Live In Italy

Zucchero’s brilliant career

The 53-year-old Adelmo Fornaciari better known as the singer Zucchero is one of the few European artists that have conquered absolute world fame. His creative path began back in 1970 when he was a member of several collectives in turn and performed at various festivals in the native Italy with them. At the beginning of 1980s he showed himself on the legendary Sanremo festival and in 1983 his solo debut Un po' di Zucchero was released. Then the singer moved to California for some time where he met producer Corrado Rustici, an acquaintance that eventually proved quite significant for practically all of Zucchero’s albums were recorded with Rustici. In 1991 the Italian’s first live album Live at the Kremlin recorded in Moscow was released and late last year the singer gave us his new recording Live In Italy. The performances on two splendid Italian scenes are presented on this new collection, the Arena in Verona and the San Siro Stadium in Milan. The album is made up of two discs 17 tracks long each and presents the songs created at different times of Zucchero’s brilliant career.

Old and new hits on Live In Italy

Of course as any live recording Live In Italy is refined with the fans’ shouting but they are incredibly emotional here as the singer is performing in his native country where he is treated with a special attention. Besides the musicians’ playing with the elements of improvisation will also please the listeners fond of rock and blues, the styles Zucchero sticks to most often. The album opens with a beautiful melodious ballad Dune Mosse from the 1995’s album Diamante and it is followed by a whole waterfall of new songs from the latest creation Fly: these are the 4 singles that have already become quite famous, Occhi, Bacco Perbacco, Un Kilo and Cuba Libre, and a slow philosophic ballad Quanti Anni Ho filled with love of life. The album’s highlight is definitely the amazing ballad Il Volo which was presented on the 2004’s duet album Zu & Co as a Ronan Keating collaboration and the song Diamante from one of the most successful albums, 1992’s Oro, Incenso and Birra literarily takes the viewers and the listeners to the past. Naturally the artist could not but perform his recent world hit Baila (Sexy Thing) from the 2002’s Shake but it is far from the only one composition worthy of paying attention to it. Among other highlights one should mention tracks Overdose D'amore, Il Mare (Impetuoso Al Tramonto Sali'Sulla Luna E Dietro Una Tendina Di Stelle...) and Diavolo In Me, all being again from the record Oro, Incenso and Birra, and the compositions performed in English You Are So Beautiful, a cover of Black’s song Wonderful Life and an excellent piano ballad Sympathy. The concert closes with an optimistic rarity Oro E Blues, a mid-tempo rock composition charging everyone with a positive energy.

An invaluable contribution to the music culture

One live album even as rich in material as Live In Italy is certainly not enough to appreciate fully the contribution to the music culture made by senior Fornaciari throughout his entire career. First, the Italian rock in general is hard to imagine without his name. Second, ‘Sugar’ is a friend of the most famous representatives of the America’s music world such as Eric Clapton and Joe Cocker with whom he has sung duets more than once. As a matter of fact he is very good at collaborations which is best demonstrated on the 2004’s collection Zu & Co, an album that everyone who is not yet acquainted with this side of Zucchero’s creative work should listen to. Finally he has given the world a wonderful ballad Senza Una Donna, performing it again with Paul Young and a sultry hit Baila (Sexy Thing), and that is a lot. His powerful and a bit hoarse vocals with quite a wide range sound the same impressive on Live In Italy as on any if his other records so we can be sure that the 2006’s album Fly was not the last one and Zucchero will again more than once surprise his old and new fans whose number is growing more and more each year.