| Sanremo Music Festival 2014 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Dates | |
| Semi-final 1 | 18 February 2014 |
| Semi-final 2 | 19 February 2014 |
| Semi-final 3 | 20 February 2014 |
| Semi-final 4 | 21 February 2014 |
| Final | 22 February 2014 |
| Host | |
| Venue | Teatro Ariston Sanremo, Liguria, Italy |
| Presenter(s) | Fabio Fazio and Luciana Littizzetto |
| Musical director | Mauro Pagani |
| Artistic director | Fabio Fazio |
| Host broadcaster | |
| Vote | |
| Voting system | Televotes, music journalists, jury |
| Big Artists section | |
| Number of entries | 28 |
| Winner | Arisa "Controvento" |
| Newcomers' section | |
| Number of entries | 8 |
| Winner | Rocco Hunt "Nu juorno buono" |
The Sanremo Music Festival 2014 (Italian: Festival di Sanremo 2014), officially the 64th Italian Song Festival (64º Festival della canzone italiana), was the 64th annual Sanremo Music Festival, a televised song contest held at the Teatro Ariston in Sanremo, Liguria, between 18 and 22 February 2014 and broadcast by Rai 1. Fabio Fazio and Italian comedy actress Luciana Littizzetto presented the show.
The rules of the festival were was based on the those adopted for the previous contest. Competing artists were split in two different sections—Big Artists and Newcomers. The Big Artists section included 14 established Italian artists. During the first and the second night of the show, each act performed two songs, and only one song per act was allowed to continue the competition, as a result of votes received by public and journalists. After the third night, Riccardo Sinigallia's entry, "Prima di andare via", was disqualified for being performed during a concert preceding the competition. During the final night, Arisa's "Controvento" was announced as the winning song for the Big Artists section of the contest. The Newcomers' section featured eight songs performed by debuting or little known artists. The winning entry, Rocco Hunt's "Nu juorno buono", was announced during the semi-final of the contest. For the first time since 2011, the Sanremo Music Festival was not used as a selection for the Italian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest.
The show featured guests including Luciano Ligabue, Cat Stevens, Damien Rice, Paolo Nutini, Stromae, Gino Paoli, Raffaella Carrà, Laetitia Casta and Rufus Wainwright. Despite this, it received significantly lower ratings than the previous edition, with the final receiving the lowest share percentage since the introduction of Auditel measurements in 1989.[1]