In Capri with Di Capri Jr.

Every now and then I find articles concerning an Italian pop star in the US press such as stories about Zucchero at the Columbus Day Parade last year or a review of international Italians like Bocelli, of course, and even Eros.

Once in a while you'll even find blurbs in gossip columns which brings me to today's bit: on Page Six of January 2nd's New York Post, there's an entry regarding Lindsay Lohan's latest conquests while in Italy and one involved the son of Giuseppe Faiella, better known as Peppino di Capri:

"January 2, 2008 -- LINDSAY Lohan certainly ended her year with a bang, making out with three different guys in less than 24 hours while in Capri for a film festival. She was first caught snuggling on a sofa, kissing and holding the hand of waiter Allesandro di Nunzio, shortly after arriving on the island, reports Britain's Sun. A few hours later she was at it again with handsome older actor Eduardo Costa. And last, she was seen smooching long-haired hunk Dario Faiella, son of Italian music legend Peppino Di Capri."

Faiella, a jazz musician, had recently been dating the daughter of Al Bano and Romina; I doubt they're still together - Dario was reportedly the luckiest of Lohan's trio of dates as he was seen entering Lohan's hotel room. Regardless, this publicity must be pure gold for him.
Hopefully these reports of Dario's adventure also give his father a bit of a boost in google searches.

Peppino di Capri - Champagne

Several years ago, I remember something on Page Six about Kevin Costner being enchanted by Laura Pausini's music at a party and persuaded her to perform a song in English for the soundtrack to his film "Message in a Bottle."

More recently, I remember seeing a local story about a dinner Toto Cutugno had in a restaurant on Staten Island. If there's one Italian pop star that could command that kind of attention in Italian, or even Russian, areas in the States, it would be him.

Eros and Ricky Martin insieme

Eros Ramazzotti was in Miami this past summer shooting a video for his latest single "Non Siamo Soli," a duet with Ricky Martin. Both are singing in Italian in this version.
An Eros greatest hits compilation, e2, is set to be released at the end of the month - 14 hits, 4 new songs and I think the spanish version of Non Siamo Soli is included. As usual, the new single is well done:



Ramazzotti and Ricky Martin - Non Siamo Soli

Zucchero and Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Parmigiano...

Zucchero, now on a cross-country North American tour, performed in front of a larger than usual crowd at NY's Columbus Day Parade yesterday. NY Post had a nice article about Zucchero in a special Columbus Day section this past Friday but they seemed to have forgotten to upload articles from that extra section to their site. Here are some articles from other Northeast papers:

Zucchero confident the fame will follow

Zucchero, friend of Pavarotti, at casino to promote new album

Regarding the Philly article: Zucchero has been coming here for years so if he's looking to become a US household name now, it's going to be tough to get too far in this country at his age. I'm sure he's better known up north where I recall hearing him on radio in Western Canada about 10 years ago.

No other popular singers of note performed; there were some local favorites like Michael Amante and Giada Valenti, who are known for performing Italian classics. Last year, Amedeo Minghi performed and a couple of years back it was Massimo Ranieri so hopefully this Italian pop trend continues.

TV viewers of the parade on NBC were treated to some Italian pop courtesy of this advertising treat that has also been airing in Europe:



Parmigiano Reggiano


All in all, it seemed like a decent Fifth Avenue parade - especially when compared to what goes on in other Columbus Day parades out west.

Italian pop in the news

The number of Italian concerts hitting the NY area this fall has caught the attention of one local newspaper:

Italy's musicians have fans, promoters here

Italian Pop US Invasion Set for Fall

Early this fall, US fans will be treated to not 1 nor 2 Italian pop acts on this side of the Atlantic but 3 different tours. What's strange is that not one of them includes Toto Cutugno...

The most surprising name is one of the biggest songwriters in Italian pop history, Claudio Baglioni. Baglioni's still going strong in Italy and has recently released a 3-CD live album titled Buon viaggio della vita, which also happens to be the name of the latest single he has released. Back on the Italian Sinfonia radio days, his biggest hit, Questo Piccolo Grande Amore, seemed to be requested on the radio program just about every week - almost as much as Tozzi's Ti Amo.
Baglioni will visit Toronto on Oct 6th and 7th, Montreal on the 12th and Tropicana in Atlantic City on the 13th and 14th. Visit the Italian Sinfonia events page for more details.

Zucchero returns with shows at the House of Blues on the West Coast and a show in Somerville, MA. No word on any NYC area shows yet. Zucchero always puts on a good show and is among the more reasonably priced Italian artists to see in this country because of the venues he performs in. Below is a classic video of one of his more well-known hits, Donne, which finished in almost last place in a very weak Festival di Sanremo in 1985. He performed the song with The Randy Jackson Band - yes, the same Randy Jackson from American Idol. Check out Randy's look from those days in minute 1:00 of the the Zucchero clip below.

Making what seems to be a bi-yearly stop in the US, Gigi D'Alessio returns, this time with sometime singing partner and fiance, Anna Tatangelo. Special this year are a couple of stops on the west coast including Beverly Hills and British Columbia.

All three of these shows involve artists still relevant on the Italian music scene; this is definitely a welcome happening for all North American musica fans.



Claudio Baglioni - Questo Piccolo Grande Amore




D'Alessio & Tatangelo - Un Nuovo Bacio




Zucchero & The Randy Jackson Band - Donne

Gemelli Diversi, Itunes Italia

Gemelli Diversi's new album, Boom!, was released last week. I've only heard the first single, Istruzioni per l'(ill)uso, in its entirety and the rest I've heard from clips on iTunes. I've always loved this band and was hoping for another great memorable track from the group and I think we got one with the new single.

Unfortunately, I can't download the new single and album, or any other new Italian album that's not from Pausini, Bocelli or Eros, on iTunes. You can't even hear the Gemelli clips on US iTunes. You would have to switch the country location of My Store located on the very bottom of the iTunes home page to Italia. Your page should now turn into the Italian iTunes home page which has the same layout as the US site. I usually just check out the Top Singoli and, more often than not, most of the songs are in English although this week was a particularly good one with Italians regularly holding 5 spots in the top 10.
Among the newer clips that sound promising are those from Io, Carlo (see clip below), Vasco Rossi and Tiromancino. The problem with this is you can't buy anything on this site - unless you have a credit card with an Italian billing address.

Amazon.com is releasing the new Gemelli Diversi album on June 21 at a pretty hefty $28. So if it's available for orders in the US on that day, then why can't iTunes release the songs as well?
What's funny is I did a search on US iTunes for the latest Festival di Sanremo winner, Simone Cristicchi, and got no song matches but was offered a chance to download the full video for the Sanremo song. So I guess I could look but not listen...

I don't get why a record label would want to restrict any sales especially when all they do is gripe about the lost amounts of money to illegal downloading. It's not just with Italian music either. For instance, Rihanna's latest album in the UK contains a pretty good additional track, Cry, not found on the US version of the album; a fan of the artist would have pay again for the same songs on an import album in order to obtain the missing track. Here's a link to a short segment on NPR regarding "The Songs You Can't Buy on iTunes," and a link to the article which spurred the radio report.

On a positive note, iTunes just recently started a "foreign exchange" program this month where they get bands from different countries to cover each other's songs, while also translating the song's lyrics. The first week saw a German electronica act, Wir Sind Helden, and US band +44, made up of former members of Blink 182.



Io, Carlo - L'Ego

Zucchero concert on PBS, June 3 and 5

WLIW 21 will be broadcasting an hour of a Zucchero concert from 2004 titled "Zu & Co: Live at the Royal Albert Hall London, 6th May 2004," on June 3rd at 9pm and June 5th at 3pm.

The full show had all of Zucchero's biggest hits and featured a number of duets with popular international artists including Pavarotti ("Miserere"), Paul Young ("Senza Una Donna"), Eric Clapton ("Wonderful World", "Hey Man"), Queen's Bryan May, The Cranberries Dolores O'Riordan, Tina Arena and Mana's lead singer Fher Olvera.

Since WLIW is only showing an hour from the 2-hr+ concert, expect to see at least all the bigger names like Clapton and Pavarotti. The full concert can be obtained on DVD from Amazon, where you'll find some very positive reviews, or check out eBay for a deal.



Zucchero and Eric Clapton - Wonderful World