Sanremo Music Festival 1997

The Sanremo Music Festival 1997 (Italian: Festival di Sanremo 1997), officially the 47th Italian Song Festival (47º Festival della canzone italiana), was the 47th annual Sanremo Music Festival, held at the Teatro Ariston in Sanremo in late February 1997 and broadcast by Rai 1. The show was presented by Mike Bongiorno (at his eleventh and final hosting of the festival), supported by Piero Chiambretti and Valeria Marini. Composers Pino Donaggio and Giorgio Moroder and lyricist Carla Vistarini served as the artistic directors.^[1]

In this edition, a "Quality Jury", responsible for rewarding the best music, best lyrics and best arrangement, was introduced. The 1997 jury was headed by Luciano Pavarotti and consisted of Bill Conti, Gino Paoli, Nicola Piovani and Mario Missiroli (who replaced Gabriele Salvatores, who suffered a flu).^[1] The winner of the Big Artists section was the pop duo Jalisse with the song "Fiumi di parole", while Patty Pravo won the Critics Award with the song "...E dimmi che non vuoi morire". Paola e Chiara won the Newcomers section with the song "Amici come prima".^[1] For the newcomers, only the winner was revealed; for the big artists section, initially only the first three positions were announced, while the complete final ranking was disclosed only several weeks after the end of the festival.^[1]

As a result of their victory, Jalisse were eligible to represent Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 1997, in which they eventually ranked fourth.^[1] It was a surprise return for Italy after having sat out the contest since 1993, as well as the first Italian entry chosen through Sanremo since 1972 (while the last time Sanremo had been used to select the entrant was in 1989). The country would once again withdraw following the 1997 contest and would not return until 2011.

Starting from the second night, the journalist Bruno Vespa hosted DopoFestival, a talk show about the Festival with the participation of singers, politicians and journalists.^[1]