The Netherlands had forgotten about Italian pop. But with a new generation of singers, that will change
The Italian song, or they say it in their homeland as much more beautiful: la canzone italiana, leads a somewhat shabby existence in the Netherlands on the verges of pop music. We know Umberto Tozzi, with his sensual volcano eruption Ti amo from 1977. The name Eros Ramazzotti, the 58-year-old pop star whose new album will be released on Friday, is still familiar to us, just like his ode to the Italian song itself: Se bastasse una canzone (“If a song would suffice”), from 1990.
And yes: we hear Zucchero on the pizzeria playlist. Just like the previous year, Raffaella Carrà, a singing deity in Italy, but with us a mayfly with A far l’amore comincia tu: trying to sing along to a song in the middle of the years (with results).
But further? Generations of accurate Italian artists have flown by: vocalists who have scored millions of hits in their own country and neighboring countries. We hardly heard of them.
What’s up with that? Where does this undervaluation for the canzone come from? And maybe there is a glimmer of hope? Fortunately, the answer is yes, which is why we present here a blooming flower garden of new Italian pop. It’s about time.
First an answer to another pressing question: is the Italian song a genre? Not really, but still. The canzone has a deep cultural history: it is rooted in classical vocal music, in other words opera, also an Italian invention. Centuries ago, Italians began to believe that a heavy mind can be relieved when emotions are blown off a stage at full length.
Over time, the arias spread to popular culture, including the famous Neapolitan song. At the beginning of the 19th century, the inhabitants of the port city were singing all the time (in Neapolitan spelling)Te voglio bene assie, the blood-curdlingly romantic sounding ‘I love you very much’, even in Dutch. It is known as the earliest Neapolitan song and with a little goodwill as one of the first singer-songwriters, written by the poet Raffaele Sacco in 1839 (to the music of the great Gaetano Donizetti).
The Neapolitan song was partly drawn from folk music, a second lifeline for the modern canzone. The singing of the common Italian gave Europe another musical monument, one of the good protest songs in history. the peerless Bella ciao At the end of the 19th century (‘Hello beauty’) was mainly sung by women in the agricultural areas of northern Italy, in protest against inhumane working conditions. It subsequently became the main anthem against Italian fascism and is still used worldwide as a vocal weapon during demonstrations: an indictment of rulers who crush their people.
Now throw all these histories into a meat grinder and what comes out? The Italian lied. And although canzone was influenced by many global music styles from the fifties and sixties, from rock to disco, the Italian remains more identified – and not just because of the language.
Because it is still sung at that boosted volume, full of theatrical heartache but also rich in poetic worldviews. The choruses are crystal clear and easily accessible melodic and so you can sing along when you listen to them for the first time. And you can still hear that curious mixture of classical vocal art, protest song and life song.
The can have eternal everlasting value thanks to Festival Della Canzone Italiana, or the festival of San Remo, the oldest song competition on earth. The Italian song was there from 1953 filed and hammered out and provided with stunning lyrics by the greatest writers, including poets such as Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Another milestone: Domenico Modugno’s Nel blu dipinto di blupopularly known as Volarewon San Remo in 1958, gained simple fame (with interpreters from Frank Sinatra to André Hazes) and is therefore regarded in Italy as the starting signal for Italian pop.
It blossomed in the eighties and brought us delicate music by Matia Bazar (Ti Sentoz), Eros Ramazzotti (più bella cosa) and of course the singing power person Laura Pausini. Her steeds swelling more fiercely la solitudine from 1993 also became a hit in the Netherlands: how could it be otherwise.
But something else happened in the Netherlands with la solitudine. It was hijacked and turned into covers. Paul de Leeuw already came up with his own version in 1993: I don’t want you to lie. And after him was the gate of the dam: Guus Meeuwis sang That is because of you, a free version of Jovanotti’s atand Marco Borsato attacked just about every Italian song that honored him.
In short, the Italian song was plundered. Because in our charts we understand something about all that Italian, just like Spanish by the way. In the Netherlands we prefer to listen to English and Dutch music, German and French are tolerated. But in the meantime, all those Dutch covers have suppressed the original Italian songs in recent decades.
Partly for this reason, the Dutch television viewer watched the Eurovision Song Contest, which was co-played in Turin by Laura Pausini, the dvia of whom here thinking: who is that woman again?
Something beautiful happened at the same performance in recent years, because the Dutch reappraisal of Italian pop started there. In the first place by the rock band Måneskin, winner of the festival in 2021. After the win, the Roman band became one of the greatest Eurovision acts of all time, and could – finally also in the Netherlands – perform on the biggest stages, including the main stage of Pinkpop. this year.
In recent years it has been radically changed and modernized. The influence of hip-hop has especially made itself felt: many young writers and singers with a migration background enter the Italian art of singing via hip-hop.
The songs of Mahmood, of partly Egyptian descent, and the Tunisian-Italian Ghali, mix the lilting rap style of American examples with the rich Italian ones, preparing the canzone for a completely new era of pop – and who knows, finally, for the Netherlands.
playlist
The ones discussed in this article can be viewed in the following playlist, via Spotify and Apple Music, with the best new Italian pop: full of innovation but also leaning towards the rich song tradition. With Mahmood, Francesca Michielin, the rapper Rkomi and couples singles by Laura Pausini and Eros Ramazzotti.
Francesca Michielin
The singer from Bassano del Grappa, near Venice, broke through according to good Italian custom: in a song competition. She won the TV show x Factor in 2012, and then quickly released a debut album, Riflessi di meat only 17 years of age.
Francesca Michielin’s songs often have a rocking undertone – they love a good guitar. Listen to occhi grandi grandi on our Canzone playlist, and also note that the singer is right even after the great Italian pop example Laura Pausini.
Annalize
Annalisa Scarrone (37) from Savona, near Genoa, is more than a pop singer, though she recorded seven albums there and sold over a million copies.
Scarrone writes an inordinate amount of songs herself. And if she doesn’t perform them herself, she has many others do it, from rockers to rappers. She is unbeatable as a singer of glowing power ballads, as in dieci, from which the heartbreak drips. Ah, that last kiss.
Alessandra Amoroso
When you hear Alessandra Amoroso for the first time – which is a bit of a shame – you jump right in. Her trunk sounds just a little different, with such a fine, soulful bite that makes you keep paying attention.
Amoroso (36) is already a veteran, breaking through in 2009 and winning many awards, including three MTV Music Awards. She became one of the most listened to Italian artists, but in 2018 she almost succumbed to the workload. After a break, she recently returned to the stages. Her new single Camera 209 is a fun disco banger.
Mahmood
Of course, in 2019 we were proud of Duncan Laurence, the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest. But fair is fair: that number Soldier from the Italian Mahmood was also a strong track. Not to mention: the best Eurovision song in years.
The Milanese Alessandro Mahmood (30), the child of an Egyptian father and a Sardinian mother, did great preparatory work for a new generation of singers, often with a migration background. He won the San Remo festival twice, with Soldier and Brividia. His music is also more. Mahmood makes hip hop and dance, but uses the best Italian song tradition vocally.
Rkomic
According to Italian canzone purists, the Milanese Rkomi (28) should not be in our playlist. Mirko Manuele Martorana grew up in a difficult residential area and did what many young people did there: listen to hip hop and write raps themselves. He was kicked out of school and became a dishwasher, but still broke through with his music, courtesy of YouTube.
And yes, Rkomi mainly made hip-hop at the beginning of his career. But in his new work he embraces the Italian art of song and sings like a fresh Eros Ramazzotti. Listen to his ultimate new single Ossa rotten, who is just as interested in dance and rock as with the great Italian singing. A song that closes in your heart after listening once.
Blank
Even in the Netherlands we know the young singer and rapper Blanco (19) from the city of Brescia. He cycled through Dutch dune villages with his friend Mahmood in the clip of BrividiaWith the duo took part in the Eurovision Song Contest this year.
Blanco, whose full name is Riccardo Fabbriconi, broke through last year with the Italian hit la canzone nostra in which he also sings, he also wants to completely appropriate the Italian song. Even better is his new single Nostalgia, which skims past hip hop, dance and pop punk. So young and already full of melancholy: ‘Senza di te ho la nostalgia’.
The album Battito Infinito by Eros Ramazzotti has appeared on Capitol/Universal.
On 16/2/23 Ramazzotti on in Ziggo Dome, Amsterdam.