Achille Lauro’s Sanremo turn and the launch of Fondazione Madre
Achille Lauro has moved from provocation to public service: he will co‑host the second night of the Festival on Feb. 25, 2026, and has launched Fondazione Madre with Andrea Marchiori, a foundation that places a residential project in Zagarolo at the center of its work for fragile young people.
Achille Lauro at the Ariston on Feb. 25, 2026
Once an outsider who arrived at the Ariston in punk guise, Achille Lauro returns to the Festival in a new role as co‑presenter alongside Carlo Conti and Laura Pausini on Feb. 25, 2026. That appointment completes a visible shift traced across his Sanremo runs: he finished ninth in 2019, eighth in 2020 and fourteenth in 2022, and in recent years has expanded his television presence as a judge on X‑Factor in 2024 and 2025.
Achille Lauro brings Fondazione Madre to Zagarolo
The new Fondazione Madre, born from the partnership between Lauro and Andrea Marchiori, lists Casa Ragazzi Madre in Zagarolo near Rome as its first concrete intervention. The residential facility is designed for adolescents and young adults aged 11 to 21 who face challenges such as addictions and mental‑health or at‑risk behaviors, and the foundation uses a butterfly as its logo to symbolize transformation.
Structure, people and programmes
Operational management of the foundation has been assigned to Lorella Marcantoni, who brings decades of experience in marketing and non‑profit direction, and a technical‑scientific committee includes Clementina Cordero di Montezemolo, Arnoldo Mosca Mondadori and Giuliana Baldassarre. Parallel to the residential work, the foundation has launched the programme Ali tra le corsie for pediatric wards and juvenile penal institutions, mobilising artists, sportspeople and professionals for workshops and encounters.
Casa Ragazzi Madre was established in collaboration with a local social enterprise led by don Giovanni Carpentieri, whose organisations have more than thirty years of activity in the sector and a historical link to Lauro De Marinis’s family. The foundation’s stated aim is to test models of care and listening that differ from classic institutional pathways and to keep the dignity of the person at the core of interventions.
The foundation project follows a period of artistic and public consolidation for Lauro: in 2025 he achieved a double sold‑out at the Circo Massimo in Rome and announced his first stadium tour, milestones that accompanied his move toward more mainstream pop and television work while remaining a visible figure in national conversation.
His Sanremo trajectory has not been without controversy: in 2021 his Ariston performances drew a formal complaint over the treatment of the Italian flag and accusations of offence to the Catholic religion, episodes that contrast with the role he will play on the Festival stage in 2026.
Looking ahead, Achille Lauro’s calendar now combines the confirmed appointment as co‑host of the Festival second night on Feb. 25, 2026, with the foundation’s rollout: organisers say presentation events for Fondazione Madre will be announced in the coming months, and Casa Ragazzi Madre in Zagarolo is positioned as the first operational hub for the new social work.
