Sanremo Song Festival remains one of the most prestigious song festivals not only in Italy, but across Europe with 68 years of history. This year, the competition continued on with new artists in both the Newcomers and Big Artists all of which performed their competing entries which faced both the jury votes as well as the public vote.

The competition was spread over 5 nights, culminating last night with the winner decided. There was a slight change in format this year, with the votes cast each night counting towards the final result. This meant that all artists in the Big Artists section continued through the competition, rather than facing elimination over the competition. During the final, 30% of the result came from the Press Centre Jury, 20% from an expert jury and 50% from televoting.

As we also know, the winner of Sanremo has the first right to accept or reject the opportunity to represent Italy at Eurovision, so there was more at stake than just winning Sanremo. Here are the 20 Big Artists:

• Annalisa – Il mondo prima di te

• Ron – Almeno pensami

• The Kolors – Frida (mai, mai, mai)

• Max Gazze – La leggenda di Cristalda e Pizzomunno

• Ornella Vanoni with Bungaro & Pacifico – Imparare ad amarsi

• Fabrizio Moro & Ermal Meta – Non mi avete fatto niente

• Mario Biondi – Rivederti

• Roby Facchinetti & Riccardo Fogli – Il segreto del tempo

• Lo Stato Sociale – Una vita in vacanza

• Noemi – Non smettere mai di cercarmi

• Decibel – Lettera dal Duca

• Elio e le Storie Tese – Arrivedorci

• Giovani Caccamo – Eterno

• Red Canzian – Ognuno ha il suo racconto

• Luca Barbarossa – Passame er sale

• Diodato & Roy Paci – Adesso

• Nina Zilli – Senza appartenere

• Renzo Rubino – Custodire

• Enzo Avitabile & Peppe Servillo – Il coraggio di ogni giorno

• Le Vibrazioni – Così sbagliato

The clear favourite from night one was Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro, finishing in first place with the scores combined. Annalisa won the second night, and night three belonged to Ermal and Fabrizio once again. On night four, the 20 Big Artists performed again, and also the eight Newcomers performed their entries.

This brings us to the fifth and final night, where once again we heard all 20 songs. With a strong lead in the previous nights, it doesn’t come as a surprise to know that Ermal Meta and Fabrizio Moro would win the contest with their song Non mi avete fatto niente. Coming in second was Lo Stato Sociale with Una Vita in Vacanza, and in third was Annalisa with Il Mondo Prima Di Te.

Winning in the Newcomers section was Ultimo with his song Il ballo delle incertezze, which you can also listen to down below.

Back to Eurovision, and it has been confirmed that the power duo Ermal Meta and Fabrizio Moro will be performing on behalf of Italy at Eurovision this year with their song Non Mi Avete fatto Niente. Last year Ermal Meta finished in 3^rd place, and Fabrizio Moro finished in 7^th place with his song Portami via.

Watch their Sanremo performance here: