Sanremo: from “Gianna” to “Vita spericolata”, the immortal songs that never won the Festival

Just a few days remain until the umpteenth edition of the Sanremo Festival (at the Teatro Ariston from February 24th to 28th, 2026), and as every year, the ritual kicks back into gear: leaks, controversies, notable absences, early arguments about Eurovision. But in the end, what remains are the songs — including those that, despite losing out during Ariston week, went on to win in the long run, becoming shared heritage of Italian music. It's these songs that "Sanremo e la classifica del tempo (100 canzoni non incoronate dal Festival diventate immortali)" looks at, the book written by Marco Rettani and Nico Donvito, out January 29th, a symbolic date coinciding with the launch of the first edition of the Festival back in 1951. It's a wide-ranging, well-documented volume, enriched with photographs and cover art, spanning more than seventy years of Sanremo history and selecting a hundred songs that never took first place but became permanent fixtures of the collective imagination.

The journey starts with distant classics like "Papaveri e papere" from 1952 or "Musetto (la più bella sei tu)" from 1956, and runs all the way to very recent titles like "Tango" by Tananai (2023) or "Volevo essere un duro" by Lucio Corsi (2024). Rounding out the project is a CD featuring sixteen iconic songs, including "Una lacrima sul viso", "Ma che freddo fa", "Con te partirò" and "E dimmi che non vuoi morire".

"I've always thought that a song's true victory is managing to endure," explains Rettani. "To endure in memories, in wounds, in joys, in departures and returns." Donvito, meanwhile, highlights the research behind the project: "A hundred songs, a hundred stories. We looked for the most popular, most singable tunes, but also the most curious and revealing anecdotes."

The book, in fact, doesn't just list the songs: it reconstructs the context, the on-stage moments and behind-the-scenes episodes, and gathers a hundred comments from artists, songwriters and industry insiders, building a choral narrative that captures the full complexity of the Festival. It's valuable material both for those who've always eyed Sanremo with suspicion and for those who know every last detail of it.

The volume is further enriched by original contributions from Renzo Arbore, Peppe Vessicchio and Vincenzo Mollica, alongside a heartfelt, deeply personal letter from Pippo Baudo. After all, the Festival's history is dotted with underrated debuts and songs too far ahead of their time, or too out of step with the rules, to be "crowned" at the right moment. A telling case is "Vita spericolata" by Vasco Rossi, presented in 1983 and placed a mere twenty-fifth, after the singer-songwriter from Zocca had already thrown Ariston off balance the previous year with "Vado al massimo". The same fate befell "Donne" by Zucchero and the Randy Jackson Band, only twenty-first in 1985, or "Lei verrà" by Mango, fourteenth in 1986, the edition that marked Loretta Goggi's debut as the first female host.

Among the "unsuccessful successes" is also "Il clarinetto" by Renzo Arbore, joined in 1985 by Gegè Telesforo, Nando Murolo, Adriano Fabi and Piero Roberto. Also left without a win were "Un'emozione da poco" by Anna Oxa (second in 1978) and "Vacanze romane" by Matia Bazar (fourth in 1983), "Almeno tu nell'universo" by Mia Martini (ninth in 1989) and "Spunta la luna dal monte" by Pierangelo Bertoli and Tazenda (fifth in 1991), to name just a few more tracks that became evergreens of Italian song.

There are years in which the sheer concentration of unrewarded masterpieces makes clear just how difficult the choice must have been. In 1966, for instance, the competition included "Nessuno mi può giudicare" by Caterina Caselli, "Il ragazzo della via Gluck" by Adriano Celentano with Trio del Clan, "La notte dell'addio" and "Io ti darò di più", while the win went to "Dio, come ti amo" by Domenico Modugno and Gigliola Cinquetti. In 1967, the year marked by the tragedy of Luigi Tenco, who was competing alongside Dalida with "Ciao amore ciao", songs like "Cuore matto", "L'immensità", "La musica è finita" by Umberto Bindi and "Bisogna saper perdere" by The Rokes and Lucio Dalla all missed out on first place.

Moving forward in time, 1972 lined up "Jesahel" by Delirium, featuring a young Ivano Fossati, "Montagne verdi" by Marcella and "Piazza Grande" by Lucio Dalla; 1981 brought "Maledetta primavera" by Loretta Goggi, "Sarà perché ti amo" by Ricchi e Poveri and "Ancora" by Edoardo De Crescenzo. In 1995, "Destinazione Paradiso" by Gianluca Grignani and "Con te partirò" by Andrea Bocelli failed to reach the top. And even in more recent years the pattern has repeated itself: "Al posto del mondo" by Chiara Civello was actually eliminated in 2012, "Vietato morire" by Ermal Meta only placed third in 2017, and "Musica leggerissima" by Colapesce Dimartino got no further than fourth place in 2021.

Now that the Festival is once again just around the corner, the only certainty is that the podium will say something about the present, while the songs destined to endure could come from any position at all. Although, given this year's line-up, one is entitled to have doubts.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google