Laura Pausini isn’t returning to Sanremo — she’s settling in

Some people go back to Sanremo for a song, a wave, a nicely timed standing ovation.
Laura Pausini is doing something else entirely.

This year, Laura Pausini will walk onto the stage of the Teatro Ariston not as a guest, not as a nostalgic callback, but as co-host of the Festival di Sanremo across all five nights, alongside Carlo Conti.

That distinction matters. Hosting Sanremo is not a cameo. It’s a commitment.

This stage has history — and memory

Pausini’s story with Sanremo goes back to the very beginning. She first stepped onto the Ariston stage in 1993, returned in 1994, and then came back repeatedly as a major name between 2001 and 2022. Each appearance carried weight, but also distance. Sing, smile, leave.

Co-hosting is different. You stay when things drag. When timings slip. When the room goes quiet for the wrong reasons. You don’t get the protection of a three-minute performance.

And Pausini still said yes.

Carlo Conti didn’t pick nostalgia

When Carlo Conti announced her as co-host, he spoke about enthusiasm, trust, and the joy of sharing the festival with someone strong, charismatic and genuinely funny. That last quality isn’t decorative. Sanremo needs warmth as much as authority.

There will be rotating co-hosts each night, as expected. But Pausini will be the constant presence. The person the audience recognises even when the show starts doing what Sanremo always does: stretching, wobbling, surprising itself.

This doesn’t feel like sentimentality. It feels planned.

“Sanremo is my destiny”

Pausini’s own words landed softly, but firmly. She described Sanremo as her destiny. Her smile. Her temptation. Her fear. The place where she was artistically born in 1993, and the place she now returns to with pride and emotion to co-host the festival’s 76th edition.

It doesn’t read like a slogan. It reads like someone acknowledging that this stage shaped her — and that facing it again, without hiding behind a song, still carries weight.

She’s done the biggest live stage already

There’s also a practical side to this choice. Pausini is no stranger to television at scale. In 2022, she was one of the presenters of the Eurovision Song Contest held in Turin, guiding a broadcast watched by millions across Europe.

That experience counts. Sanremo may be a national institution, but it’s also a live television endurance test. Pausini has already shown she can hold that pressure without losing herself.

This isn’t a return. It’s a shift.

This doesn’t feel like Laura Pausini “coming back”.
It feels like Laura Pausini moving position.

Sanremo has a way of deciding when someone stops being a guest and becomes part of the structure. This year, that line is crossed quietly, without speeches or framing.

She’s not there to remind people who she is.
She’s there to help the festival carry itself.

And that, at the Ariston, is about as serious as it gets.

Source: Davide Maggio