Sanremo Music Festival 1966

The Sanremo Music Festival 1966 (Italian: Festival di Sanremo 1966), officially the 16th Italian Song Festival (16º Festival della canzone italiana), 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 Radiotelevisione italiana (RAI).^[1] The television production was directed by Romolo Siena.^[2] Gianni Ravera served as artistic director.^[1] The shows were presented by Mike Bongiorno, Paola Penni, and Carla Maria Puccini.^[1][3]

Each song was performed twice, by both Italian and foreign artists.^[1][4] The winning song was "Dio, come ti amo" written and composed by Domenico Modugno, performed by both Modugno and Gigliola Cinquetti.^[1][5] Modugno went on to perform the song at the Eurovision Song Contest 1966 representing Italy, where he placed last with 0 points.

This edition was notable for the controversial introduction of bands and beat music into the competition, with the subsequent exclusion of many of them from the final evening resulting in protests by competing artists and their supporters.^[5][6]

The festival's organisers, the Società ATA, received 216 song submissions for the competition.^[7][8] In December 1965, an advisory commission lead 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.^[7][9] ATA then chose twenty-six entries from the list to compete in the event, increased from the original aim of twenty-four.^[7][10]

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 Italian artists and once by foreign artists.^[4]

Among the competing artists were Luciana Turina and Plinio Maggi, who were given the right to participate after winning the 1965 edition of the Castrocaro Music Festival for newcomer artists.^[11]

After the song "Questa volta" written by Mogol and Bobby Solo was accepted into the competition, the festival's broadcaster, Radiotelevisione italiana (RAI), made a request to ATA to prevent Solo from performing the song. Due to his repeated acts of indiscipline, they had announced a six-month suspension period on his television appearances.^[12] ATA accepted the request, forcing his record label Dischi Ricordi to announce his replacement with the vocal group I Musicals, who would perform his song at the festival.^[13] However, after Solo apologized to RAI through a written letter, they went back on their decision and allowed the label to reinstate his participation.^[14]

The Sanremo Music Festival 1966 consisted of three live shows, two-semi-finals held on 27 and 28 January 1966 and a final held on 29 January. The first two nights consisted of thirteen songs performed twice, while the final consisted of fourteen songs performed twice.^[1][16] The shows were presented by Mike Bongiorno, who was assisted by Paola Penni and Carla Maria Puccini^[1][3]

The running orders for all three shows were determined by random draw.^[16][17][18] 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.^[18]

The vote in each show was conducted by a regional jury located in fifteen different Italian cities with fifteen members each. In the semi-finals, 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.^[19]

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 in each semi-final and announced at the end of the evening. A new addition this year was an extra qualifier from each semi-final 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.^[19]

The first semi-final took place on 27 January 1966 at 21:15 CET.^[20]

The vote for the seventh qualifier, as decided by the press jury, ended in a tie between "Così come viene" performed by Remo Germani and Les Surfs, and "Per questo voglio te" performed by Giuseppe Di Stefano and P. J. Proby. Because "Così come viene" was preferred by the regional jury from the two entries, it qualified for the final.^[21]

The second semi-final took place on 28 January 1966 at 21:15 CET.^[24]

The vote for the seventh qualifier decided by the press jury again ended in a tie, this time between three songs: "Se tu non fossi qui" performed by Peppino Gagliardi and Pat Boone, "Io ti amo" performed by Plinio Maggi and Anna Marchetti, and "Pafff… bum" performed by Lucio Dalla and The Yardbirds. "Se tu non fossi qui" was preferred by the regional jury and thus qualified for the final.^[25]

The final took place on 29 January 1966 at 21:00 CET.^[25][28]

During the show, the hosts only announced which song had won the contest and that all other finalists were tied runners-up.^[5][6] However, the full results were released by press the next day on 30 January.^[5]

The winning song was "Dio, come ti amo", performed by Domenico Modugno and Gigliola Cinquetti, written and composed by Modugno himself. It received over double the amount of points as the entry in second place, "Nessuno mi può giudicare" performed by Caterina Caselli and Gene Pitney.^[1][5][6] This was Modugno's fourth victory at the contest as songwriter and performer, as well as Cinquetti's second victory as a performer.^[5][6][18]

The semi-finals were broadcast on Secondo Programma (radio) and on Secondo Programma (television) at 21:15 CET,^[20][24] while the final was broadcast on Programma Nazionale (television) and on Secondo Programma (radio) at 21:00 CET.^[25][28] The final was estimated to have been broadcast to 21.3 million viewers in Italy.^[29]

The final was broadcast via the Eurovision and Intervision networks in other countries.^[13][25][30] 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)	Ref(s)
Belgium	RTB	RTB		[31]
Brazil	Rádio Jornal do Brasil[a]			[32]
Colombia	Radio Sutatenza[b]			[33]
Costa Rica	Radiolandia[c]			[34]
Czechoslovakia	ČST	ČST		[35]
France	ORTF	Deuxième Chaîne[d]		[36]
Hungary	MTV	MTV		[37]
Poland	TP	TV Polska		[38]
Portugal	RTP	RTP		[39]
Romania	TVR	TVR[e]		[40]
Soviet Union	CT USSR	Programme Two[f]		[41]
Switzerland	SRG SSR	TSR	Georges Hardy	[42]
Yugoslavia	JRT	Televizija Beograd		[43]
		Televizija Ljubljana[g]		[44]
		Radio Novi Sad[h]		[45]

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 "A la buena de Dios", the band I Ribelli wore long-haired wigs on stage and took them off halfway through.^[5]

At the end of the second evening, it was revealed that the song "Il ragazzo della via Gluck" performed by Adriano Celentano and Trio del Clan had failed to qualify for the final, in addition to most of the competing bands and songs in the beat music genre.^[25] This caused outrage with supporters of Celentano and members of his record label Clan Celentano, who arranged a protest in the final evening during I Ribelli's performance of "A la buena de Dios", 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 "Il ragazzo della via Gluck", Miki Del Prete.^[5][6][18]

During the second semi-final, while introducing the last competing performance in the show, "Pafff… bum" performed by The Yardbirds, host Carla Maria Puccini suddenly fainted while on stage.^[26][27][46] She had been malnourished and passed out from heat, as the Sanremo Casino lacked air conditioning.^[46][47] Later that evening, Peppino Gagliardi also fainted while waiting for the results backstage.^[25] In the final, one of the members of Les Surfs fainted, causing a delay in their arrival on stage for their performance of "In un fiore".^[6][48]

On 26 January 1966, a day of rehearsals before the first semi-final, a 30-year-old man attempted suicide outside the entrance to the Sanremo Casino. He had shown up to meet the artists competing in the festival and after he was denied entry into the casino, he overdosed on sedatives. He collapsed to the floor shortly after and was taken to hospital where he was revived.^[49]