The Sanremo Music Festival 1978 (), officially the 28th Italian Song Festival (), was the 28th annual Sanremo Music Festival, held at the Teatro Ariston in Sanremo between 26 and 28 January 1978. It was organised by under sponsorship from the municipality of Sanremo and broadcast by (RAI). The shows were presented by Maria Giovanna Elmi, assisted by Stefania Casini, Beppe Grillo and Vittorio Salvetti.
The edition's format divided the entries into sections based on their performer: solo artists, groups, and singer-songwriters. The winning song overall was "" performed by Matia Bazar, which also won the groups section; with "", performed by Anna Oxa, winning the solo artists section and "Gianna", performed by Rino Gaetano, winning the singer-songwriters section.
Format In August 1977, two of the festival's former organisers, and Gianni Ravera, each presented proposals to the municipality of Sanremo to organise the event's 1978 edition. Despite support from unions for Ravera's proposal, the municipal council agreed to entrust the festival's organisation to Salvetti for the third consecutive year during a meeting on 28 October. Salvetti's proposal included separating the competing artists into categories and having their entries performed in only two of the festival's three nights, with the remaining night dedicated to a gala highlighting guest artists from different countries.
Salvetti's proposal also included moving the dates of the festival from March to January. The event was initially scheduled to take place between 19 and 21 January 1978, but was pushed back by a week from 26 to 28 January to comply with a request made by (RAI). Additionally, a tour starring the festival's participating artists was scheduled for after its conclusion, starting with locations in Italy and moving to cities throughout the United States and Canada from 9 to 16 April.
Since the event's traditional venue, the ballroom of the Sanremo Casino, was undergoing a series of renovations that began in 1976, the Teatro Ariston was chosen as the venue for the second year in a row. The stage was designed by Rino Ceriolo and adorned with roses, gladioli and orchids, featuring a backdrop with a sun painted in warm hues spanning seven hundred square metres.
Voting The competing songs were separated into three sections based on their performer: solo artists, groups, and singer-songwriters, with voting during the final night held across two rounds to determine a winner of each section in addition to an overall winner. The voting in both rounds was conducted by a jury representing five Italian cities, each consisting of nine members gathered at a location with people from specific professions or communities, including a hotel in Bari, a dance hall in Bologna, a nightclub in Florence, a hospital in Genoa and a football club in Venice.
In the first round, after all of the songs competing in a section were performed, each jury member voted for three. The results from each city's jury were then presented individually and displayed on a scoreboard next to the stage, with three songs per section qualifying to the second round. During the second round, two-minute versions of the nine remaining songs were performed consecutively, with jury members voting afterwards for one song per section. The results were displayed on the scoreboard all at once, determining the three winners. The points gathered during the round were used to form a ranking, with the song that received the most points declared the overall winner of the competition.
Competing entries At the request of entertainment unions, the municipality of Sanremo decided to include a song selection commission in the festival's regulations for the first time since the 1975 edition, rather than give the festival's organiser, , the right to choose artists for the event at his own discretion as was previously planned. The municipality received only thirty song submissions from record labels for the event, noted by press to be one of the smallest amounts in the festival's history, and a commission was formed, tasked with selecting fifteen to compete. The commission was chaired by Salvetti and composed of three union representatives—David Grieco, and Piero Vivarelli, as well as three members appointed by the municipality of Sanremo—Ettore Oddo, Antonio Montini and Giuseppe Albà.
Shortly after the fifteen competing songs were selected on 30 December, the three union representatives part of the commission put out a statement denouncing the song selection process. They argued that Salvetti and the other commission members imposed the selection of nine of the fifteen songs in the final stage of the process, disregarding submissions that had previously received approval by a large majority of the commission for irrelevant reasons not included in the selection criteria.
The full list of competing artists and their songs was announced on 9 January 1978, divided into sections for solo artists, groups and singer-songwriters. With the announcement, the festival's organisers stated one of the competing songs in the groups section, "" intended to be performed by the duo Chrisma, was disqualified for breaking the rules of the competition by having already been performed on television in 1977, which left only four songs to compete in the groups section.
+Competing entries – Solo artists Song Artist Songwriter(s) "" Anna Oxa "Anna Anna" "" Dora Moroni "" "" Santino Rocchetti
+Competing entries – Groups Song Artist Songwriter(s) "" Beans "" ◇ Chrisma ◇ "" Daniel Sentacruz Ensemble "" Matia Bazar "" Schola Cantorum
+Competing entries – Singer-songwriters Song Artist Songwriter(s) "" "" "" Marco Ferradini "Gianna" Rino Gaetano Rino Gaetano ""
Shows
The festival consisted of three shows: a first night held on 26 January broadcast under the title , the held on 27 January, which served as the second night, and a final held on 28 January. The first two nights were presented by Maria Giovanna Elmi, with featuring an introduction from Stefania Casini and interviews conducted by the festival's organiser, . During the final night, Elmi was assisted by Casini, Salvetti and the comedian Beppe Grillo. Casini conducted interviews with audience members and Grillo performed stand-up comedy interludes, while Salvetti sat at a booth below the scoreboard and introduced each performance, explained the rules of the competition and presented the voting sequences. The shows were directed by .
A running order for the competing songs was determined by random draw before the shows. The twenty-two piece Orchestra Azzurra under the direction of Paolo Zavallone was employed for the event and featured on stage. The song "Jeansflower" was composed by Zavallone to serve as the festival's opening theme.
First night The first night was held on 26 January 1978. The show featured all fourteen competing artists performing their songs for the first time without facing a vote, in addition to interviews with journalists in the audience conducted by the festival's organiser, . A forty minute program was recorded during the night titled and broadcast the following day. At the end of the night, Grace Jones performed a set on stage recorded to be broadcast as a television special at a later date.
+First night – 26 January 1978 Song Artist 1 "" Laura Luca 2 "Anna Anna" Donato Ciletti 3 "" Dora Moroni 4 "" Santino Rocchetti 5 "" Anna Oxa 6 "" Schola Cantorum 7 "" Beans 8 "" Daniel Sentacruz Ensemble 9 "" Matia Bazar 10 "" Anselmo Genovese 11 "" Roberto Carrino 12 "" Marco Ferradini 13 "Gianna" Rino Gaetano 14 "" Ciro Sebastianelli
Second night The was held on 27 January 1978, serving as the festival's second night. The show featured performances from various Italian and international guest artists representing their country of origin, and was recorded with the intention to be aired at a later date.
The show opened with the festival's musical director, Paolo Zavallone, performing his song "" under his stage name El Pasador. The remainder of the show contained performances from guest artists, including Maggie MacNeal performing "Winter in Berlin", Loredana Bertè performing "", performing "", Fred Bongusto performing "" and "", Asha Puthli performing "I'm Gonna Dance", Gigliola Cinquetti performing "", Riccardo Cocciante performing "", "" and "", Patty Pravo performing "" and "", Julio Iglesias performing "", "", "", "" and "", Bonnie Tyler performing "It's a Heartache", Grace Jones performing "" and the MMC Magical Music Circus performing "".
Final night
The final night was held on 28 January 1978. The fourteen competing artists performed their songs again, accompanied by the orchestra and separated into sections for solo artists, groups and singer-songwriters. Three songs from each section qualified to the second round, in which shortened versions of the songs were performed using playback, and a winner of each section as well as an overall winner were chosen.
Guest appearances during the show included Asha Puthli performing her song "The Devil Is Loose", Belle Epoque performing their song "Bamalama", Bonnie Tyler performing her song "It's a Heartache", Grace Jones performing a rendition of "" and Sheila and B. Devotion performing a rendition of "Singin' in the Rain".
"", written and performed by the band Matia Bazar, was the winning song of the groups section and the overall competition. "", written by Ivano Fossati and , and performed by Anna Oxa, was the winner of the solo artists section and achieved second place overall; and "Gianna", written and performed by Rino Gaetano, was the winner of the singer-songwriters section and achieved third place overall. At the end of the show, Matia Bazar reprised their song in full as the festival's overall winners, while the winners of the other sections reprised their songs in shortened versions.
Anna Oxa's presence at the event attracted particular media attention for her androgynous punk style and persona conceived by the artist Ivan Cattaneo. After the festival, all three of the winning songs achieved considerable commercial success, each reaching number one on Italian singles charts during the year.
First round
+First round – Solo artists – 28 January 1978 Song Artist Points Place 1 "" Laura Luca 24 3 2 "Anna Anna" Donato Ciletti 21 4 3 "" Dora Moroni 15 5 4 "" Santino Rocchetti 36 2 5 "" Anna Oxa 39 1
+ Detailed voting results of the first round – Solo artists Song scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" Total 1 "" 6 3 5 6 4 24 2 "Anna Anna" 2 6 1 5 7 21 3 "" 2 1 4 4 4 15 4 "" 9 8 8 6 5 36 5 "" 8 9 9 6 7 39
+First round – Groups – 28 January 1978 Song Artist Points Place 1 "" Schola Cantorum 37 2 2 "" Beans 26 4 3 "" Daniel Sentacruz Ensemble 29 3 4 "" Matia Bazar 43 1
+ Detailed voting results of the first round – Groups Song scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" Total 1 "" 6 7 8 7 9 37 2 "" 6 6 4 5 5 26 3 "" 6 5 6 6 6 29 4 "" 9 9 9 9 7 43
+First round – Singer-songwriters – 28 January 1978 Song Artist Points Place 1 "" Anselmo Genovese 26 3 2 "" Roberto Carrino 21 5 3 "" Marco Ferradini 23 4 4 "Gianna" Rino Gaetano 38 1 5 "" Ciro Sebastianelli 27 2
+ Detailed voting results of the first round – Singer-songwriters Song scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" Total 1 "" 2 4 7 7 6 26 2 "" 8 4 2 3 4 21 3 "" 6 5 4 8 23 4 "Gianna" 9 7 9 7 6 38 5 "" 8 6 4 6 3 27
Second round
+Second round – Solo artists – 28 January 1978 Song Artist Points Place Rank 1 "" Laura Luca 4 3 8 2 "" Santino Rocchetti 11 2 6 3 "" Anna Oxa 30 1 2
+Second round – Groups – 28 January 1978 Song Artist Points Place Rank 1 "" Schola Cantorum 9 2 7 2 "" Daniel Sentacruz Ensemble 2 3 9 3 "" Matia Bazar 34 1 1
+Second round – Singer-songwriters – 28 January 1978 Song Artist Points Place Rank 1 "" Anselmo Genovese 12 3 5 2 "Gianna" Rino Gaetano 17 1 3 3 "" Ciro Sebastianelli 16 2 4
Other awards Sanremo Verifica