Sanremo Music Festival 1969

The festival was organised by Società ATA, the concessionary of the Sanremo Casino.^[4] In March 1968, the Sanremo municipal council approved the transfer of sixty percent of ATA's shares to their former president Ezio Radaelli [it], reinstating him as president of the company.^[5] The council later granted ATA a five-year extension of the casino's management, also allowing them to continue organising the festival as they had done since the 1958 edition.^[6][7] ATA initially announced that Gianni Ravera would continue to serve as the festival's artistic director, but he declined the offer due to disagreements with Radaelli over ideas regarding the event's organisation.^[8] Radaelli then appointed Vincenzo Micocci [it] as the artistic director.^[9][10]

In July, ATA held a press conference announcing a list of regulations for the festival's 1969 edition. They confirmed the event would be held across three nights between 30 January and 1 February 1969 and consist of twenty-four songs, with no major changes made to the voting system.^[10]

In September, the Italian Ministry of the Interior denied ratifying the Sanremo municipal council's decision to grant ATA a five-year extension on the concession of the Sanremo Casino. The ministry permitted the municipality to give the company a temporary extension on its concession past the 9 October expiry date, in order to prevent interference with the festival's organisation. An auction for the casino's management was then scheduled for February 1969 after the festival's conclusion.^[11][12]

ATA received 247 song submissions for the competition.^[17][18] A seven member selection committee tasked with narrowing down the list of submissions to twenty-four was chosen by publishing and record companies from a list of twenty-one candidates proposed by ATA's president, Ezio Radaelli [it]. The committee included the journalists Adriano Bolzoni, Filippo D'Errico, Daniele Ionio, Mario Olivieri, Gigi Speroni, Marcello Zeri and the composer Carlo Rustichelli.^[18] The twenty-four selected songs were announced on 30 December.^[19]

The artists union Unione cantanti italiana (UCI) requested the number of foreign artists participating in the competition not exceed ten, which ATA agreed upon during a meeting with the union on 10 January.^[20]

Michele was initially announced among the list of competing artists, set to perform the song "Tu sei bella come sei [it]", but voluntarily withdrew and was replaced by The Showmen [it].^[21][13] Anna Identici was also announced as a competing artist, with the song "Il treno", but was unable to attend the event after attempting suicide and being admitted to a hospital's intensive care unit.^[21][22] Rosanna Fratello was later announced as her replacement.^[23]

The festival consisted of three live shows held between 30 January and 1 February 1969. The first two nights consisted of twelve songs performed twice, in which seven qualified from each show, creating a final of fourteen songs performed twice.^[26] A 32-piece orchestra were able to accompany each performance.^[27] All shows were presented by Nuccio Costa and Gabriella Farinon.^[21] The television director was Lino Procacci [it].^[15]

For the first two nights, songs were presented in groups of three in an order decided by random draw.^[26][27] The draw also decided the order artists would perform in, with the exception of foreign artists, who always performed their song after an Italian artist had already done so. For the final, the show was split into two halves, with each half containing every song performed once in an order determined by random draw. Foreign artists performed exclusively in the second half of the show, with the decision of which half Italian artists would perform in made by the respective record label of each artist.^[14]

For the first time, a theme song was used for the event: "La canzone portafortuna" written by Tony Renis, Albero Testa, Orfelius and Medi Mandour, which was initially to be performed in two versions by Renis and Lara Saint Paul at the start and end of each show.^[21][15][28] However, after complaints from competing artists and a formal protest from UCI, the planned performances were scrapped, and both versions of the song instead served as background music to a short video played at the start of each show.^[21][16]

Final night

The final night took place on 1 February 1969 at 21:00 CET.^[4][29] The fourteen songs admitted to the final were performed again and a winner was chosen.

The winning song was "Zingara" written by Luigi Albertelli and Enrico Riccardi, performed by Bobby Solo and Iva Zanicchi, serving as both artists' second victory at the contest. In second place was the song "Lontano dagli occhi [it]" written and performed by Sergio Endrigo, and additionally performed by Welsh singer Mary Hopkin, with "Un sorriso [it]" written by Don Backy and Detto Mariano, performed by both Backy and Milva placing third.^[14][36] All six performances of the top three songs were repeated at the end of the show.^[15]

  Winner

More information R/O, Song ...

Final night – 1 February 1969^{[36][37][38][39]}

R/O	Song	Artist 1	Artist 2	Points	Place
1	"Bada bambina"	Little Tony	Mario Zelinotti	54	12
2	"Zingara"	Bobby Solo	Iva Zanicchi	237	1
3	"Un sorriso"	Don Backy	Milva	178	3
4	"Quando l'amore diventa poesia"	Orietta Berti	Massimo Ranieri	63	10
5	"Ma che freddo fa"	Nada	The Rokes	141	5
6	"La pioggia"	Gigliola Cinquetti	France Gall	116	6
7	"Il gioco dell'amore"	Caterina Caselli	Johnny Dorelli	86	8
8	"Zucchero"	Rita Pavone	Dik Dik	53	13
9	"Un'ora fa"	Fausto Leali	Tony Del Monaco	154	4
10	"Un'avventura"	Lucio Battisti	Wilson Pickett	69	9
11	"Cosa hai messo nel caffè?"	Riccardo Del Turco	Antoine	29	14
12	"Lontano dagli occhi"	Sergio Endrigo	Mary Hopkin	228	2
13	"Piccola, piccola"	Carmen Villani	Alessandra Casaccia	59	11
14	"Tu sei bella come sei"	The Showmen	Mal and the Primitives	93	7

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