Trust me: to save the Sanremo Festival 2026 they will be the semi-unknown newcomers, the ones that history, at the time of the announcement of the cast, has always handed over to posterity as the quote “…and who is this?”. This time it’s them, surprises by nature and vocation, to have the best songs in the pipelinewith more ideas and which listeners can more easily take advantage of. They won’t be (we put them in second place) rappers, a sign of a tired hip hop scene at the moment. Nor the songwriters, who even in 2025 – from Lucio Corsi on down – they had immediately been the real reason to turn on the TVinexplicably weakened this year. And, above all, it won’t be the dozen or so middle-class ballads that swamp the list of competitors, all good but irremediably Sanremo, already heard, with few flashes.

Names to keep an eye on

Colombre and Marie Antoinette, however, certainly have flashes, a couple in life and on stage, who could emerge from the Festival transformed, with in their hands the popularity they have never had or sought until now. For the avoidance of doubt, they are not Coma_Cose, because their project is not uniquely linked to the corresponding love relationship: both have more than ten-year careers as solo singer-songwriters, pure indie scene, small venues, niches, each in their own name, Colombre on one side and Maria Antonietta on the other; this, therefore, is an extraordinary union in itself, which brings to mind Colapesce and Dimartino more than California and Fausto Lama. After all, Happiness and that’s it dodge the shortcuts of one Little hearts (and which perhaps then undermined the creativity of Coma_Cose themselves), launching themselves rather as one Very light music 2.0, a catchphrase yes, but a high-ranking one. It is clear, the surprise effect of Colapesce and Dimartino – who were still the first – is missing, but the trend is the same.

Speaking of ruts, it also seems incredibly untrodden the one opened by Olly with Stupid nostalgiamelodic and hyper-classical pop-rock in Vasco Rossi style, which in recent months the new generations have appreciated a lot, partly for the context and partly for having lost the original. Eddie Brock tries with Vulturesanother complete stranger – he only has on his CV It’s not youviral hit on TikTok – which could make its way with a ballad that, okay, it doesn’t have the strength to Stupid nostalgiabut in front of him there could be a prairie, either because it is clean and square in a Festival instead of unsustainable (for some authors) let’s make it weirdperhaps because the classics, if handled with criteria, don’t pass (ah, it’s the only song of the lot to feature a solo, guitar in this case).

It’s not entirely off the radar, though. Chielloif only because in 2025 at the Festival he was a guest of Rose Villain, who defined him as “the Italian pop star of the future”. Maybe. From the past of excesses in trap with FSK remain the tattoos on the face and an attitude that is in itself lunar, but I always think of you moves between a first Achille Lauro from Sanremo and Corsi himself (he also wrote it with Tommaso Ottomano, in the past many of his pieces were produced by Colombre) and within five days he could transform it from an unidentified object, strange, dangerousa sort of darling even of the older ones (in fact, it does not have an approach strictly linked only to Gen Z or so).

What if the surprise was Sayf?

And then there is Sayfa real breath of fresh air in a stagnant urban environment. He has already distanced himself from Ghali, mostly so as not to be assimilated to him too easily, but I like you a lot – despite the title, just like I always think of you – has a text that is anything but simple and pandering, also describing the contradictions experienced by a boy growing up in Italy today. The passage in I’m happy at the seaside with Marco Mengoni and Rkomi last summer (a piece which also originates from his pen) has already given a pop breath to an artist who, based on what we saw in the debut of God willing (2025), seems like a sort of urban Manu Chao, with all that that entails. The idea is of a second one Money of Mahmood, in general of the entire cast it seems the one with the clearest written among the stars that he could do great things in the future. AND I like you a lot it could be an epiphany.