On the first night of Sanremo 2026, everyone was bored Between artificial intelligence and memories of the past, here's how the first evening hosted by Carlo Conti went

To explain what the Sanremo Festival represents today, two moments from the 76th edition of the song contest hosted by Carlo Conti are enough: Mrs Gianna Pratesi, 105 years old, recalling her first vote in 1946, and the AI moment in which both host and audience are artificially turned into ducks to the tune of Nilla Pizzi’s classic Papaveri e papere (a blatant piece of product placement, as well as a frightening and unsettling gimmick, disturbing in the same way as a sequence from a David Lynch film).

This clash between past (Mrs Gianna) and future (artificial intelligence) played out on the Ariston stage, which, compared to Amadeus’ tenure, continues to take steps backward in terms of spectacle, interaction, and entertainment. Conti seems to be in search of a renewed sense of rigor for this year’s Italian Song Festival, dedicated to one of its founding fathers, Pippo Baudo, who passed away last year. The problem, however, lies in the friction between the two souls of a show that knows it cannot forget what Sanremo has been in recent years, yet tries to reclaim a sense of austerity. This translates into a lineup of thirty competing artists (too many), a broadcast running from 8:40 p.m. to 1:20 a.m. (too long), and little effort to offer anything that feels truly recreational for the audience, including a large portion of the songs themselves.