The Sanremo Music Festival 1972 (), officially the 22nd Italian Song Festival (), was the 22nd annual Sanremo Music Festival, held at the Sanremo Casino in Sanremo between 24 and 26 February 1972. It was organised by the municipality of Sanremo and broadcast by (RAI). The shows were presented by Mike Bongiorno, assisted by Sylva Koscina and Paolo Villaggio. served as artistic director.
The winning song was "" written by Nicola Di Bari, and Piero Pintucci, and performed by Di Bari himself, who achieved his second victory in a row at the festival. After Di Bari won the 1971 edition of the show Canzonissima and subsequently became Italy's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 1972, the song was chosen as his entry for the contest and went on to finish in 6th place.
It was the first edition to be organised solely by the municipality of Sanremo, who eliminated the double performance rule used continuously since the 1957 edition, introduced an electronic voting system and became the subject of controversy due to the song selection process.
In January 2022, all three shows were made available by Rai Teche to view on RAI's streaming service RaiPlay.
Format On 27 December 1971, a resolution was passed by the Sanremo city council to directly assume management of the festival's 1972 edition rather than entrust the organisation to a private intermediary as in previous years. The council approved a new set of regulations for the edition, implementing suggestions previously proposed by record companies in meetings with members of the city's administration. An executive committee composed of nine city councillors was created, tasked with organising the event. The regulations stated the competition would contain twenty-eight songs and rid of the double performance rule first introduced in the 1953 edition.
On 8 January 1972, the mayor of Sanremo announced the municipality had chosen as the festival's artistic director to assist the executive committee.
The festival took place between 24 and 26 February 1972 at the Sanremo Casino. The stage was designed by Gian Francesco Ramacci. The design moved the orchestra to the sides of the proscenium, making way for an Eidophor screen in the middle of the stage used during the shows to project the voting sequence and camera shots of artists from different angles and locations within the venue.
Voting system
A new voting system was implemented for this edition. The vote in each show was conducted by two different juries: a jury representing the twenty regions of Italy and a jury representing three different communities. A computer in Milan was in charge of choosing three hundred telephone numbers in each of Italy's twenty regions following a mathematical formula to draw them at random for each show. The telephone number lists were then sent to editorial offices belonging to eight different newspapers: Il Secolo XIX, Corriere della Sera, Il Piccolo, Il Resto del Carlino, La Nazione, Il Messaggero, Il Mattino, Giornale di Sicilia, as well as the Centro Univac Torino, at which telephone operators called each number and chose fifty people to be jury members for each region. The computer also chose three different communities from a list of two hundred across Italy, including various schools, barracks and retirement homes among others, where another fifty jury members from each community were selected. In the first two nights, jury members representing both their regions and communities voted for three different songs. For the final, regional jury members were limited to voting for only one song, while communal jury members continued to vote for three songs. A backup jury composed of fifty randomly drawn spectators in the venue was to vote for seven songs during the first two nights in the event the results from the other two juries were not deemed sufficient in determining the seven finalists.
The voting results in the final were presented sequentially, displayed electronically by a computer and projected onto the Eidophor screen on stage.
Competing entries For the first time, the song selection process for the contest involved inviting artists to submit songs directly. In January, the municipality sent invitations to over 170 artists and received song submissions from over a hundred. A special commission was tasked with selecting twenty-eight for the contest, composed of the journalists , Roberto Gervaso, Carlo Mazzarella and Angelo Sada, the conductors Franco Mannino, Alberto Zedda and Pippo Barzizza, the writer Mario Soldati, the politician Pasquale Lopez, the lawyer Roberto Moroni, record label representatives and Luigi Edgardo Lisi, union representatives , Benedetto Ghiglia, Mario Colangeli and Eraldo Villa, two members of Sanremo's public and the mayor of Sanremo Piero Parise, who chaired the commission and only voted in the event of a tie. The commission first narrowed down the list of submissions to thirty-two and asked nine other artists with submissions they had rejected to submit a different song, of which eight did. Another song was added to the list as it had arrived late, and from the forty-one songs, twenty-eight were selected to compete on 7 February. The commission also selected twelve reserve entries at a later date.
+Competing entries Song Artist Songwriter(s) Conductor "" Aldo Buonocore "" "" Anna Identici Franco Orlandini "" Bobby Solo Gian Piero Reverberi "" Carla Bissi Aldo Buonocore "" Vince Tempera "" Delirium "" Domenico Modugno Piero Pintucci "" Donatello Natale Massara "" Fausto Leali Gian Piero Reverberi "" Gianni Morandi Piero Pintucci "" Gianni Nazzaro "" Gigliola Cinquetti "" I Nuovi Angeli Gian Piero Reverberi "" Lara Saint Paul Bill Conti "" Lucio Dalla Ruggero Cini "" Marcella "" "" Michele Enrico Intra "" Milva Natale Massara "" Nada Ruggero Cini "" Nicola Di Bari Gian Franco Reverberi "" Peppino Gagliardi Bill Conti "" Pino Donaggio Aldo Buonocore "" Ricchi e Poveri Romano Farinatti "" Rita Pavone Ruggero Cini "" Roberto Carlos Totò Savio Renato Angiolini "" Tony Cucchiara Tony Cucchiara
Shows
The festival consisted of three shows held between 24 and 26 February 1972. Each night consisted of fourteen songs. A draw took place on 17 February at the Basilica of Sant'Eufemia in Milan, where first rehearsals for the contest were held, to determine the running order for the first two nights.
Competing artists could choose to be accompanied by the orchestra in the venue and with backing vocals provided by the vocal group I Musicals. The shows were presented by Mike Bongiorno, who was assisted by the actress Sylva Koscina, while the actor Paolo Villaggio provided comedic interludes throughout. The shows were directed by .
In all three shows, instrumental recaps of the competing songs were played by the orchestra conducted by French composer Frank Pourcel, between performances during the first two nights and after all songs had performed during the final. Pourcel also composed the festival's theme song "".
First night The first night took place on 24 February 1972 at 21:15 CET. Fourteen artists performed their songs and seven were selected for the final.
+First night – 24 February 1972 Song Artist Points Place 1 "" Donatello 267 5 2 "" Pino Donaggio 122 13 3 "" Anna Identici 171 8 4 "" Delia 66 14 5 "" Delirium 240 7 6 "" Domenico Modugno 363 3 7 "" Tony Cucchiara 164 10 8 "" Nada 513 1 9 "" Marcella 329 4 10 "" Lucio Dalla 267 5 11 "" Peppino Gagliardi 494 2 12 "" Carla Bissi 164 10 13 "" Roberto Carlos 170 9 14 "" I Nuovi Angeli 130 12
Second night The second night took place on 25 February 1972 at 21:15 CET. Fourteen artists performed their songs and seven were selected for the final.
+Second night – 25 February 1972 Song Artist Points Place 1 "" Gigliola Cinquetti 329 3 2 "" Nicola Di Bari 581 1 3 "" Rita Pavone 132 11 4 "" Ricchi e Poveri 268 6 5 "" Michele 161 9 6 "" Marisa Sacchetto 112 12 7 "" Lara Saint Paul 327 4 8 "" Milva 239 7 9 "" Fausto Leali 102 13 10 "" Bobby Solo 152 10 11 "" Gianni Nazzaro 310 5 12 "" Aguaviva 55 14 13 "" Gianni Morandi 503 2 14 "" Angelica 166 8
Final night
The final night took place on 26 February 1972 at 21:00 CET. The fourteen finalists performed their songs again and a winner was chosen.
The winning song was "" performed by Nicola Di Bari, written by Di Bari with and Piero Pintucci. Di Bari had also won the festival in 1971, making him the fourth artist after Nilla Pizzi, Domenico Modugno and Johnny Dorelli to win twice in a row. "" performed by Peppino Gagliardi, written by Gagliardi with Gaetano Amendola achieved second place, and "" performed by Nada, written by Claudio Mattone and Franco Migliacci, achieved third place. The top three songs were performed again at the end of the show.
"" written by Ivano Fossati and Oscar Prudente, performed by the band Delirium, received a prize for the best lyrics among the competing songs. The band also received the Giorgio Berti award given to the best performer.
+Final night – 26 February 1972 Song Artist Points Place 1 "" Lara Saint Paul 38 13 2 "" Lucio Dalla 68 8 3 "" Delirium 105 6 4 "" Peppino Gagliardi 160 2 5 "" Gianni Morandi 139 4 6 "" Ricchi e Poveri 57 11 7 "" Milva 43 12 8 "" Nicola Di Bari 343 1 9 "" Domenico Modugno 28 14 10 "" Marcella 84 7 11 "" Donatello 63 10 12 "" Gigliola Cinquetti 67 9 13 "" Gianni Nazzaro 114 5 14 "" Nada 141 3
+ Detailed voting results of the final Song scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" Total 1 "" 1 1 1 2 3 2 3 2 1 3 1 2 7 6 3 38 2 "" 2 2 2 1 2 4 1 3 1 3 3 3 3 5 5 3 6 7 12 68 3 "" 1 1 1 1 2 3 3 2 3 4 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 4 7 8 22 28 105 4 "" 20 7 10 8 3 3 9 3 3 4 12 5 4 6 6 4 6 6 5 5 19 6 6 160 5 "" 5 7 3 2 10 5 9 4 9 4 4 3 4 8 4 7 7 4 6 3 15 14 2 139 6 "" 1 2 2 2 2 4 1 2 1 4 2 4 5 4 21 57 7 "" 1 1 2 3 1 2 1 5 2 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 2 1 6 43 8 "" 8 17 16 16 14 14 12 14 10 15 19 12 24 15 11 8 12 12 10 11 29 20 24 343 9 "" 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 4 3 1 1 2 1 1 4 2 28 10 "" 2 2 2 4 2 4 2 1 4 2 3 1 11 1 1 2 2 1 7 16 14 84 11 "" 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 22 14 15 63 12 "" 5 2 3 6 5 5 4 2 3 2 2 5 2 3 6 6 3 3 67 13 "" 8 2 1 6 3 2 1 4 4 2 2 4 2 3 4 4 4 3 2 3 13 19 18 114 14 "" 5 2 9 8 1 5 9 7 8 2 3 7 5 7 5 15 4 4 9 3 12 9 2 141
Broadcasts Local broadcast The final was broadcast on Programma Nazionale (television) and Secondo Programma (radio) beginning at 21:00 CET. The first two nights were broadcast on Secondo Programma (television) and Secondo Programma (radio) at 21:15 CET. The final was broadcast on television in Italy to an estimated 26.3 million viewers.
International broadcast Part of the final was broadcast via the Eurovision and Intervision networks in other countries. The festival was reportedly aired by broadcasters in Monaco, France, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal and Greece via Eurovision, in the Soviet Union, East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Hungary via Intervision as well as in Venezuela, Peru, Mexico and Canada. Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.
+International broadcasters of the Sanremo Music Festival 1972 Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) UCTV NHK NHK Yutaka Ishida SER rowspan="5" Radio Huesca Radio San Sebastián Radio Zaragoza WNJU-TV JRT , TV Zagreb 1 TV Koper-Capodistria TV Ljubljana 1
Incidents and controversies Controversy