Ten possible new "directions" for the Ariston

Who would have ever thought that one day Lucio Corsi would manage to win over the Italian general public - and let's be clear from the start, the same public that adores Jovanotti and Laura Pausini - bewitching it with his songwriting, so out of place at Sanremo and above all so out of time, welcomed by none other than the opportunistic Fazio, who, like millions of Italians (with the notable exception of the great Carlo Verdone, who wanted Corsi alongside him in the TV series "Vita da Carlo"), now hails him as the saviour of quality music. Corsi's second place at the just-concluded 75th Sanremo Festival, followed immediately by his new tour selling out, says a lot about the media power of an event that, despite everything, can still deliver something different from the usual, notwithstanding the stranglehold kept up by the same old songwriters and management companies that have monopolised the national mainstream stage for years, flooding us with copy-paste songs and disposable singers. Corsi opens the door to hopes that were unthinkable just a few days ago, and in doing so puts the whole underground world of Italian songwriting in a new light. Here, then, are ten names, more or less under the radar, both young and not so young, who, should they ever perform on the Ariston stage, would have, at least on paper, the same shot at success as Corsi. A selection that is partly playful, of course, and just as obviously hypothetical, meant to show, if there was still any need to, that pop songwriting - and its less poppy, folk, rock, piano-driven or even electronic variants - is not dead. Ten names, among many others, that the general public deserves to discover.

Daniela Pes

Adored in independent circuits, the Sardinian multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter won a Premio Tenco in 2023 for best debut work with the widely acclaimed "Spira". Daniela Pes has a background in jazz, a factor that has allowed her to grow artistically in complete expressive freedom. She would obviously have to adapt to Sanremo's conventions, at least in terms of lyrics, which she mostly sings in Sardinian. But that wouldn't be beyond her reach at all - quite the opposite. There was Tazenda, after all, and that says a lot about how the musician, born in Gallura in 1992, might adapt. She could win over the general public with her charm as an old-school folk singer-songwriter who is, at the same time, thoroughly at ease with electronics.

Giargo

The debut album by Giargo, stage name of Giorgio Michele Longo, born in Foggia in 1998 and a naturalised resident of Bologna for eight years, is called "Boxe", a highly inspired jazz- and Caribbean-flavoured take on songwriting fascinations in the vein of Daniele Silvestri. It would make perfect sense at Sanremo, without even trying too hard, bringing to the Ariston an Italian-Carioca blend that would surely win over pretty much everyone. His hypothetical presence at the Ariston would be a fresh gust of tropicalismo and soft-funk of the finest kind, light Italian pop song (an adjective to handle with care and never trivialise) and Mediterranean warmth. Need we say more?

Whitemary

Whitemary, real name Biancamaria Scoccia, is a singer-songwriter originally from Abruzzo but adopted by Rome, with a diploma in jazz singing and a job teaching Music Technology. Having started out in jazz and passed through the Italian songbook, she has ended up manipulating samplers and analogue synthesizers. Her latest album, released in 2024 and titled "New Bianchini", is a concentrate of it-pop that would very likely work wonders at the Ariston. She could introduce herself to the general public with an eighties-style ballad that turns fierce in the chorus, or with a potential summer hit in a balearic-minimal style that would flatten every beach resort in the country, or nearly so.

Amerigo Verardi

With Verardi the same argument could be made as for Brunori Sas, since he too would be a debutant well past his 40s. He's been on the scene for a lifetime, delighting the more curious listeners with his lively folk songwriting, dense with dreamlike arrangements. Just think of works like "Un sogno di Maila", essentially a genuine concept album built around the theme of dreaming, through which the singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Brindisi continues to prove himself, right from the outset, a true one-off in our country's musical landscape. At the Ariston, Verardi might one day give it a go with a song written specifically for the occasion. Who knows. Never say never.

Candra

Achille Lauro and all the fake bad boys who surround themselves with twenty thousand co-writers because they're incapable of writing half a song on their own can step aside. Italian auteur songwriting, full stop, poured out in torrents: that's Candra's style. A deep, elusive, penetrating, dense composer, full of pain, with molten lava running through his veins. Considered electronics, rock outbursts, sly riffs, harmonic ascents and romantic collapses: there's almost nothing missing in Candra's music. The songs of this fascinating Tuscan singer-songwriter are a godsend. If he went to Sanremo with the right song, he'd sweep away everything in his path.

Cassio

Simone Brondi, aka Cassio, is a singer-songwriter from Livorno with an elusive style, suspended between electronica and indie rock. In short, he's a case apart. He feels like a failure, and turns that failure into a triumph to be shouted from the rooftops, exorcising the resulting drama in the songs of "19 luglio 1944". At Sanremo he would burn with genuine passion. More than Corsi. "Molto meglio se vomito un po'" sings Cassio in "Sempre serio", a disjointed ballad between glitch injections and shabby passages. Even "Sparo" sounds like a cross between Four Tet and Mango, offered up almost by chance by an indie minstrel. In short, no further words are needed. Cassio at the Ariston would be a genuine meteorite.

Francesca Palamidessi

Imagine Sir Alice or Burbuja (whoever still remembers them wins a thousand toasters and thirty-five kitchen sets) singing in Italian while electronically blending monsters and angelic creatures. Well, on her third record, “Madreperla”, released in 2023, the Rome-based singer-songwriter takes her first step as a homegrown producer, playing almost everything herself (piano, guitar, bass). At the Ariston she'd stick out like an alien, of course. Francesca has a voice that could easily adapt to Sanremo-style songs. She could even try her hand at one of her own piano-driven ballads dressed up with pads and other postmodern trickery that would prove pretty bewitching.

Gionata

His songs are often such immediate, offbeat potential hits that they put the far more established Calcutta and Brunori Sas to shame. Amid the flood of carbon-copy releases that make up Italy's vintage-flavoured pop 3.0, the music of this Tuscan singer-songwriter, no longer in his twenties, stands tall on the strength of its illuminating pathos. Gionata spent much of his youth in Milan, and as a perfect out-of-towner he picked up on the struggles of a generation scorched by globalism and by the crisis of a two-speed society: the supersonic speed of the internet, and the lumbering pace of the ageing figures sitting in the control room. It will never happen. There you go. But if it did, he'd cut a fine figure at the Ariston.

Nico Sambo

Also on the “scene” for quite a while now, Nico Sambo is a thoroughly likeable storyteller who, for some time now, has stopped reaching for dazzling alchemy to stir up emotions - quite the opposite, in fact. Sambo has the gift of knowing exactly how to make the most of his own simplicity, crafting songs that are both enveloping and sharp-edged. A craftsman of Italian rock songwriting, sincere and bold, at times almost old-fashioned. His latest album, “Istanti in bilico”, released in 2024, rests on “impressionistic” lyrics and broad brushstrokes, leaving the music to deliver meanings that are often disarming. At the Festival he could do great things. And on the radio the day after, too.

Non voglio che Clara

Namely, the Italian indie band that never quite broke through to the wider, most Sanremo-friendly audience of all time. There's no counting the songs that the Belluno-based band led by Fabio De Min have written over the years that could potentially have (con)quered the Ariston stage, or thereabouts. It's hard to know where to even start. Let's just say that if they'd gone up on that stage just once with a song like “Le paure”, the name Non voglio che Clara might well be known today even to Linus and Fazio. And even the over-50s, the ones still devoted to Cary Grant and the like, would love them too. A band that has written some genuinely beautiful pages of Italian independent songwriting over the last twenty years. And one that, perhaps more than many others, deserves the mainstream success it's been chasing.

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