Sanremo Music Festival 2012

Sanremo Music Festival 2012
Dates
Semi-final 1	14 February 2012
Semi-final 2	15 February 2012
Semi-final 3	16 February 2012
Semi-final 4	17 February 2012
Final	18 February 2012
Host
Venue	Teatro Ariston Sanremo, Liguria, Italy
Presenter(s)	Gianni Morandi and Rocco Papaleo, Ivana Mrázová
Musical director	Marco Sabiu
Artistic director	Gianmarco Mazzi
Host broadcaster	Rai 1
Vote
Voting system	Mixed (televotes, jury, orchestra votes and journalists' "golden share")
Big Artists section
Number of entries	14
Winner	Emma "Non è l'inferno"
Newcomers' section
Number of entries	8
Winner	Alessandro Casillo "È vero (che ci sei)"
2011 ← Sanremo Music Festival → 2013

The Sanremo Music Festival 2012 (Italian: Festival di Sanremo 2012), officially the 62nd Italian Song Festival (62º Festival della canzone italiana), was the 62nd annual Sanremo Music Festival, held at the Teatro Ariston in Sanremo between 14 and 18 February 2012,^[1] and broadcast by Rai 1. The show was presented by Gianni Morandi with Ivana Mrázová and Rocco Papaleo.^[2]

The competition was divided in two different sections. The Big Artists section, including 14 established Italian artists performing a new song, was won by Emma Marrone with "Non è l'inferno". The Newcomers section, featuring 8 debuting or little-known artists, was won by Alessandro Casillo with "È vero (che ci sei)"; two of them were chosen through the contest Area Sanremo, and six of them were chosen as the winners of the web contest SanremoSocial.

At the end of the competition, Nina Zilli, who had competed in the Big Artists section of the festival with "Per sempre", was chosen by a specific jury as the Italian entrant for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012, where she would perform "L'amore è femmina". Alessandro Casillo was excluded from the selection since he would be under the age of 16 by the time of the contest, contravening the rules.^[3]