salinelli and the municipality of Sanremo. The festival's winners, Peppino di Capri, I Camaleonti, Opera and Sandro Giacobbe, performed their songs at the gala alongside other Italian and international performers including Fiorenza Cossotto, and Cristiano Rossi. The show was hosted by the actors Walter Chiari and Barbara Bouchet, and broadcast abroad via the Eurovision network, with RAI airing it on 14 March.
First night The first night took place on 19 February 1976 at 20:30 CET. The first three teams, consisting of eighteen artists in total, performed their songs and one artist from each team was selected for the final. The team captains, who automatically qualified for the final, were Sergio Endrigo and Peppino di Capri for the first team, Wess and Dori Ghezzi and Orietta Berti for the second team, and Sandro Giacobbe and I Camaleonti for the third team.
+First team – 19 February 1976 Song Artist Place 1 "" Gloriana 2 2 "" Patrizio Sandrelli 1 3 "" Antonio Buonomo 4 "" Romina Power 5 "" Sergio Endrigo 6 "" Peppino di Capri
+Second team – 19 February 1976 Song Artist Place 1 "" Santino Rocchetti 3 2 "" Leano Morelli 2 3 "" Rosanna Fratello 4 4 "" La Strana Società 1 5 "" Wess and Dori Ghezzi 6 "Omar" Orietta Berti
+Third team – 19 February 1976 Song Artist Place 1 "" Umberto Lupi 2 "" Vanna Leali 3 "" I Profeti 2 4 "" Opera 1 5 "" Sandro Giacobbe 6 "" I Camaleonti
Second night The second night took place on 20 February 1976 at 20:30 CET. The fourth and fifth teams, consisting of twelve artists in total, performed their songs and one artist from each team was selected for the final. The team captains, who automatically qualified for the final, were and Ricchi e Poveri for the fourth team, and Daniel Sentacruz Ensemble and Drupi for the fifth team. The repechage round took place at the end of the night and consisted of performances from five artists, of which three were selected for the final.
+Fourth team – 20 February 1976 Song Artist Points Place 1 "" Carlo Gigli 117 1 2 "" La Nuova Gente 93 2 3 "" Ezio Maria Picciotta 77 4 4 "Sing My Song" Maggie Mae 87 3 5 "" Paolo Frescura 6 "" Ricchi e Poveri
+Fifth team – 20 February 1976 Song Artist Points Place 1 "" Armonium 75 4 2 "" Silvano Vittorio 82 3 3 "" Albatros 100 2 4 "" Miko 117 1 5 "" Daniel Sentacruz Ensemble 6 "" Drupi
+Repechage – 20 February 1976 Song Artist Result 1 "" Gloriana 2 "" Leano Morelli 3 "" I Profeti Qualified 4 "" La Nuova Gente Qualified 5 "" Albatros Qualified
Final night
The final night took place on 21 February 1976 at 20:40 CET. The remaining artists in each of the five teams, in addition to a sixth team composed of artists that qualified from the repechage round, totalling eighteen finalists, performed their songs again. A winning song and a winning team were chosen.
Guest appearances included the comedian Erminio Macario performing his song "", Rita Pavone performing her songs "" and "", and Domenico Modugno performing a melody of his past hits in addition to his songs "" and "". During the voting interval, Modugno introduced the pre-recorded performances from the foreign artists Salvatore Adamo, Les Humphries Singers, Morris Albert, Esther Phillips, the Bay City Rollers, Suzi Quatro, Jacky James, the Chanter Sisters and Julio Iglesias; the latter four of which were excluded from the Italian television broadcast in favour of the evening news.
The winning song was "" written by , and , and performed by Peppino di Capri. It was di Capri's second victory at the festival, following his win in 1973. The winning team consisted of the artists I Camaleonti, Opera and Sandro Giacobbe, amassing 75 points overall.
+Final night – 21 February 1976 Song Artist Points Place 1 "" Ricchi e Poveri 10 13 2 "" Carlo Gigli 23 7 3 "" Paolo Frescura 30 5 4 "" Sergio Endrigo 6 15 5 "" Patrizio Sandrelli 9 14 6 "" Peppino di Capri 46 1 7 "" Wess and Dori Ghezzi 40 2 8 "" La Strana Società 11 12 9 "Omar" Orietta Berti 16 11 10 "" I Camaleonti 19 10 11 "" Opera 20 9 12 "" Sandro Giacobbe 36 3 13 "" Daniel Sentacruz Ensemble 21 8 14 "" Drupi 24 6 15 "" Miko 6 15 16 "" La Nuova Gente 3 18 17 "" Albatros 36 3 18 "" I Profeti 5 17
Broadcasts Local broadcast In January, the Sanremo city councillor Fulvio Ballestra indicated that after negotiations during a meeting between RAI executives and representatives of the municipality of Sanremo, it was likely all three nights of the festival would be broadcast on television. However, RAI later confirmed no changes would be made to their programming schedule and reaffirmed they would only broadcast the final on television. In response, during the week of the festival, the municipality installed screens outside the Sanremo Casino and at the city's Corso Imperatrice that allowed the public to watch live video transmissions of all three shows.