Industry

The 70° edition of singing contest Festival di Sanremo kicks off tonight on Rai 1 at 21.25 presented by Amadeus.

The event takes place at the Ariston Theatre and runs for five nights from Tuesday's premiere to Saturday's final. Unlike in previous years, the 24 participating acts have not been divided into categories.

Each night, acts will be receiving votes from different juries; a consumer panel made up of 300 people, the journalists in the press centre and eight entertainment industry professionals. Viewers at home will also be given the opportunity to cast their vote.

Just like last year, no songs will be eliminated throughout the week, which means every competing song is automatically qualified for Saturday's final. To grow viewers' anticipation, each night the top-eight, middle-eight and bottom-eight of the jury vote wil be revealed, without giving away each song's exact placing.

Since Italy returned with a bang to the Eurovision Song Contest back in 2011, their national competition 'Festival di Sanremo' has been directly linked to their international participation nearly every year. Since 2015, the winner of 'Sanremo' has the right to represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest. Here's everything you need to know about this year's competition, which kicks off tonight.

The Italian national broadcaster RAI has announced the rules of Sanremo 2020, which have a new clause regarding the Eurovision Song Contest. The rules of the competition state that all participants and their record companies must submit a form to RAI stating that the artist will take part in the Eurovision Song Contest. All parties must inform RAI by the first night of the contest whether they wish to take part in Eurovision.

Following the gap between the various voting results in the final night of the festival, artistic director of the festival announced huge changes in the voting process. Highlight of those changes is the fact that during the final night only the public will decide the winner.