Sanremo Covers Night just rewired the week… and Ditonellapiaga stole the trophy

Sanremo’s covers night is the one evening a year where the festival stops pretending it’s a tidy competition and fully embraces its true nature: a glamorous group project with catastrophic potential. One minute you’re watching serious contenders trying to look dignified, the next you’re being emotionally held hostage by a chorus you haven’t heard since childhood, and by midnight you’ve convinced yourself that a cover performance has “winner energy” even though the actual final is still waiting like a lion behind a curtain.

And that’s exactly what happened tonight, with Carlo Conti and Laura Pausini running the show, and Bianca Balti returning as co-host alongside Alessandro Siani, because nothing says “big TV night” like mixing supermodel poise with comic chaos. 

Covers night is a trap, in the best way

This format is genius because it forces everyone to reveal something real: taste, instinct, nerve, stage chemistry, and the ability to make a famous song feel like yours rather than like a tribute act in expensive clothing. It’s also the night where fandoms either calm down or completely lose it, because suddenly you’ve got 30 artists, 30 guests, and an audience that remembers every original version of every song and has opinions about them all.

Tonight’s vote came from the holy trinity: televote, press jury, radio jury. 

Running order

01 Elettra Lamborghini con Las Ketchup “Aserejé”
02 Eddie Brock con Fabrizio Moro “Portami via”
03 Mara Sattei con Mecna “L’ultimo bacio”
04 Patty Pravo con Timofej Andrijashenko “Ti lascio una canzone”
05 Levante con Gaia “I maschi”
06 Malika Ayane con Claudio Santamaria “Mi sei scoppiato dentro il cuore”
07 Bambole di Pezza con Cristina D’Avena “Occhi di gatto”
08 Dargen D’Amico con Pupo e Fabrizio Bosso “Su di noi”
09 Tommaso Paradiso con Stadio “L’ultima luna”
10 Michele Bravi con Fiorella Mannoia “Domani è un altro giorno”
11 Tredici Pietro con Galeffi, Fudasca & Band “Vita”
12 Maria Antonietta & Colombre con Brunori Sas “Il mondo”
13 Fulminacci con Francesca Fagnani “Parole Parole”
14 LDA & AKA 7EVEN con Tullio De Piscopo “Andamento lento”
15 Raf con The Kolors “The riddle”
16 J-Ax con Ligera County Fam “E la vita, la vita”
17 Ditonellapiaga con TonyPitony “The lady is a tramp”
18 Enrico Nigiotti con ALFA “En e Xanax”
19 Serena Brancale con Gregory Porter e Delia “Besame Mucho”
20 Sayf con Alex Britti e Mario Biondi “Hit the Road Jack”
21 Francesco Renga con Giusy Ferreri “Ragazzo solo, ragazza sola”
22 Arisa con Coro del Teatro Regio di PARMA “Quello che le donne non dicono”
23 Samurai Jay con Belén Rodríguez e Roy Paci “Baila Morena”
24 Sal Da Vinci con Michele Zarrillo “Cinque giorni”
25 Fedez & Masini con Stjepan Hauser “Meravigliosa Creatura”
26 Ermal Meta con Dardust “Golden Hour”
27 Nayt con Joan Thiele “La canzone dell’amore perduto”
28 Luchè con Gianluca Grignani “Falco a metà”
29 Chiello con maestro Saverio Cigarini “Mi sono innamorato di te“
30 Leo Gassmann con Aiello “Era già tutto previsto” 

Results

Top 10 covers (televote + press + radio):
1 Ditonellapiaga con TonyPitony “The lady is a tramp”
2 Sayf con Alex Britti e Mario Biondi “Hit the Road Jack”
3 Arisa con Coro del Teatro Regio di PARMA “Quello che le donne non dicono”
4 Bambole di Pezza con Cristina D’Avena “Occhi di gatto”
5 Tredici Pietro con Galeffi, Fudasca & Band “Vita”
6 Sal Da Vinci con Michele Zarrillo “Cinque giorni”
7 LDA & AKA 7EVEN con Tullio De Piscopo “Andamento lento”
8 Nayt con Joan Thiele “La canzone dell’amore perduto”
9 Dargen D’Amico con Pupo e Fabrizio Bosso “Su di noi”
10 Luchè con Gianluca Grignani “Falco a metà” 

And yes, the cover-night win went to Ditonellapiaga + TonyPitony, who received the Best Cover award from Liguria governor Marco Bucci, which is peak Sanremo: big feelings, big television, and a regional institution handing out a trophy like it’s a state ceremony. 

Why tonight matters, even if it “doesn’t”

Covers night doesn’t crown the overall winner, but it absolutely reshapes the final. It boosts confidence, it creates headlines, it gives certain artists a fresh narrative (“they can really perform”), and it reminds everyone that charisma is an actual weapon.

Tomorrow, the festival goes back to the serious business: all 30 artists perform their original songs one last time, they’re voted by press, radio and televote, then the Top 5 fight it out again to decide who takes the Golden Lion. After a night like this, the final doesn’t feel like a destination anymore. It feels like a reckoning.