Sanremo Music Festival 1966

Voting system

The vote in each show was conducted by a regional jury located in fifteen different Italian cities with fifteen members each. In the first two nights, 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.^[5]

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 for the final in the first and second night, and announced at the end of the night. A new addition this year was an extra qualifier from each night 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.^[5]

First night

The first night took place on 27 January 1966 at 21:15 CET.^[20] Thirteen songs were performed and seven were selected for the final.

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]

Second night

The second night took place on 28 January 1966 at 21:15 CET.^[24] Thirteen songs were performed and seven were selected for the final.

The vote for the seventh qualifier decided by the press jury again ended in a tie, between the three songs: "Se tu non fossi qui" performed by Peppino Gagliardi and Pat Boone, "Io ti amo" performed by Anna Marchetti [it] and Plinio Maggi [it], 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]

Final night

The final night took place on 29 January 1966 at 21:00 CET.^[25][2] The fourteen songs admitted to the final were performed again and a winner was chosen.

The winning song was "Dio, come ti amo", performed by Domenico Modugno and Gigliola Cinquetti, written and composed by Modugno himself.^[3][28][29] This was Modugno's fourth victory at the festival both as songwriter and performer, following his wins in the 1958, 1959 and 1962 editions, making him the first artist to achieve this record, as well as Cinquetti's second victory as a performer, following her win in 1964.^[16][28][29] During the show, only the winner was announced, with the full results only released unofficially by press afterwards.^[28][29]

Local broadcast

The first and second nights were broadcast on Secondo Programma (radio) and on Secondo Programma (television) at 21:15 CET,^[20][24] while the final night was broadcast on Programma Nazionale (television) and on Secondo Programma (radio) at 21:00 CET.^[25][2] In Italy, the final was broadcast on television to an estimated 21.3 million viewers, with the first and second nights broadcast to an estimated 17.3 and 16.2 million viewers respectively.^[30][31]

International broadcast

The first half of the final night was broadcast via the Eurovision and Intervision networks in other countries.^[12][25][32] Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.

More information Country, Broadcaster ...

International broadcasters of the Sanremo Music Festival 1966

Country	Broadcaster	Channel(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Brazil	Rádio Jornal do Brasil [pt][a]			[33]
Colombia	Radio Sutatenza[b]			[34]
Costa Rica	Radiolandia[c]			[35]
Czechoslovakia	ČST	ČST		[36]
France	ORTF	Deuxième Chaîne[d]		[37]
Hungary	MTV	MTV		[38]
Poland	TP	TV Polska		[39]
Portugal	RTP	RTP		[40]
Romania	TVR	TVR[e]		[41]
Soviet Union	CT USSR	Programme Two[f]		[42]
Switzerland	SRG SSR	TSR	Georges Hardy [fr]	[43]
Yugoslavia	JRT	Televizija Beograd		[44]
		Televizija Ljubljana[g]		[45]
		Radio Novi Sad[h]		[46]

Close

Dispute over Bobby Solo's participation

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. Their request was announced alongside a six-month suspension period on his television appearances on the network due to his repeated acts of indiscipline.^[47] ATA accepted the request, forcing his record label Dischi Ricordi to announce his replacement with the vocal group I Musicals.^[12] However, after Solo apologized to RAI through a written letter, they went back on their decision and allowed the label to reinstate his participation.^[48]

Protests

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.^[28]

At the end of the second night, it was revealed that the song "Il ragazzo della via Gluck" performed by Adriano Celentano and Trio del Clan [it] had failed to qualify for the final, in addition to most of the competing bands in the competition.^[25] This caused outrage with supporters of Celentano and members of his record label Clan Celentano, who arranged a protest in the final night 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.^[16][28][29]

Fainting incidents

During the second night, while introducing the last performance of the show, "Pafff... bum" performed by The Yardbirds, one of the festival's presenters, Carla Maria Puccini [it], suddenly fainted while on stage.^[26][27][49] She had been malnourished and passed out from heat, as the Sanremo Casino lacked air conditioning.^[49][50] 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".^[29][51]