Disco Sanremo (1976- 1979)

The rise of disco music culture at Italy’s most popular music event of the year.

As the oldest and most followed platform for popular music tradition in Italy and the direct inspiration for continental (and now global) sensation Eurovision, the Sanremo Music Festival is still standing after more than 70 years from its first edition in 1951. Ever since its inception, its stage has been a mirror not only for the musical trends du jour but also for social, political and most importantly fashion changes of the country through the decades. 

One can clearly distill the melodic fil rouge that makes a song sound typically “sanremese”. If you listen to most winning entries from the 1950s till the 2020s, you’ll clearly single out the main ingredients: slow ballads, vocal virtuosity, catchy melodies and (somehow individual or collective) relevant, or otherwise, simply memorable lyrics. Of course there are plenty of exceptions, but if you compare the first winning song, Nilla Pizzi’s “Grazie dei fior” from 1951, and last year’s “Due Vite” by Marco Mengoni, you would hardly bel…