The Sanremo Music Festival 1959 (), officially the 9th Italian Song Festival (), was the ninth annual

Sanremo Music Festival The Sanremo Music Festival ( ), officially the Italian Song Festival (), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria, organized and broadcast by (RAI). It is the longest-running ...

, held at the

Sanremo Casino Sanremo Casino (official ) is a gambling and entertainment complex located in Sanremo, on the Italian Riviera. History The Casino's building was designed by French architect Eugène Ferret, opening 14 January 1905. Seven different projects we ...

Sanremo Sanremo, also spelled San Remo in English and formerly in Italian, is a (municipality) on the Mediterranean coast of Liguria, in northwestern Italy. Founded in Roman times, it has a population of 55,000, and is known as a tourist destination ...

between 30 January and 1 February 1959, and broadcast by (RAI). The show was presented by

Enzo Tortora Enzo Tortora (30 November 1928 – 18 May 1988) was an Italian television presenter on national RAI television, who was unjustly convicted of being a member of the Camorra and drug trafficking in 1985, and sentenced to 10 years in jail. He was ...

and

Adriana Serra Adriana Serra (27 November 1923 – 13 November 1995) was an Italian film actress. She appeared in 18 films between 1943 and 1952. She was born in Milan, Italy. She was Miss Italia in 1941. Filmography * ''Mont Oriol'' (1958) * '' Miracle ...

. According to the rules of this edition every song was performed in a double performance by a couple of singers or groups, with some artists performing multiple songs. The winner of the festival was "

Piove (Ciao, ciao bambina) "Piove (Ciao, ciao bambina)" ("It's raining ye bye, baby girl) is a song composed by Domenico Modugno with Italian lyrics by Eduardo Verde. It won first prize at the 1959 Sanremo Music Festival, where it was performed by both Modugno and Joh ...

", performed by

Domenico Modugno Domenico Modugno (; 9 January 1928 – 6 August 1994) was an Italian singer, actor and, later in life, a member of the Italian Parliament. He is known for his 1958 international hit song " Nel blu dipinto di blu", for which he received the fir ...

(who was also the composer of the song) and

Johnny Dorelli Giorgio Guidi (born 20 February 1937), known professionally as Johnny Dorelli, is an Italian actor, singer and television host. Early life Giorgio Guidi was born in Meda, Lombardy, Italy. In 1946, he moved with his family to New York City, ...

. The couple had already won the previous edition of the festival with " Nel blu, dipinto di blu". Modugno went on to perform the song for at the

Eurovision Song Contest 1959 The Eurovision Song Contest 1959 was the fourth edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on Wednesday 11 March 1959 at the in Cannes, France, and hosted by French television presenter Jacqueline Joubert. Organised by the European Broadca ...

Participants and results

Broadcasts

Local broadcast

All shows were broadcast on

Italian Television Television in Italy was Timeline of the introduction of television in countries, introduced in 1939, when the first experimental broadcasts began. However, this lasted for a very short time: when fascist Italy entered World War II in 1940, all ...

and Secondo Programma, beginning at 22:00

CET CET or cet may refer to: Places * Cet, Albania * Cet, standard astronomical abbreviation for the constellation Cetus * Colchester Town railway station (National Rail code CET), in Colchester, England Arts, entertainment, and media * Comcast En ...

(21:00

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

International broadcasts

Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations are shown in the tables below. {, class="wikitable plainrowheaders" , +International broadcasters of the Sanremo Music Festival 1959 ! scope="col" , Country ! scope="col" , Broadcaster ! scope="col" , Channel(s) ! scope="col" , Commentator(s) ! scope="col" , , - ! scope="row" , ,

ORF ORF or Orf may refer to: * Norfolk International Airport, IATA airport code ORF * Observer Research Foundation, an Indian research institute * One Race Films, a film production company founded by Vin Diesel * Open reading frame, a portion of the g ...

, {{{N/A} , style="text-align:center" , , - ! scope="rowgroup" rowspan="2" , {{Flagu, Belgium , rowspan="2" , {{ill, National Broadcasting Institute, fr, Institut national de radiodiffusion, nl, Nationaal Instituut voor de Radio-omroep, lt=NIR/INR , NIR , Piet te Nuyl Jr. , style="text-align:center" , {{cite news , title=Televisie , trans-title=Television , url=https://uurl.kbr.be/2196008 , url-access=registration , date=31 January – 1 February 1959 , work=

De Standaard (, ) is a Flemish daily newspaper published in Belgium by Mediahuis (formerly Corelio and VUM). It was traditionally a Christian-Democratic paper, associated with the Christian-Democratic and Flemish Party, and in opposition to the Sociali ...

, location=

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, Belgium , access-date=5 February 2025 , page=11 , language=nl , via={{ill, BelgicaPress, nl , - , INR , {{N/A} , style="text-align:center" , , - ! scope="row" , {{Flagu, Denmark , {{lang, da, Statsradiofonien, i=unset , {{lang, da, Statsradiofonien TV, i=unset , Mogens Kjelstrup , style="text-align:center" , , - ! scope="row" , {{Flagu, Germany , ARD , {{lang, de, Deutsches Fernsehen, i=unset , {{N/A} , style="text-align:center" , , - ! scope="row" , {{Flagu, Monaco , colspan="2" ,

Radio Monte-Carlo Radio Monte Carlo (RMC) is the name of radio stations owned and managed by several different entities: Stations Radio Monte Carlo is considered one of the most popular networks especially in non-European Italian and French-speaking regions for it ...

, {{N/A} , style="text-align:center" , , - ! scope="rowgroup" rowspan="2" , {{Flagu, Netherlands , NTS , NTS , Piet te Nuyl Jr. , style="text-align:center" , {{Cite news , date=24 January 1959 , title=Televisie {{! Zaterdag 31 januari 1959 , trans-title=Television {{! 31 January 1959 , url=https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=MMNIBG01:005306004:00054 , work=Vrije Geluiden , location=

Hilversum Hilversum () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the heart of the Gooi, it is ...

, Netherlands , page=55 , language=nl , via=

Delpher Delpher is a website providing full-text Dutch-language digitized historical newspapers, books, journals and copy sheets for radio news broadcasts. The material is provided by libraries, museums and other heritage institutions and is developed and ...

, volume=29 , issue=4 , access-date=5 February 2024 , oclc=72761986 , - , colspan="2" , Radio Omroep Nieuw Guinea{{efn, Delayed broadcast in a shortened format on 12 August at 7:10 (

WIT Wit is a form of intelligent humour—the ability to say or write things that are clever and typically funny. Someone witty, also known as a wit, is a person skilled at wit, making spontaneous one-line or single-phrase jokes. Forms of wit incl ...

) , {{N/A} , style="text-align:center" , {{cite news , title=Radioprogramma – Woensdag 12 augustus 1959 , trans-title=Radio programmes – Wednesday, 12 August 1959 , url=https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=ddd:010505009:mpeg21:p004 , access-date=5 September 2024 , work=Nieuw Guinea Koerier , date=11 August 1959 , page=4 , location= Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea , language=nl , via=

, - ! scope="row" , {{Flagu, Netherlands Antilles, 1959 , colspan="2" , Curom{{efn, Delayed broadcast on 16 February 1961 at 16:00 ( ADT) , {{N/A} , style="text-align:center" , {{cite news , title=Radio – T.V. , url=https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=KBDDD02:000210933:mpeg21:p008 , access-date=13 September 2024 , work= Amigoe di Curaçao , date=16 February 1961 , location=

Willemstad Willemstad ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of Curaçao, an island in the southern Caribbean Sea that is a Countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It was the cap ...

, Curaçao , language=nl , page=8 , via=

, - ! scope="row" , {{Flagu, Sweden , SR , {{lang, sv, Sveriges TV, i=unset , {{N/A} , style="text-align:center" , {{cite news , title=Radio och TV , work=

Dagens Nyheter (, ), abbreviated ''DN'', is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and aspires to full national and international coverage, and is widely considered Sweden's newspaper of record A newspaper of record is a major nationa ...

, date=31 January 1959 , location=

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

, Sweden , page=25 , language=sv , - ! scope="row" , {{Flagu, United Kingdom ,

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

BBC Television Service BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and Flagship (broadcasting), flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includ ...

{{efn, Deferred broadcast on the same day of the final at 23:05 ( BST) , Tom Sloan , style="text-align:center" , {{cite news , title=Television Programmes – Saturday Evening , url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/page/3cd66a0440254fb7b1dad6e48b47094a?page=23 , access-date=29 August 2024 , work=

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in September 1923 by John Reith, then general manage ...

, date=23 January 1959 , page=23

Notes and references

Notes

{{notelist

References

{{Reflist {{Sanremo Music Festival {{Authority control

1959 Events January * January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the ...

1959 in Italian music 1959 in Italian television 1959 music festivals