Yesterday night I went home, after talking with a French friend of mine, about many things and between them, also about a 1963 Italian song she quite like.
Italian is the most beautiful language.I have never said so, and I also doubt about it. I was telling Fanny, the French, about how I would love to stop understanding my language for one day, and listen to the sound it makes, completely unaware of what everything means. This unfortunately won’t happen and as the more strangers, and friends, tell me how beautiful my language is, the more I am curious.
Italian music therefore should sound magnificent, shouldn’t it?
In my early years, my parents never really gave me any introduction to music. It was mostly based on couple of mix-taped cassettes my uncle re-mastered for me and my sister. In our childhood, we were therefore trapped between the sounds of the worldwide famous gay icons and old songs from the Italian 60s and 70s.
Between Madonna, Cher, and an Italian song about mountains and rabbits, there is however a song, in that mixtape cassette, that, in some way, link Italy and Denmark.
It is a song I could not really get when I was a child, but that I believe it would fully represent my childhood, as I remember questioning myself about it.
Eurovision Festival is getting closer and closer. Italy have been out of the contest in the late years, and Italian youth grew up without knowing about this kinda silly and kinda interesting music contest. The first time I’ve heard about this contest, it was in 2011, while I was living in Aarhus, in a really international group of friends. Eurovision was then presented to me as a contest where each country brings up a song and a singer-representative in order to win the competition. (where the Dutch added “But Netherlands, we always have a shitty song and crazy shows in the background”).
I did not pay much attention to it, if not the year after, when Sweden won and “Euphoria” went viral. Then I kinda started to understand what was all about it and checked some youtube video. Mostly embarrassing. The very first time I “experienced” the Eurovision Contest was actually the finals of last year, when I was thrown again in the international melting pot my Master was and everybody was so excited to see that happening. I was however watching it with a Danish family that kinda liked the song of Emmelie De Forest, as much as other people around Europe did. Denmark won, and with this, they became the next host of the Eurosonic contest, that will be on in less than three months, in Copenhagen.
Some countries are still selecting their representative. Today is “Super Saturday”: six countries will pick their finalists, while Italy already chose it. We do not hold a contest to select our band or singer: there’s an invisible hand behind it, that usually picks ex X-Factor winners. Therefore, this year EMMA will sing “ La mia citta”.
But most of those will listen to it during the contest, won’t get what it means, the nice puns and will lose interest in it.
Although, supposedly, Italian is the most beautiful language in the world, can a non-English song win the Eurovision contest? In the last 20 years only one non-English song won (in 2007), therefore the answer is quite out there. And maybe that is what we’re trying to aim as, by being economically on the brink, Italy might not be able to afford to host Eurovision. Probably in the next million years to come.
Denmark will see again performers and audience gather around Copenhagen: it only happened twice before. In 2001 and 1964. And it is in 1964, in Copenhagen Tivoli Koncertsal, that the 16 years old Italian Gigliola Cinquetti won the Eurovision contest with the song “Non ho l’età” , the song that reminds me my childhood.
http://youtu.be/G62bSMNaxNs
Non ho l’età means “I am not old enough”: in a way talks about Italian society of the Sixties, when a girl was “not old enough to go out alone with” a guy. Forty years after it’s release the song was playing in my room, making damages to my little brain, that was trying to contextualize its initial line “Non ho l’età per amarti” (I am not old enough to love you). How old should you be? Do you need a licence for that? Maybe it is like when you lose your sweet teeth and then you know you can start. How old should you be to hang out with people? Mystery.
Spice girls then fixed it all as I could not get what they were singing about, and no question was going round in my head.
In this days, that I found out about this weird link between Denmark, Italy and Eurovision, I listened a lot to this song and I questioned myself: nowadays, how old should you be? And considering the decay of Italian society and bunga bunga practice, I believe you can be underage.
