A week has passed since the end of Sanremo 2026. Carlo Conti’s last, but also the last of a cycle – which began with Conti in 2015 – which brought to the Festival the renewal that had been expected for some time, starting from the musical choice. A golden season, which brought the public – even the youngest ones – closer to an event that is now 76 years old, but also the singers, the record companies, and not least the advertising investors, who have fattened the coffers of Rai Pubblicità year after year, making Sanremo a record revenue machine for public television.

Like all long-term successes, however, the moment of the curtain comes, and the one that has just fallen on the Festival not only marks a change of pace, but also a generational change, as important as it is perhaps necessary.

This edition suffered the same tiredness as the artistic director, who was hasty not only in conducting, but also in pulling out all the stops when it came to his task at the Ariston. The choice of 30 songs – not particularly good, not to mention anonymous – spoke volumes, not only about the setlist. The show, the sparkle, the unscheduled events were missing, but also the quality. There remain crumbs of controversy, some radio successes, the social redemption of the winner and a load of expectations to be unloaded on the young successor. We have already forgotten the rest.

The Sal Da Vinci controversy

Sal Da Vinci’s song was underestimated by everyone. From the journalists, who after the pre-listenings were quick to write many other names on the list of favourites, but also from Carlo Conti himself, who let out a “this one had to be there too”, leaving us to understand very well that the choice was linked more to a question of musical genre than of quality. It was the public who rewarded her in the televoting, that public now more attentive to the trend than to the song.

A triumph that recalls that of Lola Ponce and Giò Di Tonno, in 2008, with “Colpo di at first sight”. A song that no one remembers anymore, unlike what will happen with this one by Sal, who arrived on stage with the ballet for TikTok already ready. Popular victories that say a lot about a Festival that has evidently gone back years. And it’s not a ‘regional’ issue, nor a question of prejudice towards a genre or an artist. It’s just that objectively there were better songs, but now it seems that even musical tastes reason by algorithm.

Sal Da Vinci’s victory raised a fuss of celebration and controversy, the effects of which we can still see on social media and on TV. That of Aldo Cazzullo, who panned the song by making it the soundtrack of Camorra weddings, was the most ferocious and certainly excessive, but by exaggerating in this way the deputy director of Courier it at least reminded us of the liveliness of certain disputes that have always animated Sanremo, and which we had forgotten.

Saldavincismo as Neapolitan redemption

The victory dedicated to Naples on the Ariston stage, the underlining of pride for one’s city in every interview and television intervention, the party in the neighborhood upon returning, the tour of the pitch at the Maradona Stadium with the Golden Lion, up to the complaint for “territorial discrimination” after Cazzullo’s statements. Sal Da Vinci seems to have become the new Maschio Angioino, an unshakable fortress in which to guard a ‘Neapolitanness’ that seems to feel constantly threatened and always in search of social redemption.

Not a song won, much less a singer. Napoli won and now recognize themselves as the first to climb back to the top step of the Sanremo podium, after Massimo Ranieri in ’88 with “Perdere l’amore”. She was ready to do it two years ago with Geolier – of a completely different genre, with a completely different song – and she would have done it anyway if Luché had won, competing with a rap song. But now it is the era of Saldavincismo for the Neapolitan redemption.

The success of Totonellapiaga, Samurai Jay and a few others

Even less music remains from this Sanremo compared to past editions, despite boasting a roster of thirty songs. “How annoying!” by Ditonellapiaga is already a hit, Fedez and Masini, Tommaso Paradiso, Sayf, Fulminacci, J-Ax are also being listened to – and sung – and going towards the middle of the Festival charts, it’s going very well for Samurai Jay – who anticipated the summer hit by a few months with his “Ossessione” – and LDA with AKA 7even. The other pieces never so weak.

The coronation of Stefano De Martino

It was a Festival that caused so little talk that even before it ended we had already started imagining and commenting on the next one. The announcement of Stefano De Martino as host and artistic director of Sanremo 2027, made live during the final, had this clear intent. Shifting attention to the future of the event, now in the hands of a young king who must fend off the blows of those who accuse him of not having enough experience.

A heavy succession full of expectations, which De Martino will have to start managing immediately. A year to do better and start a new era.