Sanremo 2026: Covers and Artists for the Duets Night
La fourth evening of the Sanremo Festival 2026, scheduled for Friday, February 27, represents one of the most recognizable moments of the entire television week. The cover night focuses media attention, collective memory, and experimentation, presenting the thirty artists in the Campioni section with a complex task: reinterpreting a song from the Italian or international repertoire released by December 31, 2025. This is not a simple homage, but a test of artistic identity, evaluated through a voting system involving the public and juries. The result influences the Festival's narrative, even without directly impacting the final ranking.
How the cover night at Sanremo 2026 works
The structure of the fourth evening follows a well-established mechanism, but it's not without strategic implications. Each artist performs a cover of their own choosing, often accompanied by a guest or a specially crafted collaboration. The performance is judged by three components: televoting, the Press Room Jury, TV and Web Jury, and the Radio Jury. The combined weight of the votes determines a ranking dedicated exclusively to the evening.
The winner is announced at the end of the performances, with no direct impact on the main competition. This autonomy makes the evening a space for greater artistic freedom. Many artists take advantage of the opportunity to break away from their usual repertoire, seeking reinterpretations, crossovers, or symbolic choices. From a television perspective, the cover night functions as an event within an event, capable of attracting even an audience less interested in the competition.
Which covers do the Big artists in the competition bring on stage?
The list of covers chosen for Sanremo 2026 highlights a balance between great classics, international hits, and songs tied to recent popular memory. Collaborations broaden the scope of the choices, transforming many performances into dialogues between generations, languages, and musical contexts. What emerges is not isolated provocations, but an overall design that emphasizes recognizability and reinterpretation.
Below are all the covers from the fourth evening, with their respective guests:
- Arisa – What women do not say with the Choir of the Teatro Regio of Parma
- Rag Dolls – Cat eyes with Cristina D'Avena
- Chiello – I have fallen in love with you with Morgan
- Dargen D'Amico - About us with Pupo and Fabrizio Bosso
- Finger in the wound – The Lady Is a Tramp with Tonypitony
- Eddie Brock – portami via with Fabrizio Moro
- Elettra Lamborghini – aserejé with Las Ketchup
- Enrico Nigiotti – En and Xanax with Alpha
- Ermal Meta – Golden hour with Dardust
- Fedez and Marco Masini – Wonderful creature with Stjepan Hauser
- Francesco Renga – Ragazzo solo, ragazza solo with Giusy Ferreri
- Fulminacci – Words words with Francesca Fagnani
- J-Ax – And life, life with Ligera County Family
- LdA and Aka7even – Slow progress with Tullio De Piscopo
- Leo Gassmann – It was all already foreseen with Aiello
- I raised - Males with Gaia
- Luché – Half Hawk with Gianluca Grignani
- Malika Ayane – You burst inside my heart with Claudio Santamaria
- Mara Sattei – The last Kiss with Mecna
- Marie Antoinette and Colombre – The world with Brunori Sas
- Michele Bravi - Tomorrow is another day with Fiorella Mannoia
- Nayt – The song of lost love with Joan Thiele
- Patty Pravo – I leave you a song with Timofei Andrijashenko
- Raf – The Riddle with The Kolors
- Sal Da Vinci – Five days with Michele Zarrillo
- Samurai Jay – Dance brunette with Belén Rodríguez and Roy Paci
- Sayf – Hit the RoadJack with Alex Britti and Mario Biondi
- Serena Brancale – Kiss Me a lot with Gregory Porter and Delia
- Thomas Paradiso – The last moon with Stadium
- Thirteen Peter – C.V. with Galeffi, Fudasca and band
The combination of these choices tells the story of a Festival that uses the cover as a narrative tool, rather than a simple stylistic exercise.
Why the cover night remains central to the story of Sanremo
Within the Festival, the fourth evening maintains a central role because it temporarily suspends the competition and puts the shared musical heritage front and center. The covers allow the audience to evaluate the artists outside of the dynamics of the original song, encouraging more immediate comparisons and direct emotional reactions. For the juries, too, the evening represents a different testing ground, where interpretation and arrangement matter more than strategy.
From a television perspective, the cover night guarantees pace, recognition, and a high level of social media conversation. Each edition produces moments that are destined to last, regardless of the final outcome of the Festival. Sanremo 2026 confirms this function, entrusting the fourth night with the task of combining memory, entertainment, and contemporary reinterpretation.