Sanremo Music Festival 1970

In 1969, the municipality of Sanremo assumed management of the festival's venue, the Sanremo Casino, taking over from Società ATA who had organised the festival since 1958, after their concession ended and the planned public auction for the casino's management was suspended.^[1][2] Despite initial plans to organise the event themselves, the municipality eventually accepted an offer from Gianni Ravera, who served as the festival's artistic director from 1962 to 1968, and Ezio Radaelli [it], the former president of ATA, to organise the event through their newly established company Due Erre.^[1][3][4] The two agreed to pay the municipality fifty million lire and cover all expenses associated with organising the event.^[1]

In a meeting that took place on 26 April between the municipality and Radiotelevisione italiana (RAI), a decision was made to move the dates of the event to the end of February to avoid potential interference with RAI's musical variety show Canzonissima.^[5]

In addition to the three live shows on 26, 27 and 28 February 1970, a string of events took place at the Teatro Ariston in the contest's lead-up. On 22 February a show celebrating the festival's twentieth anniversary took place, was hosted by Daniele Piombi and featured performances of winning songs from previous editions.^[6][7][8] Shows on the following two days featured the artists Johnny Hallyday, The New Christy Minstrels, Roberto Carlos, Joe Dassin and Joe Cocker, and on 25 February, the Italian premiere of the film Easy Rider took place.^[6]

303 songs were submitted for the competition. The festival's organisers, Gianni Ravera and Ezio Radaelli [it], formed a special commission composed of ten members including themselves, Renato Griffan, Rodolfo D'Intino, Marcello De Martino, Enrico Gramigna and Luciano Pedrocchi. The other three members were women, included in the selection process to represent the music taste of the general public.^[11][12][13] The commission was tasked with narrowing down the list of submissions to twenty-four.^[12][13] Eventually, twenty-six were selected to compete.^[14]

A restriction was imposed on the number of foreign artists allowed to compete in the competition this year, as requested by the Unione cantanti italiana (UCI), which limited the amount to only four, of which two were required to reside in Italy.^[15][16][17]

The Castrocaro Music Festival was used to select two newcomer artists automatically given a spot among the festival's list of competing artists, after a one year break from being tied to the competition. The winners of the 1969 edition were Lucia Rizzi [it] and Dino Drusiani [it].^[18]

The festival consisted of three shows held between 26 and 28 February 1970. The first two nights consisted of thirteen songs performed twice, in which seven qualified from each show, creating a final of fourteen songs performed twice.^[21] Performances could be accompanied by the orchestra in the venue and with backing vocals provided by the vocal group I 4 + 4 di Nora Orlandi [it].^[9] All shows were presented by Nuccio Costa with the actors Enrico Maria Salerno and Princess Ira von Fürstenberg.^[22] The television production was directed by Enrico Moscatelli.^[7]

The song "Concerto per voce, piano e sogni" composed by Mario Capuano [it] served as the festival's theme.^[9]

In the first two nights, the songs were presented in groups of three.^[9] A draw took place on 24 February to decide the shows' running order, including the order artists would perform in.^[23] The final was split into two halves, with the first half broadcast internationally and the second half broadcast only in Italy, both featuring every song performed once.^[9] The American group The New Christy Minstrels performed a recap of the competing songs in the final. The group was initially slated to perform recaps for all three shows, but they refused to attend the first two nights after learning their performances wouldn't be broadcast on television.^[6][24]

Final night

The final night took place on 28 February 1970 at 21:00 CET.^[21] The fourteen songs admitted to the final were performed again and a winner was chosen. Guest appearances included the Brazilian actress Florinda Bolkan and the American group The New Christy Minstrels, who performed a recap of the competing songs in the final.^[9]

The winning song was "Chi non lavora non fa l'amore" written by Luciano Beretta, Miki Del Prete and Adriano Celentano, who performed the song in addition to his wife Claudia Mori. In second place was the song "La prima cosa bella" written by Mogol and Nicola Di Bari, performed by Di Bari and the group Ricchi e Poveri, with "L'arca di Noè" written and performed by Sergio Endrigo, and also performed by Iva Zanicchi placing third.^[7][10][32] All six performances of the top three songs were repeated at the end of the show.^[9]

Patty Pravo received the Giorgio Berti award given to the best performance by a competing artist at the festival.^[7]

  Winner

More information R/O, Song ...

Final night – 28 February 1970^[7][10]

R/O	Song	Artist 1	Artist 2	Points	Place
1	"L'amore è una colomba"	Marisa Sannia	Gianni Nazzaro	44	11
2	"L'arca di Noè"	Sergio Endrigo	Iva Zanicchi	296	3
3	"Canzone blu"	Tony Renis	Sergio Leonardi	28	13
4	"Sole, pioggia e vento"	Luciano Tajoli	Mal	52	9
5	"La spada nel cuore"	Little Tony	Patty Pravo	133	5
6	"Re di cuori"	Caterina Caselli	Nino Ferrer	24	14
7	"Eternità"	Ornella Vanoni	I Camaleonti	233	4
8	"Tipitipitì"	Orietta Berti	Mario Tessuto	52	9
9	"La prima cosa bella"	Nicola Di Bari	Ricchi e Poveri	309	2
10	"Taxi"	Anna Identici	Antoine	61	8
11	"Hippy"	Fausto Leali	Carmen Villani	37	12
12	"Romantico blues"	Gigliola Cinquetti	Bobby Solo	96	6
13	"Pa' diglielo a ma'"	Nada	Rosalino	70	7
14	"Chi non lavora non fa l'amore"	Adriano Celentano	Claudia Mori	344	1

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