The 76th Sanremo Song Festival attracted an average of 9.6 million viewers, 58% of the TV audience share, on its first night on Tuesday.

    That was down from 12.6 million viewers and 65.3% of the share on the first night of the 2025 festival.

The much-loved TV jamboree and song contest, which runs until Saturday, is being presented for the second consecutive year and the fifth time in total by Carlo Conti.
    This year he is being flanked by Grammy-winning Italian pop star Laura Pausini, whose career was launched by her victory at the festival in 1993.
    Tuesday's opening night started with a tribute to Italian television legend, Pippo Baudo, who died aged 89 in August and had presented the festival a record 13 times.
    Among the highlights were performances by last year's winner Olly and by Tiziano Ferro to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the start of his career.
    The first night had its audience peak in absolute terms at 21:59 when 15.384 million people watched a 105-year-old woman, Gianna Pratesi, come on stage to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Italian Republic.
    Pratesi was among the people who voted in the 1946 referendum to decide whether Italy should remain a monarchy or become a republic after World War II - the first ballot in which Italian women had the right to vote.
    The opening night's peak in terms of audience share came when Leo Gassmann performed at 1:07, with 63.9% of viewers tuning in.
    After the artists in competition performed their songs, Arisa, Fulminacci, Serena Brancale, Ditonellapiaga and Fedez-Masini were top of the provisional rankings based on votes by the press and online.
   

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