Cosa nostra… cosa vostra… cos’è vostro?

I've said before that I don't listen to enough Italian music.My one Paolo Meneguzzi album and 2 Tiziano Ferro ones and a couple of random mp3s don't really constitute a good collection.So that's my mission for this year,to find more good Italian music.
I must admit though,sometimes it is quite difficult- it's easy to appreciate a bit of (not too much though) Swedish schlager,cheesy Russian pop and a bit of German rock,but Italian music I think is a bit of an acquired taste.It has its own sound which I think is more similar to Balkan music if anything,and can be quite hit and miss.

I know virtually nothing about Italian pop.Maybe it's just my family,maybe it's a Southern Italian thing,or maybe it's the annoying inevitable international spread of English language music,but even my younger cousins don't seem to be that interested in their country's own music.My first encounter of Italian music however,happened the first time I went there,13 years ago,and all over the piazza in Piano di Sorrento were posters announcing the big and exciting event that Mango would be performing there.This is him.

He had a lot more hair in 1995....
Anyway,I'm quite liking that song,but I can imagine that a big proportion of the Europop-loving public wouldn't.(If you do,here's the actual video to Mediterraneo,bit odd,think of a chilled out version of Fatboy Slim's Praise You,set on a nice beach :/ ).So yeah,Mango's alright,but not really worth all the frenzy I seem to remember going on in the piazza that evening :)

Then of course there's the songs everyone knows.Good old ancient (almost anyway) folk songs that get covered every once in a while to varying degrees of success.As lovely as Dima Bilan's version of O Sole Mio is,my favourite version is Dalida's,done in 1960.

I love it because that video is meant to be set in Naples,which is (almost) where my family are from (well,just over the water a bit,on a little island,but whatever,it's the same county :) I also remembered last night that I have another,rather tenuous connection to Naples,but that's another story...),and also because it reminds me of holidays.I've travelled quite a bit in the last 17 years,and the best times I've had in holiday terms have been in Italy and Croatia,two countries that,from my experience,share a few cultural similarities,music being one of them.

My original reason for doing this post was to talk about the San Remo Music Festival,because I read about this year's on ESCToday .I've heard of a few people who are in it this year,Paolo of course,Tiromancino,Toto Cutugno...,but generally I've never taken much notice of the festival.Simone Cristicchi won it last year,with the song Ti regalerò una rosa (I'll give you a rose),a song that makes me cry every time I hear it.The winner of the Best Newcomer category last year though,was Fabrizio Moro and his song Pensa (Think),which is also quite sad.It's an anti-mafia song with pretty strong lyrics.If this is the future of Italian music,I like it.