The Sanremo Music Festival 1956 (), officially the 6th Italian Song Festival (), was the sixth annual Sanremo Music Festival, held at the Sanremo Casino in Sanremo between 8 and 10 March 1956. It was organised by (RAI) in cooperation with the Sanremo Casino, and broadcast by RAI. The show was presented by actor Fausto Tommei, assisted by television announcer Maria Teresa Ruta.

The winner of the festival was "Aprite le finestre", written by Virgilio Panzuti and , and performed by Franca Raimondi; with "Amami se vuoi", written by Mario Panzeri and , and performed by Tonina Torrielli, placing second; and "La vita è un paradiso di bugie", written by Nino Oliviero and , and performed by , placing third.

The festival also inspired the international Eurovision Song Contest, which held its inaugural edition this year. The two first placed songs of this edition went on to represent .

Competing entries Songs could be submitted to broadcaster RAI until 31 December 1955. Each music publisher could only submit one song while several songs per composer were allowed. 405 songs were submitted, twenty of them were selected by a professional jury to compete at the festival, with acting as jury president. The jury included poets, writers and musicians like , , Attilio Bertolucci, , , Angelo Francesco Lavagnino, Fulvio Palmieri and . +Competing entriesSongComposerLyricistPublishing firm""Ruccione""Mascheroni""Carlo Alberto RossiC. A. Rossi""Virgilio PanzutiCielo""Furio RendineE.A.R.""Dante VignaliRoram""Franco FalcoDesmax""Gorni KramerKramer""Carlo Alberto RossiAlberto TestaAriston""Bixio CherubiniTrillo""Marcello GiganteAccordo""Fortissimo""Nino OlivieroSouvenir""Giovanni D'AnziMario PanzeriD'Anzi""R.P.D.""Domenico Modugno""Guido ViezzoliTiber""Franco SilvestriNazionale""Luigi SpaggiariMondia Music""Paolo MaschioSuperba

Selection of artists According to the rules of this edition, all songs were performed by newcomer artists. The six artists were selected through the competition "", or short "", among 6,446 participants. After several selection rounds, twelve finalists participated in radio finals held on 12, 13 and 14 January 1956. Four artists were presented on each night. The artists were presented to listeners without their name, just being assigned a number, and listeners voted by sending a postcard with the number corresponding to their favourite voice to RAI. Voting took place in three categories: "female rhythmic voices", "female melodic voices" and "male voices". For each category, the postcard voting lead to two singers chosen for Sanremo, making a total of six artists.

The winners in each category were:

"Female melodic voices": Tonina Torrielli, Luciana Gonzales "Female rhythmic voices": Clara Vincenzi, Franca Raimondi "Male voices": Ugo Molinari, Gianni Marzocchi

Contest overview This Sanremo Music Festival edition included twenty songs performed by six singers, spread over three consecutive evenings, in a format of two semi-finals and a final. The first two semi-final nights were held on 8 and 9 March, and the final on 10 March 1956. The festival was closed by an evening starring artists and songs from previous editions of the Sanremo Festival, held on 11 March 1956.

The shows were presented by Fausto Tommei and . served as artistic director. The artists were accompanied by an orchestra under the musical direction of . Each song was presented twice, once sung by one of the artists, and a second time in an instrumental version, this time played by the orchestra of George Melachrino. Before the voting started, a short recap of all songs was played on the piano by Alberto Semprini.

Ten songs competed in each semi-final. Five songs from each night advanced to compose again ten songs for the third and final night. The winning song was decided by 14 regional juries consisting each of 15 radio listeners, plus a jury of 70 jurors, chosen by draw from all 900 spectators in the audience in Sanremo. The ranking and the points of the final are known while only a part of those of the semi-finals are known.

Semi-final 1 During the first semi-final, a man was arrested for throwing pamphlets, in which he criticised the selection process.

+Semifinal 1 – 8 March 1956 Song Artist Points Place 1 "Lui e lei" 142 6 2 "Nota per nota" 279 4 3 "Il trenino del destino" Franca Raimondi 101 8 4 "La vita è un paradiso di bugie" 295 1 5 "Sogni d'or" Franca Raimondi 89 9 6 "Albero caduto" 281 2 7 "Qualcosa è rimasto" Tonina Torrielli 110 7 8 "Musetto" 170 5 9 "Parole e musica" 23 10 10 "Il cantico del cielo" Tonina Torrielli 280 3

Semi-final 2

+Semifinal 2 – 9 March 1956 Song Artist Points Place 1 "Anima gemella" & colspan=2 2 "Aprite le finestre" Franca Raimondi 308 1 3 "Ho detto al sole" colspan=2 4 "Il trenino di latta verde" colspan=2 5 "Due teste sul cuscino" 294 2 6 "Amami se vuoi" Tonina Torrielli 265 4 7 "Lucia e Tobia" Franca Raimondi & colspan=2 8 "Il bosco innamorato" Tonina Torrielli 178 5 9 "La colpa fu" , with , Franca Raimondi, Tonina Torrielli, 266 3 10 "È bello" colspan=2

Final

According to press reports, the ticket prices for the final were criticised by spectators, composers and singers alike, reaching 16,200 lire. In order to prevent the auditorium from being half-empty, reduced tickets were sold shortly before the final started.

For the voting of the final, 35 spectators from the auditorium were chosen who each distributed two points among their favourite songs, whereas the members of the 14 regional radio juries distributed four points.

The winner was "Aprite le finestre", written by Virgilio Panzuti and , and performed by Franca Raimondi; with "Amami se vuoi", written by Mario Panzeri and , and performed by Tonina Torrielli, placing second; and "La vita è un paradiso di bugie", written by Nino Oliviero and , and performed by , placing third. Prizes were handed out to the first three places, and the three songs were performed again at the end of the show.

+Final – 10 March 1956 Song Artist Points Place 1 "Musetto" 41 8 2 "Il bosco innamorato" Tonina Torrielli 77 6 3 "La colpa fu" , with , Franca Raimondi, Tonina Torrielli, 88 5 4 "Amami se vuoi" Tonina Torrielli 163 2 5 "Nota per nota" 24 9 6 "Il cantico del cielo" Tonina Torrielli 92 4 7 "Albero caduto" 76 7 8 "La vita è un paradiso di bugie" 153 3 9 "Due teste sul cuscino" 20 10 10 "Aprite le finestre" Franca Raimondi 171 1

+ 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" Total 1 "Musetto" 4 8 4 4 4 4 4 8 1 41 2 "Il bosco innamorato" 4 8 4 16 12 4 24 4 1 77 3 "La colpa fu" 8 12 12 16 4 8 12 4 84 88 4 "Amami se vuoi" 12 8 12 40 4 8 4 8 8 4 12 32 11 163 5 "Nota per nota" 8 12 4 24 6 "Il cantico del cielo" 12 8 12 24 16 4 12 4 92 7 "Albero caduto" 4 4 4 20 4 4 8 12 88 76 8 "La vita è un paradiso di bugie" 4 4 8 4 4 16 12 8 4 12 24 12 833 153 9 "Due teste sul cuscino" 8 4 4 4 20 10 "Aprite le finestre" 24 8 4 4 24 8 8 28 8 20 4 2011 171

After the festival, Nino Oliviero, composer of the third-placed song "", was taken to court by and accused of plagiarism from the song "" by Surace. The accusation finally was dismissed by the judge.

Broadcasts Local broadcast All shows were broadcast on and , beginning at 22:00 CET (21:00 UTC), with a deferred broadcast on television starting on 22:45 CET for semi-final 1, and 22:15 CET for the final.

International broadcast The festival was broadcast in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations are shown in the tables below.

+International broadcasters of the Sanremo Music Festival 1956 Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) ORF ORF NIR/INR INR NIR RTF RTF ARD NTS NTS Piet te Nuyl Jr. SRG SSR SRG TSR

At Eurovision The two first places of this Sanremo Music Festival edition, "Aprite le finestre" sung by Franca Raimondi, and "Amami se vuoi" sung by Tonina Torrielli, went on to perform at the international Eurovision Song Contest 1956 on 24 May 1956.

There were seven participating countries, and each performed two songs in the same order via two rounds, with Italy performing last in each round, following Luxembourg. "Aprite le finestre" was performed seventh, and "Amami se vuoi" fourteenth as the last song of the evening. An international jury composed of two jurors from each participating country decided the winner: The two Italian jurors were the conductors and Cinico Angelini.

Only the winner – one of Switzerland's songs – was announced, after the private counting of the votes by the juries, and so the scores and placings of the two Italian songs are unknown. The two songs were succeeded as Italian representative at the 1957 contest by Nunzio Gallo with "Corde della mia chitarra".

The Eurovision Song Contest was broadcast on Italian Television, starting at 21:15 CET, and radio station Secondo Programma. On the same evening, Italy's first radio station Programma Nazionale broadcast excerpts from the Sanremo Music Festival at 21:45 CET.

References

External links from Diggiloo Thrush - info & lyrics for "Aprite le finestre" from Diggiloo Thrush - info & lyrics for "Amami se vuoi"