Sanremo 2026, the report cards of the cover night: Thirteen Peter without a vote. Sayf's trumpet

Two performers who could not be more different, a choice of song that does not seem very happy. To quote Bergman: whispers and shouts.

The best performer of the evening so far is one who is not a singer by trade: Claudio Santamaria. Despite the inaccuracies. Since Malika Ayane is intelligent, she leaves him free field. Mina may be untouchable, but the experiment succeeds.

Underlying this is the problem of a generation that refuses to become adults. Eighties Japanese cartoons are a cultural reference for many and Cristina D'Avena ends up in the Sanremo line-up between a cover of Mina and a quote from Whole fight love. A little more self-irony would not go amiss when doing such operations.

How do you bring the theme of pacifism to the Ariston stage in an anti-rhetorical way? Just ask Dargen D'Amico: he starts by rapping the text of Boris Vian's Disertore, in the background we hear Gam Gam resonating with Bosso's trumpet embroidery, and the refrain sung by Pupo becomes bitter. Finally we hear something behind which there is work. It all ends with a quotation from Chaplin's The Great Dictator: 'More than machinery we need humanity'. Bravo.

To bring Dalla to the Sanremo covers night you either have to be crazy or very clever. Tommaso Paradiso belongs to the second category: he chooses a song for connoisseurs and is accompanied by Stadio, who played that song with Lucio for years. What do you want to tell him?

Could a tribute to Ornella Vanoni ever be missing? Michele Bravi takes care of that, accompanied by Fiorella Mannoia. The result is an exercise in style. The most difficult thing, in music as in life, is to find the path of simplicity.

Surprise of surprises: at Sanremo Morandi sings Morandi with Morandi. On stage with Tredici Pietro, Gianni shows up and sings Vita, a song he shared with the great Lucio Dalla back in the day. This was not announced anywhere. Let us remember that already in 2022, when Gianni was in the competition, the rules were forced on the evening of the covers (Morandi sang his songs, not covers) and a surprise guest (Jovanotti) appeared. We do not comment on the intererpetation (nor do we give a grade). We merely remind ourselves that this is the country where he who holds dust shoots.

Homage to the Italian Sixties with this Jimmy Fontana cover. As far away as one could imagine from Maria Antoinette, Colombre and Brunori, but ultimately the result is entertaining.

Cute Fulminacci singing Mina. Less centred was the performance of the person who played Alberto Lupo. One of the problems of Italian journalism is the excessive protagonism of some journalists.

Ariston on its feet for the cover brought by LDA & Aka 7even which is also a tribute to Tullio De Piscopo on his eightieth birthday. Full marks, also out of respect for the Maestro.

Cover art by Nik Kershaw for The Great Reduce and his Little Heirs. Eighties pride, even if all this drum-rolling is a little annoying.

J-Ax recruits Paolo Rossi, Ale and Franz, Paolo Jannacci and, of course, Cochi Ponzoni. Only Renato Pozzetto is missing, whom they greet from the stage. The Milan we like or, at least, what remains of it. Nobody is in tune but, sometimes, intonation doesn't count. What counts is the sense of what you do.

We have a complicated relationship with TonyPitony that is not worth going into here. It is not debatable, however, that he sings beautifully. With Ditonellapiaga they come up with a tasty arrangement of the Rodgers & Hart swing standard, crossed with Baciami piccina. Everything is resolved in an instrumental interlude that enhances the Ariston orchestra.

Respectful interpretation of the original by Samuele Bersani.

Brancale is in excellent company, with Delia on piano and the jazz voice of Gregory Porter. The choice is not very original - this piece is overplayed - but the execution is impeccable.

Great musical moment, great TV moment: Sayf puts the Blues Brothers back together with Mario Biondi on vocals, Alex Britti on chiterra, his mother and Dibla's mother as backup singers. At one point they bring him a trumpet and a little absolument escapes. Of the series: when you do what you want with music and have fun too. This guy eats up the stage.

The song is Space Oddity by David Bowie in 1970 translated into Italian by Mogol. We never understood what Mogol had to do with Bowie. And now we don't understand what Renga and Ferreri - technically very good anyway - have to do with this song.

Arranging Fiorella Mannoia as the Va, pensiero is too ambitious an operation.

What a strange team-up Samurai Jay has put together. The song is not the most beautiful of those written by Zucchero, Roy Paci dispenses prodigious high notes while Belén performs an ornamental function.

We all know the song. Zarrillo's voice is like wine: it improves with the passing years. Sal Da Vinci is technically impeccable. A fine trick.

A cellist in the court of Fedez and Marco Masini: he is Croatian Stjepan Hauser. Together they try their hand at one of the most famous pieces from Gianna Nannini's songbook. An unsuccessful experiment.

It is unclear where Ermal Meta is going with this cover of Jvke.

Faber's corpus is sacred. You cannot remove the drama from within The Song of Lost Love. Sacrilege.

Pop-rap mash-up whose genesis remains a mystery.

Classical pianist Cigarini accompanies Chiello in this curious excursus through the history of Italian songwriting. And the artist, facing Luigi Tenco, finds himself overcome with emotion.

Speaking of getting emotional: Leo Gassmann also feels very much the homage to Riccardo Cocciante shared with Aiello. Intense moment.