Sanremo Music Festival 1968

Voting system

Various changes in the voting system were implemented for this year's contest. The vote in each show was conducted by a jury formed by twenty-six different newspapers, with twenty-five members each set up in their respective newspaper office.^[4] Juries were required to be composed of thirteen men and twelve women, with a majority under the age of 25, and have a specific array of professions and social classes.^[5][6] Each jury member gave one vote to seven different songs during the first two nights, while for the final they gave one vote to three songs.^[4][6] Additionally, the festival returned to awarding the top three songs for the first time since 1963, with the top three songs announced at the end of the final and performed again.^[6]

First night

The first night took place on 1 February 1968 at 21:15 CET.^[20] Twelve songs were performed and seven were selected for the final.

Second night

The second night took place on 2 February 1968 at 21:15 CET.^[23] Twelve songs were performed and seven were selected for the final.

Final night

The final night took place on 3 February 1968 at 21:00 CET.^[16] The fourteen songs admitted to the final were performed again and a winner was chosen. The show opened with a medley consisting of songs from past editions of the festival: "Piove" by Domenico Modugno, "Quando vien la sera [it]" by Joe Sentieri, "Quando, quando, quando" by Tony Renis and "Non pensare a me [it]" by Claudio Villa.^[5]

The winning song was "Canzone per te" written by Sergio Endrigo and Sergio Bardotti, performed by both Endrigo and Brazilian singer Roberto Carlos, with "Casa bianca [it]" written by Don Backy and Eligio La Valle, performed by Ornella Vanoni and Marisa Sannia placing second; and "Canzone" written by Don Backy and Detto Mariano, performed by Adriano Celentano and Milva placing third.^[18][19] Performances of the top three songs were repeated at the end of the show, with the exception of Celentano's rendition of "Canzone", as he refused to appear on stage.^[26]

Local broadcast

The final was broadcast on Programma Nazionale (television) and Secondo Programma (radio) beginning at 21:00 CET,^[16] with the first two nights broadcast on Secondo Programma (television) and Secondo Programma (radio) at 21:15 CET.^[20][23] In Italy, the final was broadcast on television to an estimated 20.1 million viewers, with the first and second nights broadcast to an estimated 18.7 and 18.3 million viewers respectively.^[27]

International broadcast

The first half of the final was broadcast via the Eurovision network in other countries.^[18] 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 1968

Country	Broadcaster	Channel(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Argentina	Canal 9[a]			[28]
Belgium	BRT	BRT[b]		[29]
Bulgaria	BT	BT		[30]
Czechoslovakia	ČsR [cs; sk]	Rádio Slovensko [sk][c]		[31]
Germany	ARD	Deutsches Fernsehen[d]	Wolf Mittler	[32]
Hungary	MTV	MTV		[33]
	MR	Kossuth Rádió		[34]
Poland	TP	Telewizja Polska		[35]
Romania	TVR	TVR		[36]
Spain	TVE	TVE 1		[37]
	RNE	RNE, Radio Peninsular de Barcelona [es]
Switzerland	SRG SSR	TV DRS[e]		[38]
		TSR[f]	Georges Hardy [fr]	[39]
		TSI[g]		[40]
		Radio Monte Ceneri
Yugoslavia	JRT	Televizija Beograd		[41]
		Televizija Ljubljana		[42]
		Televizija Zagreb		[43]

Close

Dispute over Don Backy's participation

Two songs written by singer-songwriter Don Backy were accepted into the competition: "Casa bianca [it]" and "Canzone", the latter of which he intended to perform at the festival himself. However, in 1967 the singer made accusations towards his record label Clan Celentano of altering the accounting of his record sales. As a result, manager of the label Adriano Celentano held a press conference on 15 December announcing he would sue the singer for defamation and personally replace Backy as the performer for "Canzone" at the festival, as the label had final say over the choice of performer.^[17][19][44]

Despite Celentano's half-hearted performances of "Canzone" to spite Backy, the song went on to achieve third place at the festival.^[3][18] During the reprise performances and award ceremony, Celentano did not appear on stage. He later claimed this was because he "couldn't tolerate that the victory went to Endrigo".^[45]

Dispute over Eartha Kitt's participation

The American jazz singer Sarah Vaughan was initially announced as a competing artist in the festival, set to perform the song "Che vale per me [it]". However, she later withdrew after being admitted to a hospital and having to undergo surgery.^[11][12] ATA announced that Eartha Kitt would replace her. The decision was not supported by one of the song's writers, Carlo Alberto Rossi, who after hearing her rehearsal performance on 31 January, claimed she was unfit to perform the song and falsely announced her withdrawal from the competition. He also made a request to ATA to play Vaughan's studio recording during the show, which was subsequently denied for being against the competition's rules. Gianni Ravera, the festival's artistic director, made a statement confirming Kitt would remain the performer, as her participation was contractually bound to ATA.^[46]