Through Italy with Edoardo Bennato

He was once Italy's greatest cantautore. Now Edoardo Bennato is returning to the limelight at the age of 70: with old hits and plenty of Italianità.

It was the 1980s and suddenly Italy was cool. The language, football, food, design and artists too. The wave of popularity at the time swept into Europe's biggest stadiums, including Cantautore Edoardo Bennato. The now 70-year-old easily gathered 80,000 fans around him and was the first musician ever to fill Milan's San Siro stadium at home - with an acoustic guitar, harmonica and his typical nasal voice. The man is still in the business. His career is like a journey through Italy.

Naples: home is an important theme for the singer. He thinks above all of the working-class district of Bagnoli on the outskirts of Naples, where he was born. In his songs, he repeatedly talks about it. And thus also about Mamma. In his 1989 summer hit "Viva la mamma", he sings a declaration of love to her - with the aroma of pizza and cappuccino, high-proof Italianità.

Milan: Southern and northern Italy are worlds apart - Edoardo takes the plunge anyway. He studied architecture in Milan, as the LP cover "Io che non sono l'imperatore" later reminds us: it shows one of his studies. Milan also became a springboard into the music business. In 1973, Dischi Ricordi, the collective of Italian singer-songwriters, signed the poetic rebel. His debut album took off - and Bennato with it. He became Italy's greatest cantautore.

Rome: Do you remember the World Cup in Rome and its anthem "Un'estate italiana", sung by Bennato and Gianna Nannini? The two performed the song on December 9, 1989 at the draw for the group matches in Rome. Around 500 million people watched on television. Nannini hated the song, Bennato took advantage of the moment to make his cause world-famous: the fight for individualism and fantastic worlds.

Sardinia: I wonder if he was thinking of Italy's summer getaway when he came up with "L'isola che non c'è"? The sun rises from the very first guitar notes, and the first line of the lyrics makes you yearn for faraway places. This is the sound of the south.

Santa Maria di Leuca: Today, the singer is as artistically out of touch as the municipality at the southernmost point of Apulia. Since the 1990s, he has been trying to return to his old days with run-of-the-mill pop. In vain. But the old hits continue to shine - like the lighthouse of Santa Maria di Leuca.

This article was originally published in SonntagsBlick magazine.

EDOARDO BENNATO
9-14.3.17 various locations
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