What happened during the first night of Sanremo 2026? 5 things you may have missed

The years go by, the seasons change. Once a year, as certain as taxes and summer hits, here it comes again: the Sanremo Music Festival. Whether you love it or hate it, there’s no escaping the comments, debates and memes it inevitably generates. And even if this edition, at least according to some, didn’t start under the best of circumstances, that doesn’t mean it can’t still surprise us, make us laugh or outrage us. For anyone who wants to talk about it at the office or in class with friends and colleagues, here’s a quick guide to the most noteworthy moments (according to us) from the opening night of the Sanremo Music Festival 2026, hosted by Carlo Conti, somewhere between serious and tongue-in-cheek.

Sanremo: 5 moments you missed during the first night

Arisa’s eighth Sanremo with Magica Favola (and a custom Des_Phemmes dress)

We may be biased, but Arisa, performing among the first contestants while we were still fully alert, lit up the Ariston stage. Whether you like the song or not isn’t the point. The dress, a custom Des_Phemmes piece styled and creatively directed by Rebecca Baglini, made her look stunning: a snow queen with a Disney-princess song about growing up as a woman, from childhood to the present. We approve, and we can’t do otherwise. Moving (and worth catching up on RaiPlay during your lunch break, too).

The collective hallucination with AI on Papaveri e Papere

At a certain point, Carlo Conti’s tight-paced competition (flanked by Laura Pausini and Can Yaman, briefly turning the stage into a favorite-aunt primetime drama) suddenly came to a halt. In moments like that, it’s only natural to get distracted, grab your phone, text in WhatsApp groups and post on Twitter things that, under normal circumstances, might worry a relative or alert law enforcement. This time, for example, a chorus of Papaveri e Papere by Nilla Pizzi kicked off, during which, thanks to cutting-edge artificial intelligence, everyone in the audience and on stage was transformed into ducks. The effect was pure uncanny valley. It all happened so fast, and it was so bad, that it would seem like it never happened at all, if not in our nightmares. And yet.

A general mainstreaming of horoscopes and astrology on the Ariston stage

The evening opened with Ditonellapiaga who, in Che fastidio!, sang: “Hands up only if you’re an Aquarius / Funny, I thought you were such a Sagittarius.” Then Mrs. Gianna, who voted in the referendum between republic and monarchy (on the republic side, thankfully), mentioned she’s a Pisces, just like Carlo Conti. Later, in an exchange between Pausini and Yaman, the former pointed out she’s a Taurus, and that it’s only natural she gets along with her colleague, who is a Scorpio. The horoscope has landed at Sanremo 2026, and it’s unclear whether - given the trend - it’s just pizza-dinner small talk or an undeniable sign of astrology’s power, now permeating every layer of society and making its way onto the stage that normalizes and trivializes everything, but also legitimizes it.

The Spiderman meme, but with the Sandokans of past and present

In a weak competition full of dead moments (which we won’t name), memes inevitably focused on the skits. Among them, one had the aura of a Masonic initiation: the encounter between Kabir Bedi (the historic Sandokan in Sergio Sollima’s 1976 TV series) and Can Yaman, who played the character in a much more recent Rai 1 drama aired last year. Comparisons between this meeting and the iconic meme of two identical Spidermen pointing at each other (you know the one?) were endless, and it went on long enough to make us hope it would never stop. Or that a CGI tiger would suddenly leap out of our screen.

The Maria Antonietta and Colombre nod to Nada Malanima

Just when our hopes had completely faded, Maria Antonietta and Colombre (the song is called La felicità e basta) gave us a much-needed jolt of energy. Her dress, a white optical ’60s mini dress with large puff sleeves covered in tone-on-tone flowers, strongly recalled an outfit that made Sanremo history: the one worn by Nada Malanima in 1969 when - at just 15 years old - she competed at the Festival with “Ma che freddo fa,” placing fifth. We appreciate the reference and head to bed. See you tomorrow, with (maybe) the continuation of Dargen D’Amico’s parquet and the typo that brought the word Repupplica to the most-watched screen in Italy.