The Sanremo Music Festival 1966 (), officially the 16th Italian Song Festival (), was the 16th annual Sanremo Music Festival, held at the Sanremo Casino in Sanremo between 27 and 29 January 1966. It was organised by Società ATA, concessionary of the Sanremo Casino and was broadcast by (RAI). The shows were presented by Mike Bongiorno, assisted by and . Gianni Ravera served as artistic director.

Each song was performed twice, by both Italian and foreign artists. The winning song was "Dio, come ti amo" written and composed by Domenico Modugno, performed by both Modugno and Gigliola Cinquetti. Modugno went on to perform the song at the Eurovision Song Contest 1966 representing , where he placed last with 0 points.

Format The festival was organised by Società ATA, the concessionary of the Sanremo Casino, and held between 27 and 29 January 1966. Gianni Ravera was the artistic director.

In a change from the previous two editions, competing songs were allowed to be performed by two Italian artists or two foreign artists, instead of strictly once by an Italian artist and once by a foreign artist.

Voting system The vote in each show was conducted by a regional jury located in fifteen different Italian cities with fifteen members each. In the first two nights, each jury member could vote for six songs, while in the final they only voted for one. As in the 1964 and 1965 editions, only the winner was to be revealed and all other finalists declared tied runners-up.

The method of selecting finalists through a general ranking of all competing entries, used in the 1964 and 1965 editions, was reverted to the system used in 1963 and prior editions, with a set amount of songs qualifying for the final in the first and second night, and announced at the end of the night. A new addition this year was an extra qualifier from each night chosen from the entries not selected for the final by the regional jury, decided by a group of fifteen journalists in the venue chosen by random draw.

Competing entries ATA received 216 song submissions for the competition. In December 1965, an advisory commission chaired by composer Carlo Savina and composed of journalists Velia Veniero, Angelo Cavallo, Sandro Delli Ponti, Filippo D'Errico, and Rodolfo D'Intino as well as composer Pino Calvi, narrowed down the list of submissions to thirty-five. ATA then chose twenty-six entries from the list to compete in the event, increased from the original aim of twenty-four.

Among the competing artists were Luciana Turina and , who were given the right to participate after winning the 1965 edition of the Castrocaro Music Festival for newcomer artists.

For the first time in the festival's history, bands were featured among the competing artists, including the English bands The Yardbirds and The Renegades, and the Italian bands I Ribelli and Equipe 84.

+Competing entries Song Artist 1 Artist 2 Songwriter(s) "" I Ribelli The New Christy Minstrels "" Sergio Endrigo Chad & Jeremy Sergio Endrigo "" Remo Germani Les Surfs "" Gigliola Cinquetti Domenico Modugno Domenico Modugno "" Luciana Turina Gino "" Adriano Celentano "" Wilma Goich Les Surfs "" Bobby Vinton "" "" Orietta Berti Ornella Vanoni "" Gino Paoli Gino Paoli "" Iva Zanicchi Vic Dana "" Nicola Di Bari Gene Pitney "" Giorgio Gaber Pat Boone "" Milva Richard Anthony "" Caterina Caselli Gene Pitney "" Lucio Dalla The Yardbirds "" Edoardo Vianello Françoise Hardy "" Giuseppe Di Stefano P. J. Proby "" Luis Alberto del Paraná and Los Paraguayos "" Bobby Solo The Yardbirds "" John Foster "" Peppino Gagliardi Pat Boone "" Equipe 84 The Renegades "" Pino Donaggio Claudio Villa "" Anna Identici The New Christy Minstrels

Shows The festival consisted of three live shows held between 27 and 29 January 1966. The first two nights consisted of thirteen songs performed twice, with seven qualifying from each show to create a final consisting of fourteen songs performed twice. The shows were presented by Mike Bongiorno, who was assisted by and . The television production was directed by .

The running orders for all three shows were determined by random draw. The songs were presented in groups of three for the first two nights, while the final was split into two halves, each containing every song performed once. Foreign artists could only perform after an Italian artist performed their song in each show. For songs performed by two Italian artists, a further draw took place to decide what order the artists would perform in.

First night The first night took place on 27 January 1966 at 21:15 CET. Thirteen songs were performed and seven were selected for the final.

The vote for the seventh qualifier, as decided by the press jury, ended in a tie between "" performed by Remo Germani and Les Surfs, and "" performed by Giuseppe Di Stefano and P. J. Proby. Because "" was preferred by the regional jury from the two entries, it qualified for the final.

+First night – 27 January 1966 Song Artist 1 Artist 2 Result 1 "" John Foster Paola Bertoni 2 "" Giuseppe Di Stefano P. J. Proby 3 "" Sergio Endrigo Chad & Jeremy Qualified 4 "" Remo Germani Les Surfs Qualified 5 "" Gigliola Cinquetti Domenico Modugno Qualified 6 "" Bobby Solo The Yardbirds 7 "" I Ribelli The New Christy Minstrels Qualified 8 "" Franco Tozzi Bobby Vinton 9 "" Ornella Vanoni Orietta Berti Qualified 10 "" Caterina Caselli Gene Pitney Qualified 11 "" Giorgio Gaber Pat Boone Qualified 12 "" Luciano Tomei Luis Alberto del Paraná and Los Paraguayos 13 "" Equipe 84 The Renegades

Second night The second night took place on 28 January 1966 at 21:15 CET. Thirteen songs were performed and seven were selected for the final.

The vote for the seventh qualifier decided by the press jury again ended in a tie, between the three songs: "" performed by Peppino Gagliardi and Pat Boone, "" performed by and , and "Pafff... bum" performed by Lucio Dalla and The Yardbirds. "" was preferred by the regional jury and thus qualified for the final.

+Second night – 28 January 1966 Song Artist 1 Artist 2 Result 1 "" Adriano Celentano Trio del Clan 2 "" Anna Identici The New Christy Minstrels Qualified 3 "" Milva Richard Anthony Qualified 4 "" Luciana Turina Gino 5 "" Peppino Gagliardi Pat Boone Qualified 6 "" Wilma Goich Les Surfs Qualified 7 "" Gino Paoli Ricardo 8 "" Anna Marchetti Plinio Maggi 9 "" Pino Donaggio Claudio Villa Qualified 10 "" Nicola Di Bari Gene Pitney 11 "" Iva Zanicchi Vic Dana Qualified 12 "" Edoardo Vianello Françoise Hardy Qualified 13 "Pafff... bum" Lucio Dalla The Yardbirds

Final night

The final night took place on 29 January 1966 at 21:00 CET. The fourteen songs admitted to the final were performed again and a winner was chosen.

The winning song was "Dio, come ti amo", performed by Domenico Modugno and Gigliola Cinquetti, written and composed by Modugno himself. This was Modugno's fourth victory at the festival both as songwriter and performer, following his wins in the 1958, 1959 and 1962 editions, making him the first artist to achieve this record, as well as Cinquetti's second victory as a performer, following her win in 1964. During the show, only the winner was announced, with the full results only released unofficially by press afterwards.

+Final night – 29 January 1966 Song Artist 1 Artist 2 Points Place 1 "" Peppino Gagliardi Pat Boone 9 8 2 "" Edoardo Vianello Françoise Hardy 9 8 3 "" Pino Donaggio Claudio Villa 16 4 4 "" Remo Germani Les Surfs 6 12 5 "" Milva Richard Anthony 9 8 6 "" Wilma Goich Les Surfs 19 3 7 "" Orietta Berti Ornella Vanoni 11 6 8 "" Sergio Endrigo Chad & Jeremy 9 8 9 "" I Ribelli The New Christy Minstrels 1 14 10 "" Iva Zanicchi Vic Dana 5 13 11 "" Caterina Caselli Gene Pitney 31 2 12 "" Giorgio Gaber Pat Boone 11 6 13 "" Anna Identici The New Christy Minstrels 14 5 14 "" Gigliola Cinquetti Domenico Modugno 77 1

Broadcasts Local broadcast The first and second nights were broadcast on Secondo Programma (radio) and on Secondo Programma (television) at 21:15 CET, while the final night was broadcast on Programma Nazionale (television) and on Secondo Programma (radio) at 21:00 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 17.3 and 16.2 million viewers respectively.

International broadcast The first half of the final night was broadcast via the Eurovision and Intervision networks in other 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 1966 Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) Radio Sutatenza Radiolandia ČST ČST ORTF MTV MTV TP RTP RTP TVR TVR CT USSR Programme Two SRG SSR TSR JRT Radio Novi Sad

Incidents and controversies Dispute over Bobby Solo's participation After the song "" written by Mogol and Bobby Solo was accepted into the competition, the festival's broadcaster, (RAI), made a request to ATA to prevent Solo from performing the song. Their request was announced alongside a six-month suspension period on his television appearances on the network due to his repeated acts of indiscipline. ATA accepted the request, forcing his record label Dischi Ricordi to announce his replacement with the vocal group I Musicals. However, after Solo apologized to RAI through a written letter, they went back on their decision and allowed the label to reinstate his participation.

Protests Throughout the week of the festival, Italian press disparagingly referred to several of the competing artists as "capelloni" (long-haired). To protest, during their performance of "", the band I Ribelli wore long-haired wigs on stage and took them off halfway through.

At the end of the second night, it was revealed that the song "" performed by Adriano Celentano and had failed to qualify for the final, in addition to most of the competing bands in the competition. This caused outrage with supporters of Celentano and members of his record label Clan Celentano, who arranged a protest in the final night during I Ribelli's performance of "", since they were the only band admitted to the final. The band removing their wigs mid-performance became a signal for protesters to enter the Sanremo Casino, loudly cheering for I Ribelli and chanting the band's name for several minutes. The connection to Eurovision was briefly cut during the protest. Around a dozen protesters were detained by police, including one of the songwriters of "", Miki Del Prete.

Fainting incidents During the second night, while introducing the last performance of the show, "Pafff... bum" performed by The Yardbirds, one of the festival's presenters, , suddenly fainted while on stage. She had been malnourished and passed out from heat, as the Sanremo Casino lacked air conditioning. Later that evening, Peppino Gagliardi also fainted while waiting for the results backstage. In the final, one of the members of Les Surfs fainted, causing a delay in their arrival on stage for their performance of "".

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