The Sanremo Music Festival 1975 (), officially the 25th Italian Song Festival (), was the 25th annual Sanremo Music Festival, held at the Sanremo Casino in Sanremo between 27 February and 1 March 1975. It was organised by the municipality of Sanremo and broadcast by (RAI). The shows were presented by Mike Bongiorno, assisted by . served as artistic director.
The festival consisted largely of emerging artists due to a boycott from major record labels in protest of decisions the municipality of Sanremo made during its organisation. The winning song was "" performed by Gilda, who also wrote and composed the song, making her the first female songwriter to win the festival.
Format In September 1974, Sanremo city councillors unanimously approved returning the festival's organisation to the municipality for the 1975 edition, after entrusting the event to private organisers the previous year. An executive committee of city councillors was put in charge of managing the event, chaired by tourism, sports and events councillor Napoleone Cavaliere, who stated the municipality's decision was "the most suitable solution to save an event that has been in crisis for years". was later chosen as the festival's artistic director.
The executive committee approved a new set of regulations in November, which included abolishing the split between big and newcomer artists introduced for the previous edition, as well as numerous changes to the song selection process, allowing only writers and composers to submit songs instead of artists, and for the municipality to have full control over the pairing of submitted songs with artists, rather than record companies as in previous years. Additionally, they stated thirty songs would compete, with each song performed twice by a total of sixty artists. However, due to complaints from record companies, the regulations were later amended to have songs performed only once.
The municipality also decided to eliminate record companies' ability to assign conductors to the performances of their respective competing artists, instead appointing a sole musical director for the event to conduct the orchestra for every song, Enrico Simonetti. This was the first edition since 1956 to feature only one conductor for all competing songs.
Voting system The vote in each show was conducted by four juries: three composed of randomly drawn RAI telephone subscribers representing regions of Italy and another composed of randomly drawn audience members in the venue. For the first two nights, sixty jurors contacted via telephone and thirty jurors in the audience were drawn, with each juror giving one vote to two different songs. In the final, the voting took place over multiple rounds, culminating in a final round to choose a winner from six of the twelve finalists.
Competing entries 152 songs were submitted for the competition by writers and composers invited by the municipality of Sanremo. A sixteen-member special commission was appointed by the festival's organising committee, tasked with selecting thirty of the submissions to compete. It was composed of seven representatives from Sanremo's political parties, including Napoleone Cavaliere who chaired the commission, the president of Sanremo's tourism board Bruno Stilli, the music school director Mirella Salesi, the orchestra director Carlo Farina, three union representatives and three citizens of Sanremo. The selection process took place in a building at a shooting range in Pian di Poma, Sanremo and was recorded via closed-circuit television cameras. The thirty songs selected by the commission were announced on 29 January, along with three reserve entries.
In February, Cavaliere met with the festival's artistic director and the festival's musical director Enrico Simonetti to pair the competing songs with artists proposed by record labels. The full list of competing artists was announced on 11 February.
The festival was informally boycotted by the majority of major record labels due to the municipality's choice to reduce labels' influence on the event and its regulations. This led to mostly emerging artists and songwriters taking part, with only the artist Rosanna Fratello having achieved mainstream success in Italy before the event. Additionally, around seventy percent of the competing songs were written by songwriters who had previously published music at their own expense.
Shortly after the full list of competing artists was announced, Tony Del Monaco was replaced by Nico dei Gabbiani as the performer of the song "". French singer Nicoletta, scheduled to perform the song "", withdrew from the competition on 13 February due to commitments to perform at the Olympia music hall in Paris, with Paola Musiani named as her replacement. Swiss artist Marisa Frigerio, performer of "", was also replaced with Daniela.
+Competing entries Song Artist Songwriter(s) "" Angela Luce "" "" "" Daniela "" Ely Neri Elio Neri "" "" "" Eva 2000 "" Franco e le Piccole Donne "" Tino Cavalli "" Gabriella Sanna "" Gianni Migliardi "" Gilda Rosangela Scalabrino "" "" Jean-François Michael "" Kriss and Saratoga "" "" Nunzio La Mantia "" "" "" "" Lorenzo Pilat Lorenzo Pilat "" "" Nico dei Gabbiani "" "" Paola Musiani "" Piero Cotto "" Rosanna Fratello "" ""
+Reserve entries Song Artist Songwriter(s) "" Maria Luisa Nobile "" Angela Bazzi Musmeci "" Theos
Shows The festival consisted of three shows held between 27 February and 1 March 1975. The first two nights were broadcast only on radio and consisted of fifteen songs each. Six songs qualified from each show, creating a final consisting of twelve songs. All three shows were presented by Mike Bongiorno, who was assisted by . The radio director for the shows was , while the television director was Enrico Moscatelli.
The running orders for the first two nights were determined on 20 February at the Mondial Sound recording studio in Milan, where first rehearsals for the festival took place. Rehearsals moved to the festival's venue, the Sanremo Casino, on 23 February.
Enrico Simonetti conducted the orchestra for all performances, also writing the festival's theme song "Sanremo" with Maria Luisa Caravati, which was recorded by and I Musicals. Recaps of the competing songs were performed by Johnny Sax on saxophone and Piergiorgio Farina on violin throughout the shows.
A gala to raise money for the organisation UNICEF was held on 2 March, a day after the festival's final, in the ballroom of the Sanremo Casino. Performances of the festival's top three songs were featured in the gala, alongside performances from other Italian and international guests, including Gaetano Azzolina, Severino Gazzelloni, Alain Delon and Domenico Modugno. The event was hosted by the actors Rossano Brazzi and Luciana Paluzzi, and was broadcast worldwide, with RAI airing it on 31 March.
First night The first night took place on 27 February 1975 at 20:30 CET. Fifteen artists performed their songs and six were selected for the final.
After the juries had voted, three songs tied for fifth place: "" performed by Franco e le Piccole Donne, "" performed by and "" performed by . Because only six songs could qualify for the final, a draw to break the tie took place, which resulted in Le Volpi Blu's elimination from the competition. The festival's artistic director, , proposed an increase in the number of finalists in order to accompany the group to RAI, but they rejected the proposal.
+First night – 27 February 1975 Song Artist Points Place 1 "" Piero Cotto 14 2 2 "" Emy Cesaroni colspan=2 3 "" Antonella Bellan colspan=2 4 "" Franco e le Piccole Donne 12 5 5 "" Laura 14 2 6 "" Gianni Migliardi 14 2 7 "" Paola Folzini colspan=2 8 "" G.Men colspan=2 9 "" Stefania 12 5 10 "" Angela Luce 31 1 11 "" Le Volpi Blu 12 7 12 "" Gabriella Sanna colspan=2 13 "" Lorenzo Pilat colspan=2 14 "" Paola Musiani colspan=2 15 "" Eva 2000 colspan=2
Second night The second night took place on 28 February 1975 at 20:30 CET. Fifteen artists performed their songs and six were selected for the final.
+Second night – 28 February 1975 Song Artist Points Place 1 "" Eugenio Alberti 17 3 2 "" Daniela colspan=2 3 "" La Quinta Faccia colspan=2 4 "" Nico dei Gabbiani 13 6 5 "" Gilda 22 1 6 "" Ely Neri colspan=2 7 "" Annagloria colspan=2 8 "" Goffredo Canarini colspan=2 9 "" Valentina Greco 17 3 10 "" Nannarella colspan=2 11 "" Kriss and Saratoga colspan=2 12 "" Leila Selli colspan=2 13 "" Jean-François Michael colspan=2 14 "" Rosanna Fratello 18 2 15 "" Le Nuove Erbe 16 5
Final night
The final night took place on 1 March 1975 at 20:40 CET. The twelve finalists performed their songs again, split into two groups, with three artists qualifying from each group to a final round. In the final round, six artists performed their songs for a second time and a winner was chosen.
The show opened with a tribute to the festival's first edition in celebration of its twenty-fifth anniversary, consisting of an introduction from former host Nunzio Filogamo while conductor Cinico Angelini led the orchestra in performing his theme song "".
The winning song was "" performed by Gilda, who also wrote and composed the song, becoming the first female songwriter to win the event. Two songs tied for second place: "" performed by Angela Luce, written by and Pino Giordano, and "" performed by Rosanna Fratello, written by Franco Graniero and Giuliano Taddei.
+First round – 1 March 1975 Song Artist Points Place 1 "" Piero Cotto 17 4 2 "" Laura Qualified 3 "" Le Nuove Erbe 14 5 4 "" Angela Luce Qualified 5 "" Stefania 11 6 6 "" Rosanna Fratello Qualified
+Second round – 1 March 1975 Song Artist Points Place 1 "" Eugenio Alberti 17 4 2 "" Gilda Qualified 3 "" Gianni Migliardi 15 5 4 "" Valentina Greco Qualified 5 "" Franco e le Piccole Donne Qualified 6 "" Nico dei Gabbiani 12 6
+Final round – 1 March 1975 Song Artist Points Place 1 "" Laura 10 5 2 "" Angela Luce 15 2 3 "" Rosanna Fratello 15 2 4 "" Gilda 24 1 5 "" Valentina Greco 13 4 6 "" Franco e le Piccole Donne 7 6
Broadcasts Local broadcast In February, RAI confirmed they would again only broadcast the festival's final on television, despite attempts from the Sanremo municipal administration and representatives of the Ligurian regional government to secure television coverage for all three shows.
The first two nights were broadcast via radio on Secondo Programma beginning at 20:30 CET. The final was broadcast on both Programma Nazionale (television) and Secondo Programma (radio) beginning at 20:40 CET. The final was broadcast on television in Italy to an estimated 22.7 million viewers.
International broadcast The final was broadcast via the Eurovision network 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 1975 Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) UCTV Don Francisco UCVTV Canal 8 UCV TV EIRT EIRT TVR TRT JRT TV Koper-Capodistria
Incidents and controversies Call for disqualification of ""