The Sanremo Music Festival 1967 (), officially the 17th Italian Song Festival (), was the 17th annual Sanremo Music Festival, held at the Sanremo Casino in Sanremo between 26 and 28 January 1967. It was organised by Società ATA, concessionary of the Sanremo Casino and was broadcast by (RAI). The shows were presented by Mike Bongiorno and Renata Mauro. Gianni Ravera served as artistic director.
Each song was performed twice, by both Italian and foreign artists. The winning song was "" written by Alberto Testa and , and performed by both Iva Zanicchi and Claudio Villa. Initially the song was meant to represent at the Eurovision Song Contest 1967 with Villa as the selected performer, but due to a new rule introduced by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) requiring competing songs to not be commercially released a month before the contest, it was disqualified. Villa instead went on to compete in the contest with "".
The edition was characterised by the death of singer-songwriter Luigi Tenco while the festival was taking place, less than a day after his song "" failed to qualify for the final of the competition.
In January 2017, RAI announced they had discovered a 30-minute tape of the festival's final, edited down from the original broadcast, from a collector in Malta. The tape, along with several rehearsal clips from the festival, was uploaded to RAI's streaming service RaiPlay for the festival's 50th anniversary, with an additional prime time broadcast on Rai Premium on 6 February.
Format The festival was organised by Società ATA, the concessionary of the Sanremo Casino, and held between 26 and 28 January 1967. Gianni Ravera was the artistic director.
The shows took place in the ballroom of the Sanremo Casino, despite initial discussion of moving the festival's venue due to the delayed renewal of its building permit. Following the 1966 edition, which introduced bands into the competition and faced criticism regarding the acoustics in the ballroom not accommodating them, competing bands instead performed in the casino's opera house, with the audience in the ballroom able to watch via television monitors.
Voting system The vote in each show was conducted by a regional jury located in fifteen different Italian cities with fifteen members each, of which two thirds were required to be under the age of 25. The cities were chosen by random draw and differed in each show, totalling forty-five cities and six hundred and seventy-five jury members across all three shows. The regional jury decided on six qualifiers in each of the first two nights, with jury members giving one vote to four different songs. A special commission formed by ATA, composed of the festival's artistic director Gianni Ravera, the television director , journalists and , as well as the lawyer Luigi Bertolini, chose a seventh qualifier in each night from the songs not selected by the regional jury. As in previous editions, only the winner of the final was to be revealed and all other finalists declared tied runners-up.
Competing entries 243 songs were submitted by music publishers to ATA for the competition. In December 1966, an advisory commission chaired by composer Carlo Savina and composed of the four journalists Sandro Delli Ponti, Rodolfo D'Intino, Vittorio Franchini and Carlo Giovetti narrowed down the list of submissions to thirty-five. ATA then chose thirty entries from the list to compete in the event, increased from the original aim of twenty-six, with two of the entries rejected to prevent possible plagiarism claims if they were to compete.
Among the competing artists were and , who were given the right to participate after winning the 1966 edition of the Castrocaro Music Festival for newcomer artists.
Initially American musician Johnny Rivers was announced among the competing artists, set to perform the song "", but withdrew before rehearsals. The Hollies were announced as his replacement, before refusing to perform the song and being replaced by . The song "" written and performed by Domenico Modugno, was also set to be performed by French singer Christophe, but due to disagreements with Modugno over his performance, he withdrew from the competition on the day of the first night. He was replaced with , as suggested by Modugno.
Notable figures from abroad were featured in the list of competing artists, such as multi-award-winning American singer Dionne Warwick, American singer and actress Cher, and the English singer-songwriter Marianne Faithfull, who at the time was in a romantic relationship with musician Mick Jagger.
+Competing entries Song Artist 1 Artist 2 Songwriter(s) "" Lucio Dalla The Rokes "" Riki Maiocchi Marianne Faithfull "" Bobby Solo Connie Francis "" Luigi Tenco Dalida Luigi Tenco "" Little Tony "" Peppino di Capri Dionne Warwick "" "" Sergio Endrigo Memo Remigi Sergio Endrigo "" Giorgio Gaber Remo Germani Giorgio Gaber "" Betty Curtis Tony Del Monaco "" Fred Bongusto Anna German "" Nicola Di Bari Gene Pitney "" Caterina Caselli Sonny & Cher Umberto Napolitano "" Pino Donaggio Carmen Villani "" Orietta Berti Les Compagnons de la chanson "" Don Backy Johnny Dorelli "" Ornella Vanoni "" Gianni Pettenati Gene Pitney "" Nico Fidenco Cher Gianni Meccia "" Jimmy Fontana Edoardo Vianello "" Iva Zanicchi Claudio Villa "" Mino Reitano The Hollies "" Wilma Goich The Bachelors "" Gian Pieretti Antoine "" I Giganti The Bachelors "" Les Surfs "" Los Marcellos Ferial The Happenings "" Domenico Modugno "" Bobby Goldsboro "" Milva Los Bravos
Shows
The festival consisted of three live shows between 26 and 28 January 1967. The first two nights consisted of fifteen songs performed twice, in which seven songs would qualify from each, creating a final consisting of fourteen songs performed twice. The shows were presented by Mike Bongiorno and Renata Mauro. The television production was directed by .
For the first two nights, a draw took place on 24 January to decide the running order, with the songs presented in groups of three during the shows. The final was split into two halves, each containing every song performed once, in an order drawn after the second night.
First night The first night took place on 26 January 1967 at 21:15 CET. Fifteen songs were performed and seven were selected for the final.
+First night – 26 January 1967 Song Artist 1 Artist 2 Result 1 "" Giorgio Gaber Remo Germani Qualified 2 "" Bobby Solo Connie Francis 3 "" Fred Bongusto Anna German 4 "" Ornella Vanoni Mario Guarnera Qualified 5 "" Riki Maiocchi Marianne Faithfull 6 "" Gianni Pettenati Gene Pitney Qualified 7 "" Johnny Dorelli Don Backy Qualified 8 "" Mino Reitano The Hollies 9 "" Nico Fidenco Cher 10 "" I Giganti The Bachelors Qualified 11 "" Annarita Spinaci Les Surfs Qualified 12 "" Orietta Berti Les Compagnons de la chanson Qualified 13 "" Domenico Modugno Gidiuli 14 "" Los Marcellos Ferial The Happenings 15 "" Luigi Tenco Dalida
Second night The second night took place on 27 January 1967 at 21:15 CET. Fifteen songs were performed and seven were selected for the final.
+Second night – 27 January 1967 Song Artist 1 Artist 2 Result 1 "" Nicola Di Bari Gene Pitney 2 "" Caterina Caselli Sonny & Cher 3 "" Milva Los Bravos 4 "" Gian Pieretti Antoine Qualified 5 "" Claudio Villa Iva Zanicchi Qualified 6 "" Sergio Endrigo Memo Remigi Qualified 7 "" Peppino di Capri Dionne Warwick 8 "" Wilma Goich The Bachelors Qualified 9 "" Donatella Moretti Bobby Goldsboro 10 "" Betty Curtis Tony Del Monaco 11 "" Roberta Amadei Carmelo Pagano 12 "" Pino Donaggio Carmen Villani Qualified 13 "" Mario Zelinotti Little Tony Qualified 14 "" Jimmy Fontana Edoardo Vianello 15 "" Lucio Dalla The Rokes Qualified
Final night
The final night took place on 28 January 1967 at 21:00 CET. The fourteen songs admitted to the final were performed again and a winner was chosen.
The winning song was "", written by Alberto Testa and , and performed by Iva Zanicchi and Claudio Villa. This was Villa's fourth victory in the competition as a performer, following his wins in the 1955, 1957 and 1962 editions, tying the record set by Domenico Modugno the previous year. All other finalists were announced as runners-up during the show, with the full results only released unofficially afterwards.
+Final night – 28 January 1967 Song Artist 1 Artist 2 Points Place 1 "" Orietta Berti Les Compagnons de la chanson 15 5 2 "" Iva Zanicchi Claudio Villa 45 1 3 "" Ornella Vanoni Mario Guarnera 24 4 4 "" Gianni Pettenati Gene Pitney 3 13 5 "" Don Backy Johnny Dorelli 9 9 6 "" Wilma Goich The Bachelors 5 11 7 "" Pino Donaggio Carmen Villani 5 11 8 "" Gian Pieretti Antoine 11 8 9 "" Annarita Spinaci Les Surfs 43 2 10 "" Sergio Endrigo Memo Remigi 12 7 11 "" Little Tony Mario Zelinotti 8 10 12 "" I Giganti The Bachelors 28 3 13 "" Lucio Dalla The Rokes 14 6 14 "" Giorgio Gaber Remo Germani 3 13
Broadcasts Local broadcast The final night was broadcast on Programma Nazionale (television) and Secondo Programma (radio) beginning at 21:00 CET, with the first two nights broadcast on Secondo Programma (television) and Secondo Programma (radio) at 21:15 CET. In Italy, the final was broadcast on television to an estimated 21.3 million viewers, with the first and second nights broadcast to an estimated 19.7 and 19.5 million viewers respectively.
International broadcast The first half of the final was broadcast via the Eurovision and Intervision networks in other countries. The festival was reportedly broadcast in 57 countries. 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 1967 Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) Canal 11 BRT BRT Annemarie Van Dijck RTB RTB BT BT ČST ČST ARD Otto E. Rock MR Kossuth Rádió TP RTP RTP CT USSR Programme Two SRG SSR TV DRS TSR TSI Radio Monte Ceneri WPIX JRT
Incidents and controversies Death of Luigi Tenco
During the first night on 26 January, Luigi Tenco performed the song "" alongside French singer Dalida, which he had written himself. Before going on stage, Tenco was hesitant and had told presenter Mike Bongiorno that it could be his last performance. The song was eliminated from the competition by the regional jury, and was not chosen to advance by the special commission.
In the morning of 27 January, Tenco was found dead in his room at the Hotel Savoy in Sanremo. He died from a single gunshot wound to the head. He was apparently upset at his elimination from the competition, with a suicide note found in the hotel, presumably written by Tenco, explaining his death "as a gesture of dissent against the public who chose 'Io, tu e le rose' for the final night and against the commission that selected 'La rivoluzione'." His death was ruled as a suicide the same night.
After his death, emergency meetings were held between RAI, ATA and record labels regarding the possible cancellation of the festival, but ultimately the event went on as planned. The death was only briefly addressed by Bongiorno at the start of the second night, without mentioning the singer's name. The case was reopened in 2005 and again in 2013, with the verdict remaining a suicide.
Notes
References