Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 1956
| Eurovision Song Contest 1956 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country |
 Italy | |||
| National selection | ||||
| Selection process | Sanremo Music Festival 1956 | |||
| Selection date(s) |
Semi-finals 8, 9 March Final 10 March 1956 | |||
| Selected entrant |
Franca Raimondi, Tonina Torrielli | |||
| Selected song |
"Aprite le finestre", "Amami se vuoi" | |||
| Finals performance | ||||
| Final result | N/A | |||
| Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest | ||||
| ||||
Italy sent the songs that came in the first two places at the Sanremo Music Festival to the Eurovision Song Contest 1956, where every country competed with two songs. The scores and the placings of the two Italian songs in the Eurovision Song Contest were not announced and remain unknown.
National Selection
The 1956 edition of Sanremo Music Festival included twenty songs performed by six singers, spread over three consecutive evenings, in a format of two semi-finals and a final. The first two semi-final evenings were held on 8 and 9 March, and the final on 10 March 1956. Ten songs competed in each semi-final. Five songs from each advanced to the final, with the final also including ten songs.[1][2]
The winner of the Festival was the song "Aprite le finestre" (Open The Windows), sung by Franca Raimondi, and the second place was the song "Amami se vuoi" (Love Me If You Want To), sung by Tonina Torrielli, which went on to perform at the international Eurovision Song Contest.
At Eurovision
There were seven participating countries, and each was drawn to perform two songs in the same order via two rounds, with Italy being drawn to perform last in each round. Each country's delegation decided which of its song will be performed first and which second. "Aprite le finestre" was performed seventh, and "Amami se vuoi" was performed fourteenth as the last song of the evening.
Only one of Switzerland's songs was declared as the winner after the private counting of the votes by the juries, with the scores and placings of all the songs not being revealed and not confirmed to date, and so the scores and placings of the two Italian songs are unknown.