Italy heads to Vienna with Sal Da Vinci and ‘Per Sempre Sì’, the winner of Sanremo 2026 and, by extension, a very Italian kind of Eurovision proposition. RAI didn’t need to go hunting for something aggressively modern or export-friendly here. Instead, RAI’s sent a song that seems perfectly content to sound like Italy, full stop. As ever, Italy is already in the final as a Big Four country, which removes the qualification drama but not the question of how this will land outside its natural habitat.
‘Per Sempre Sì’ is old-school in a way that feels entirely deliberate. There’s disco in its sugared-up bloodstream. Warmer, softer disco, with Sal Da Vinci leaning into the sort of seasoned, lived-in delivery that comes from knowing exactly what sort of song he’s singing. The track is in Italian and Neapolitan, which helps its identity enormously, and there’s a simple charm, even if ‘Per Sempre Sì’ never goes as far as surprising anyone.
That may also be the issue. For all its craft and polish, it feels super familiar, more smile-inducing than vote-provoking, and not especially urgent in a line-up where urgency often matters.
Sal Da Vinci won Sanremo after a five-song superfinal, taking 22.2% of that final-round vote, and confirmed the next morning that he’s happy to spend two weeks in Vienna, avoiding the annual post-Sanremo guessing game. He’s no novice either: a long-established Neapolitan singer and actor, he finished third at Sanremo in 2009.
History
Italy’s recent Eurovision record remains sound. Angelina Mango finished 7th in 2024 with ‘La noia’, and Lucio Corsi followed with 5th in Basel, so RAI is hardly coming into this from a position of decline.
As for 2026, ‘Per Sempre Sì’ feels respectable rather than explosive. Juries might appreciate the professionalism and musical clarity, while televoters are harder to read. There’s nostalgia here, and a certain warmth, but not a huge, obvious hook for the wider Saturday-night audience. It should score decently enough, and may well leave people smiling. Whether it leaves them reaching for their phones and apps is another matter.
5 Points
