You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Italian. (May 2023)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
View a machine-translated version of the Italian article.
Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 2,956 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Italian Wikipedia article at [[:it:Edoardo Bennato]]; see its history for attribution.
You should also add the template {{Translated|it|Edoardo Bennato}} to the talk page.
Edoardo Bennato (born 23 July 1946, Naples, Campania, Italy) is an Italian singer-songwriter. He is the brother of the singer-songwriter Eugenio Bennato.
He is considered one of the greatest artists in Italian rock,[1] a genre that he has often combined with blues and folk. Guitarist, harmonica player and singer, he later began to propose himself as one-man band, playing at the same time also tambourines, kazoo and other percussions. His texts are often ironic,[2] irreverent,[3][4] and turned in a biting way against power, at any level and in any form it manifests.[5]
He was the first Italian singer to fill the San Siro Stadium in Milan with more than sixty thousand people on July 19, 1980,[1][6] and the first Italian singer to perform at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1976.[7] Also, Bennato was the first singer to have released two albums only 15 days apart in March 1980: Uffà! Uffà! and Sono solo canzonette.[1][8]
Current band lineup
Biography
Edoardo Bennato began his music career in the early Sixties (the first single was published on 1966) as one of the most creative and innovative songwriters of his time. His music distinguished itself for being an imaginative blend of blues, rock and roll, folk influences and even hints of opera. He has been described as "a cross between Bob Dylan and Lucio Battisti".[9]
After his first album Non farti cadere le braccia ("Don't let your arms fall", 1973), where he was still finding his way between tradition and innovation, Bennato decidedly chose the latter, many of his songs being performed by himself as a one-man band, with a 12-string acoustic guitar, harmonica, kazoo and foot-drum.
During this early period, Bennato's lyrics were characterised by biting satire and irony, often addressed at the establishment and those self-proclaimed as "the good". His second album, I buoni e i cattivi ("The good and the bad ones", 1974), was an attack against the common-sense distinction between good and evil, between the righteous and the villains. "Arrivano i buoni" ("Here come the good ones") was particularly significant: "Here come the good ones, they are resolute and they've already made a list of all the bad guys to eliminate... so now the good have declared war against the bad but they guarantee that it will be the last war ever to be fought...". With Io che non sono l'imperatore ("I, who am not the Emperor", 1975) Bennato pushed his music more towards experimentation, still mainly playing his acoustic guitar. The cover of the album shows a plan for the Naples light-rail system that Bennato had developed for his final project as a university student. While it was highly praised by his lecturers, the plan was never approved by the city council, giving him even more reason to deride and mock the powers to be.
"Meno male che adesso non c'è Nerone" ("Fortunately there's no Nero now") and "Signor censore" ("Mister censor") are among Bennato's best examples of pungent criticism of the system. With La Torre di Babele ("The Tower of Babel", 1976) Bennato's music became more sophisticated – more musicians contributed to the album, which contains tracks of a very wide range of styles. Bennato was clearly evolving rapidly and this album reflects this process. "Cantautore" ("Songwriter") is an amusing piece mocking those songwriters who, at the time, were taking themselves too seriously.
In the following year, Bennato finally reached commercial success with Burattino senza fili ("Marionette without strings", 1977). This is a concept album based on the Pinocchio fairy tale. The central idea is that having one's own freedom and independence is always better than giving in to the system and its rules, even if it means renouncing to some advantages that the system itself uses as luring temptations. Most of the songs in the album became classics, not only of Bennato's repertoire, but also of Italian pop music in general, "Il gatto e la volpe" ("The cat and the fox") probably being the most famous one.
After this big success, no new album appeared until 1980, when Bennato surprised fans, critics and the whole music biz with a very unconventional move: two albums in less than a month: Uffa! Uffa! ("I'm fed up!", 1980) and Sono solo canzonette ("They're only pop songs", 1980). The two albums together sold more than a million copies, against all marketing rules and expectations. Bennato was clearly at the apex of his creativity. Uffa! Uffa!, the most experimental of the two records, is an album where Bennato blatantly disregarded all commercial concerns and let his creativity free to indulge in all kinds of directions, from medieval ecclesiastical chants to punk rock. The album also contained big hits but was generally overshadowed by the hugely successful Sono solo canzonette, a concept album based on the Pater Pan fairy tale and affirming the value of fantasy and imagination over reason and logic.
By this time, Bennato was the most popular Italian songwriter. Inevitably, this period also coincided with the start of a very slow but perceptible decline. In 1983 another fairy-tale concept album, based on The Pied Piper of Hamelin appeared on the market (È arrivato un bastimento) but it wasn't as successful as the previous ones and this must have led Bennato to try different avenues. This he did with alternating fortune until the present day. Notably, on the occasion of the 1990 FIFA World Cup, which was held in Italy, Edoardo sang the official song of the event: "Un'estate italiana" ("An Italian Summer") together with Gianna Nannini.
Lorenzo Cherubini, better known as Jovanotti, is an Italian singer-songwriter, rapper and disc jockey.
Lucio Dalla was an Italian singer-songwriter, musician and actor. He also played clarinet and keyboards.
Vasco Rossi, also known mononymously as Vasco or with the nickname Il Blasco, is an Italian singer-songwriter and poet. He has published 30 albums and written over 250 songs, as well as lyrics for other artists.
Pietro "Piero" Pelù is an Italian singer and songwriter, best known for his work with the Italian band Litfiba. He was born in Florence.
Antonio Esposito is an Italian singer, songwriter and musician.
Rosalba Pippa, better known by her stage name Arisa, is an Italian singer, actress, and television personality.
Uffa or UFFA may refer to:
Kenny Passarelli is an American bass guitarist. Passarelli was a founding member of the Joe Walsh-led band Barnstorm, co-writing the hit "Rocky Mountain Way". He later served as a contract player for a number of other acts, appearing in both session and live work. These include stints with Elton John, Hall & Oates and Daryl Hall's solo work, Dan Fogelberg, Stephen Stills, Otis Taylor among others.
Eugenio Bennato is an Italian folk musician and songwriter. He is the brother of the musician Edoardo Bennato.
Niccolò Fabi is an Italian singer-songwriter. He rose to national fame after competing in the Newcomers' section of the Sanremo Music Festival in 1997, receiving the Mia Martini Critics' Award for his entry "Capelli".
Michele Zarrillo is an Italian singer-songwriter. He is mainly known for hits such as "Una rosa blu", "Cinque giorni", L'elefante e la farfalla and "La notte dei pensieri". In 1987 he won the Sanremo Music Festival, competing in the newcomers' section. Zarrillo took part in the competition several other times, the last time in 2020 with the song "Nell'estasi o nel fango". He took part in Sanremo's competition 13 times, but only won once, as stated above.
Antonio Diodato, known simply as Diodato, is an Italian singer-songwriter. He won the 70th edition of the Sanremo Music Festival with the song "Fai rumore" and was scheduled to represent Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, before the event's cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ellade Bandini is an Italian drummer.
Elodie Di Patrizi, known professionally as simply Elodie, is an Italian singer, actress and model. She first came to prominence as the runner-up of the fifteenth season of the show Amici di Maria De Filippi.
Sergio Sylvestre is an American-born singer, based in Italy. After moving to Italy, Sylvestre rose to fame winning the 15th series of Italian talent show Amici di Maria De Filippi. His debut extended play, Big Boy, topped the charts in Italy and was certified gold by the Federation of the Italian Music Industry. In 2017, Sylvestre competed in the 67th Sanremo Music Festival and performed "Con te", a song co-written by Giorgia, which was included in his self-titled debut album.
Ermal Meta is an Albanian singer and songwriter.
Edoardo D'Erme, better known as Calcutta, is an Italian singer-songwriter. He debuted with the album Forse…, released by Geograph Records in 2012. Its follow-up, Mainstream, was released by Bomba Dischi on 30 November 2015, preceded by the single "Cosa mi manchi a fare". Initially ignored by Italian media, the album started to achieve success after a few months, when its lead single received airplay by Italian radio networks. The song "Oroscopo", produced by Takagi & Ketra, was released as a stand-alone single in May 2016. Since its release, Calcutta considered the song as something which did not represent himself; despite this, it became his first commercial success and his first single to be certified gold by the Federation of the Italian Music Industry.
Buoni o cattivi is the fourteenth studio album by Italian singer-songwriter Vasco Rossi, released on 2 April 2004.
Ghemon is an Italian rapper and singer-songwriter.
Giuseppe Vessicchio is an Italian conductor, composer, arranger, musician and television personality. He is often spelled as Beppe Vessicchio or Peppe Vessicchio.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
