Francesco Gabbani is an Italian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He rose to fame after winning the newcomers' section of the Sanremo Music Festival 2016 with the song "Amen". The next year, he went on to win the main section of the Sanremo Music Festival 2017 with the song "Occidentali's Karma", and represented Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 finishing in 6th place.

The Sanremo Music Festival 2016, officially the 66th Italian Song Festival, was the 66th annual Sanremo Music Festival, a television song contest held at the Teatro Ariston in Sanremo, Liguria, Italy between 9 and 13 February 2016 and organised and broadcast by Radiotelevisione italiana (RAI). The show was presented by Carlo Conti, who also served as the artistic director for the competition. Conti hosted the show together with Virginia Raffaele, Mădălina Diana Ghenea and Gabriel Garko. The program was written by Carlo Conti, Ivana Sabatini, Emanuele Giovannini, Leopoldo Siano, Giona Peduzzi, Riccardo Cassini, Martino Clericetti and Mario D'Amico.