In the video sent to the San Remo Festival, Pope Francis told the world from the Ariston stage about the pain of war and the peace and happiness of peace. The Pope “bursts in” at the Ariston: “Music is peace”.

At the end of the first evening of Sanremo 2025, Carlo Conti, together with the co-hosts of this first episode, Gerry Scotti and Antonella Clerici, announced the five songs most voted for by the press room and, consequently, first in the ranking of the most popular songs after the pilot episode of the singing event. The ranking of the first evening of the 75th Sanremo Festival was drawn up by the Press, TV and Web Room jury, who voted by expressing their preferences after the performances of the 29 big names in the competition. At the end of the episode, the top five positions were announced. This is not an actual ranking, but only the five songs most voted by the press room were announced in no order of placement.

The Top Five of the first evening: Brunori Sas, Giorgia, Corsi, Cristicchi and Lauro

The surprise of this Festival was the intervention of the Pontiff with his appeal: “Music as an instrument of peace”.” Noa and Mira Awad, Israeli and Palestinian, joined their voices in ‘Imagine,’ sung in Arabic, Hebrew, and English.

The silence of great surprises fell in the Ariston audience when, shortly before 10pm, the host and artistic director of Sanremo 2025, Carlo Conti, announced the ‘presence’, among the competing singers and special guests, of an unpublished guest: the Pope. With a video recorded in his apartment in Casa Santa Marta, not included in the lineup, Francesco connects with the public of the 75th edition of the well-known Italian musical event to remember the importance of music and the message it can convey. A message of “peace”, like the one sung immediately afterwards by the Israeli singer Noa and the Palestinian singer Mira Awad, invited to duet in Hebrew, Arabic and English on the notes of John Lennon’s unforgettable Imagine.

Music is beauty; music is an instrument of peace. It is a language everyone speaks in different ways and reaches everyone’s hearts. Music can help people coexist.

“Let us never forget that war is always a defeat.”

Pope Francis draws the attention of Italy and the world to the “many children who cannot sing”: many children who “cannot sing about life, and cry and suffer from the many injustices of the world, from the many wars and conflict situations.

Let us never forget that war is always a defeat. This is what I want most, to see those who hated each other shake hands, hug each other and say with life, music and singing: peace is possible! Today, you are doing it and making it say through music. Try to have some beautiful evenings, and I greet all who are connected, especially those who suffer, and to all of you. May good music reach everyone’s hearts. You know, music can open the heart to harmony, to the joy of being together, with a common language and understanding, making us commit to a more just and fraternal world. Thank you”.