There is always a passage, within the Festival, in which enthusiasm gives way to awareness. After collective listening, after the initial curiosity, the moment comes when the songs really start to matter. The second evening of Sanremo 2026 is exactly this: the point at which you stop observing and start choosing.
Wednesday 25 February, from 8.40pm on Rai 1, the Ariston stage hosts half of the competing Champions and lights up the competition with a voting mechanism that can already guide the general ranking. Carlo Conti and Laura Pausini remain at the helm.
Co-hosts and guests of the second evening of Sanremo 2026
The second evening moves on several levels. Alongside the two main hosts, three co-hosts with very different personalities alternate: Pilar Fogliati, Achille Lauro and Lillo Petrolo. Three presences that bring irony, theatricality and lightness, helping to give rhythm to the episode without taking away the centrality of the competition.
The music also continues outside the Ariston. Bresh performs on the Suzuki Stage in Piazza Colombo, while from the Costa Toscana ship comes the connection with Max Pezzali, who brings some of his most beloved hits back to the stage.
The evening also includes moments dedicated to Italian sport, with the presence of Olympic and Paralympic athletes who enrich the television story with stories of determination and resilience, including Francesca Lollobrigida and Lisa Vittozzi, the Paralympic athletes Giacomo Bertagnolli and Giuliana Turra and Camilla Ardenzi for a tribute to her grandmother Ornella Vanoni. Arianna Fontana was also expected to attend, but unfortunately she had to withdraw due to a bad flu.
For the New Proposals section, the hosting is entrusted to Gianluca Gazzoli, called to talk about a part of the race that often offers the most authentic surprises.
The 15 Bigs of the second evening and the lineup in order of release
After listening to all thirty Champions in the first episode, this time 15 Big take the stage, with more concentrated attention and more conscious listening from the audience.
The exit order of the competing singers is as follows:
- Patty Pravo, on stage at 9.17pm
- LDA and Aka7, on stage at 9.26pm
- Enrico Nigiotti, on stage at 9.32pm
- Tommaso Paradiso, on stage at 9.51pm
- Elettra Lamborghini, on stage at 9.59pm
- Ermal Meta, on stage at 10.13pm
- Levante, on stage at 10.37pm
- Rag dolls, on stage at 10.49pm
- Chiello, on stage at 11.11pm
- J-Ax, on stage at 11.21pm
- Nayt, on stage at 11.29pm
- Fulminacci, on stage at 11.49pm
- Fedez and Masini, on stage at 00:03
- Dargen D’Amico, on stage at 00:18
- Ditonellapiaga, on stage at 00:33
The challenges of the Nuove Proposte take place next to the Bigs, with Mazzariello who with Manifestation of love will compete with Angelica Bove with Brickwhile Nicolò Filippucci with Lagoon will challenge Blind, El Ma and Soniko with Nei mia DM. Two of them will enter the final of the category scheduled for the third evening.
The first evening ranking: who starts ahead
At the end of the first episode, the first five provisional positions were announced, without placing order, according to the regulations.
The top five includes:
Arisa,
Ermal Meta,
Dargen D’Amico,
Fedez,
Francesco Renga.
It is a first orientation, a photograph that tells which songs immediately struck the public and the juries. The second evening can consolidate these positions or completely shuffle the cards, because in Sanremo the balance is fragile and falling in love can even reach the second listen.
The voting system of the second evening of Sanremo
For the big names in the competition the mechanism remains linear and transparent: the public’s televoting accounts for 50% and the Radio Jury accounts for 50%. The sum determines the evening ranking, which is integrated with the previous votes to build the general one.
For the New Proposals, the Jury from the Press Room, TV and Web also intervenes, in a balance between popular consensus and technical judgement.
Because this evening can change everything
The second evening is the moment when the songs really start to live out of the surprise effect. It is the moment in which a refrain is fixed in the memory, in which a text becomes clear, in which a performance acquires depth.
Sanremo 2026 thus enters its most interesting stretch: the favorites begin to emerge, the radio stations guide the choices, the public divides and becomes passionate. Ariston continues to be the emotional center of the country, but the race is starting to speak with a clearer voice. And from here on out every performance can shift the balance.
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