Olly wins the Sanremo Festival 2025

After a fierce battle between Simone Cristicchi, Fedez, Lucio Corsi, Brunori Sas, and Olly, the Sanremo 2025 Festival has crowned its winner. The title went to Olly, who competed with the song Balorda nostalgia. A predictable victory that, one way or another, concludes a week of unusually subdued controversies—ranging from Tony Effe’s tattoos (and necklaces) to the fake video message from Pope Francis on the Israel-Palestine issue (which had actually been recorded back in May for a different purpose). One controversy, however, burned particularly bright: the treatment of women in this edition. They shined but not in the rankings, and too often, they were labeled as mothers or discussed only in terms of their bodies. In fact, none of them made the top 5.

What Happened During the Final Night of Sanremo 2025

How did the final go? Pretty much like the previous nights, we’d say, including a Barbie-like, fake-ditzy Alessia Marcuzzi who managed to irritate quite a few people. Moving swiftly along—march on. Carlo Conti is back, and with him, a traditional festival model returns, full of Rai-style goodwill and moderation. It harks back to the pre-Amadeus era with few changes, appealing to a more mature audience. Some love it, some hate it. Overall, it feels like this festival will be remembered as the "comeback edition," though musically, it didn’t leave much of a mark. But let’s be honest—our Spotify Wrapped will be the real judge of that, about a year and a half from now.

It’s absurd how such a massive, overwhelming event—so monopolizing and all-consuming—then slips through our fingers in an instant, leaving us confused and exhausted. When it ends, we’re left sitting there, hands on our knees, out of breath, trying to make sense of it all. Did we actually enjoy what we just watched? What were they trying to tell us with these almost 20 hours of TV we voluntarily subjected ourselves to, at the cost of sleep and both physical and mental well-being?

Sanremo and Italy: A Mirror of the Present

If we wanted to dig a little deeper, we could say that this festival—indecisive and difficult to define—exists in a very specific moment in Italy’s history. The country is politically and culturally stagnant, unsure of its next step, swayed by the whims of men, by pity and rhetoric, by social media, gossip, and endless chatter, by talent shows and the eternal return of the same. The only thing that gives us a glimmer of hope? The second-place finish of Lucio Corsi, a singer-songwriter who overturns conventions and machismo, offering us a rare moment of sincerity. Hallelujah.