On the last day of 2019, it was Amadeus himself — artistic director of the 70th Sanremo Music Festival — who shocked everyone by throwing a bomb that wasn’t expected to drop until 6 January — the Sanremo 2020 lineup.

Probably because of the latest tranche of rumours (read spoilers) doing the rounds on several websites and tabloids, the TV host has chosen to reveal the 22 artists competing in the “Campioni” element of the Italian Festival to the La Repubblica newspaper. The original plan was to announce the singers during his game show I Soliti Ignoti.

Sanremo 2020: Participants

Here’s who will compete for the chance to represent Italy at Eurovision 2020 in Rotterdam. The titles of their entries will be announced in the coming days:

Anastasio

Giordana Angi

Bugo feat. Morgan

Diodato

Elodie

Francesco Gabbani

Irene Grandi

Raphael Gualazzi

Paolo Jannacci

Junior Cally

Elettra Lamborghini

Achille Lauro

Levante

Le Vibrazioni

Marco Masini

Enrico Nigiotti

Piero Pelù

Pinguini Tattici Nucleari

Rancore

Riccardo “Riki” Marcuzzo

Alberto Urso

Michele Zarrillo

Former Eurovision artists Francesco Gabbani and Raphael Gualazzi stand out in the list. The former was a favourite to win the song contest in 2017 while the latter finished second in 2011.

Several singers on the list come from talent shows – such as Amici‘s Elodie, Giordana Angi, Alberto Urso and Riki and X Factor‘s Enrico Nigiotti and Anastasio.

An act who will certainly grab plenty of attention is Elettra Lamborghini. The “twerking queen” is a popular MTV character who released her first album in 2019. It contained reggaeton songs in Italian and Spanish.

Sanremo 2020: Newcomers

On December 19th, the eight artists competing in the “Nuove Proposte” section were announced.

Unlike the artist in the “Big” category, their songs are already published and available for listening. These eight artists will not be in the running to sing for Italy at Eurovision.

Who is your favourite on the Sanremo 2020 lineup? Who do you think will win the contest? Tell us your thoughts below.

Read more Italy Eurovision news here