If you love pop music with catchy hooks and synths, you were in luck in Italy this past summer. A number of charting Italian songs seemed influenced by 80s sounds:
Return of the 80s
“Zucchero Day”; Los Angeles event promo
We’re entering the last week of Zucchero’s North American tour with Sugar visiting the west coast.
Tue, Sep 27 – Portland, OR – REVOLUTION HALL – tickets
Thu, Sep 29 – San Francisco, CA – PALACE OF FINE ARTS – tickets
Fri, Sep 30 – Los Angeles, CA – SABAN THEATRE – tickets
Sat, Oct 1 – San Diego, CA – BALBOA THEATRE – tickets
Sun, Oct 2 – Tucson, AZ – FOX THEATRE
LA City Council Member Joe Buscaino declared September 30th Zucchero day in Los Angeles: “I am excited to proclaim September 30 Zucchero Day in Los Angeles, in recognition of Zucchero’s incredible contributions to Italian culture! Zucchero is hailed as ‘the father of the Italian blues’, having introduced the sweet sounds of blues music to Italy.”
Special 15% off ticket offer for the LA event:
Saban Theatre
8440 Wilshire Boulevard
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
323-655-0111
FRI SEP 30, 2022 – 8:00 PM
Ages: Guests Under 18 Require Accompanying Adult
For 15% off, enter code LILAA22ZU in the Discount code box :
https://www.axs.com/events/428918/zucchero-tickets
Here’s a recent fun mash-up featuring Zucchero from Bruxxx Music Shaker, who commonly mashes up Italian pop with rock:
200k attend Notte della Taranta 2022
Some big names of pop performed at the final night of the annual pizzica festival in Salento, Puglia, last month including Elodie, Marco Mengoni, Stromae, Dardust, and Samuele Bersani. The annual event, since 1998, attracted 200k on its final night according to festival organizers.
Zucchero promo: Detroit and Chicago 2 for 1 deal
9/20/22 – Detroit, MI – Detroit Music Hall
Ticket from $ 40 for 2
Detroit : ZUDT22
Ticketmaster
9/21/22 – Chicago, IL – Copernicus Center
Tickets from $ 79 for 2
Chicago Code : ZUCH22
https://copernicuscenter.org/zucchero/
Zucchero US and Canada tour Sept 9 through Oct 2
A reminder that Zucchero’s world tour hits North America on September 9th in Atlantic City, NJ and goes across the US and Canada through October 2nd. For those in the Chicago and Detroit areas, visit our Facebook page and leave a comment in the last Zucchero post for a chance to win tickets to the shows in those cities.
Sep 9 – Atlantic City, NJ
Sep 10 – New York City
Sep 11 – Foxwoods Casino, CT
Sep 13 – Washington, DC (sold out)
Sep 14 – Washington, DC
Sep 16 – Boston
Sep 17 – Montreal
Sep 18 – Niagara Falls, ON
Sep 20 – Detroit
Sep 21 – Chicago
Sep 24 – Seattle
Sep 25 – Vancouver
Sep 27 – Portland
Sep 29 – San Francisco
Sep 30 – Los Angeles
Oct 1 – San Diego
Oct 2 – Tucson
Bocelli was discovered by Zucchero during an audition for the featured part in “Miserere,” recorded by Luciano Pavarotti.
In Concert: Zucchero, Eros Ramazzotti, Diodato, Riccardo Fogli & Mal return to the US and Canada
Rescheduled 2020 tour dates from Zucchero and Eros arrive in the US and Canada in the second half of the year, along with Niagara Falls appearances from classic pop stars like Riccardo Fogli and Mal, and Hitweek is back with 2020 Sanremo winner Diodato in Miami and LA and Cosmo joining him in Miami.
Zucchero’s latest album, Discover, is a cover album containing international favorites like Coldplay’s “The Scientist” and Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game” as well as Italian hits from Elisa, Fabio Concato, and Fabrizio De André. His 16-city tour begins on September 9th.
Ramazzotti’s album, Battito Infinito, will be released on September 16 and his US and Canada dates begin October 30th. The first new single was released last month and is titled “Ama.”
See our Events page for more details.
Updated Philly-area radio listings; Italian Festival season
We’d recently updated radio program entries for the hour-long Philly-area shows titled “Viaggio Musicale.” Both shows feature pop music and provide news of interest to the Southeastern Pennsylvania, South New Jersey and Delaware Italian communities. On Sunday afternoons 2 to 3pm, Melissa Cannavo-Marino and Nick Alessandrini host the show on Philadelphia’s 860 AM – WWDB; on Sunday evenings, from 6 to 7pm, Cannavo-Marino produces the program broadcast out of Vineland, NJ’s 92.1, WVLT.
The unofficial start of summer begins next week and Italian-American festivals from Portland, ME to Honolulu are back. Some upcoming events:
| May 19-21 | St Philip Neri Italian Festival Fort Mill, SC |
| May 26-29 | Sons and Daughters of Italy Italian Festival East Fishkill, NY |
| May 28 | La Festa dei Ceri/ Saint Ubaldo Day Jessup, PA |
| May 28-30 | I Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival Santa Barbara, CA |
| June 3-5 | Festa Italiana, Kansas City, MO |
| June 3-5 | Festa Italiana, Madison, WI |
| June 5 | 12th Annual Italian American Heritage Festival Media, PA (Philadelphia-area) |
| June 8 – 12 | The Feast of St. Anthony Arthur Ave, Bronx, NY |
New PA radio program added: The Italian Radio Hour
Good start to the year with the January debut of a new Italian radio program in Pittsburgh , “The Italian Radio Hour” with Viviana of Instituto Mondo Italiano and Stefano. The show hosts members of the Italian-American community, as well as from Italy, for chats about everything Italian. The show broadcasts live on Thursday at 5pm on http://www.khbradio.com/ and past episodes are available @ http://www.istitutomondoitaliano.org/the-italian-radio-hour.html.
About Instituto Mondo Italiano:
Founded in 2003 with the goal of welcoming and assisting the Italian community in Pittsburgh, Mondo Italiano has become “the” point of reference for anyone passionate about Italy and the Italian culture.
Mondo Italiano organizes a variety of different programs such as Italian language classes, art exhibits, concerts, inter-cultural exchanges, cooking demonstrations, trips to Italy, travel presentations and as well as a library full of material in Italian (magazines, books, DVDs, CDs).
In case you missed it: “Quando trovo te”
Here’s a release from a few months back that may gone underappreciated.
Finishing at the back of the pack each night the song was performed at this year’s Festival di Sanremo was Francesco Renga’s “Quando Trovo Te”. The song seemed not well suited for the live Festival setting and found the 2005 Sanremo winner struggling a bit. Translated to “When I find you,” the track was written by Renga and popular songwriters Roberto Casolino (Giusy Ferreri, Marco Mengoni, Annalisa) and Dario Faini, who is also known as Dardust and had a hand in 5 of the entries in this year’s Festival. The song’s sound is reminiscent of Casolino hits, with a sweet pop melody and memorable chorus. There seems to be some uptick in airplay of the single in the months that followed the Festival and a YouTuber posted a remix, perfect for these summer months.
Lyrics and English translation from LyricsTranslate
Italian pop Songs from Disney-Pixar’s Luca
The soundtrack of the latest animated film from Pixar, Luca, features a few legendary singers from the world of Italian pop: Gianni Morandi, Mina, Edoardo Bennato, and Rita Pavone. Morandi enjoyed a nice spike in sales and YouTube hits after being featured in another soundtrack a couple of years, the Oscar-winning “Parasite.” The four noted artists are all still active and, hopefully, all these wonderful songs achieve some new success.
Here are songs featured in “Luca”:
