Gianna Nannini - A Rock Romance

The founding figure of Italian rock's female contingent, and for years the only homegrown rockeuse with any international standing (with Germany as her "second homeland"), an eclectic musician shaped by seven years of Conservatory training, Gianna Nannini has spanned thirty-five years of songwriting, winning over multiple generations of fans and managing to stay afloat without ever betraying her style - even as it evolved over the years from the fiery rock and international productions of her early days towards a singer-songwriter approach that's just as full-blooded, but far softer and more accessible.

Her entire career is a constant tug-of-war between inexhaustible energy and a melodic sweetness that has won over even audiences less accustomed to rock sounds. Even in her more commercial missteps, in her most crowd-pleasing hits, she has always managed to stand out from the Italian mainstream, thanks to her impressive vocal talent, an exuberant stage presence, and an approach that is always visceral and direct - light years away from the studied, lifeless posturing of much of Italy's homegrown stardom.

"Clito-rock" is how Christian Zingales describes her music in the portrait dedicated to her in "Italiani brava gente," tracing her long "cheek-to-cheek dance between the carnal and the lunar." And there's no denying that sexuality played a fundamental role in her rise to fame, fuelled by a libertine sense of transgression that was likewise quite far removed from the traditional parameters of the Italian "cantantessa."

Born in Siena (in the Contrada dell'Oca) on 14 June 1956, to father Danilo (the "king of panforte"), a well-known confectionery industrialist and former president of Siena Calcio, and mother Giovanna Cellesi, Nannini revealed her passion for music early on. By the age of seven, in fact, she had already decided her destiny was to become a singer. But school dealt her a blow to the heart: the music teachers wouldn't let her into the school choir because she sang "Fratelli d'Italy" in a rather unorthodox way.

At twelve she began studying piano at the Luigi Boccherini Conservatory in Lucca, which she would attend for seven years.

But provincial Tuscany soon felt too small: at 19 she hopped on a motorbike and set off for Milan, with a rockstar dream in her pocket — the year was 1975.

She studied composition with Bruno Bettinelli, started playing in legendary off-scene venues (Osteria dell'Operetta, Le Scimmie and Il Rosso), and also met blues musician Igor Campaner.

Self-taught as a singer, she honed her voice over the years thanks to the guidance of a Bulgarian teacher and lessons with a vocal therapist in London.

After her English stint, Gianna Nannini started knocking on the doors of record labels in Rome and Milan, and was offered a contract by Ariston, which she promptly turned down: she had no intention of becoming a stereotyped singer. Soon after, however, she was spotted by Claudio Fabi and Mara Maionchi of Numero Uno, who, together with maestro Gino Mescoli, brought her into the prog group Flora Fauna Cemento as female vocalist.

With this band, led by Mario Lavezzi, she wrote and recorded "Stereotipati noi", the B-side of the single "Congresso di filosofia", with which she appeared on Un disco per l'estate in 1974. A TV performance that went almost unnoticed, but one that began to open the doors of the Italian record industry to her.

It was Claudio Fabi himself who produced her debut album, Gianna Nannini, released on the Ricordi label in 1976. It's made up of small, naive psychodramas, composed in bursts at the piano — tales of anger and melancholy, often tinged with autobiography: she sings “Rivedo quella bimba bionda/ scendere lenta le scale/ e poi mia madre dire vieni vieni c’è gente/ davanti a me dei manichini… / Ma quale angelo/ potevo essere io/in mezzo a un cielo che non era fatto per essere il mio” in "Come un angelo", recounting her break from a stifling family environment.

The most scorching lyric, however, is "Morta per autoprocurato aborto", which earned her the support of feminist groups (“Dov’è il coraggio di continuare a dar la vita/ tra le macerie se la gente non ci sente più/ forse daranno un paradiso a donne come lei”).

Musically, it's a fairly rough and unpolished brand of rock singer-songwriter fare, with symphonic flourishes, which nonetheless shows off her excellent gifts as a performer — forever raw-throated and passionate.

The following year, again working with Fabi, came Una radura, an album still clearly rooted in the singer-songwriter tradition, with simple, poignant melodies, at times stripped-down, and with intellectualized, socially engaged lyrics, sometimes spoken rather than sung. A record with a strongly autobiographical imprint: "I put all of myself into it, my problems, my loneliness, the difficulty of communicating with others," the Tuscan singer-songwriter would recall some years later.

Nannini, who plays piano and harmonica, wrote all the tracks except "Riprendo la mia faccia", co-written with Fabi himself (a genuine self-portrait: “Ora sono proprio io/ forse sono proprio io/che mi sto tirando fuori/ donna”); on this track, as on "Basta" and "Frenesia", the contribution of some members of Pfm is crucial — namely Franz Di Cioccio (drums), Flavio Premoli (keyboards) and Patrick Djivas (bass) — whose presence lends a more muscular edge and clear nods to the progressive rock that was still holding on in Italy in those years.

The talent is there and it shows, even if at times it strays into pretentious melodrama ("Maria Paola"), and success still doesn't come.

Caught between androgynous rebellion and sentimentality, Nannini stubbornly kept going her own way. She rejected the "singer-songwriter" label and rechristened her music "spezzato ritmico melodico" ("broken rhythmic-melodic"), with an evident nod to her beloved Italian romanza tradition.

She performed in small theatre venues, in solo shows inspired by French existentialist recital.

Restless by nature, she moves to the United States, chasing an American dream that will soon fade, leaving her disillusioned but enriched by new musical experiences she'll put to good use on her next album, the definitive launchpad to success.

The breakthrough year is 1979, branded by a song, "America", a brazen anthem to self-pleasure (“per oggi sto con me mi basto/ nessuno mi vede/ e allora accarezzo la mia solitudine/ e ognuno ha il suo corpo a cui sa cosa chiedere…”), but also a metaphor for the masturbatory/narcissistic American dream, delivered in that melodic, blunt and energetic rock style that will forever define the Tuscan singer's verve. It's her first big hit, paving the way the following year for the album California, which veers decisively toward a streetwise, rebellious rock sound - but also a shrewder, more alluring one. Nannini unleashes her provocative streak right from the cover art, depicting the Statue of Liberty holding a stars-and-stripes vibrator. The story goes that her father Danilo, embarrassed by the whole thing, kept asking the record label up to the last minute to either change the artwork or remove the family surname from it.

The mark of American rock is tangible on the aching title track: an electric ride of a full eight minutes, opening with one of her most soaring melodies and building into a final crescendo thick with guitar virtuosity. The lyrics read as an anthem to youthful idealism and, at the same time, to the disillusionment of a shattered American dream (“Siamo noi la California/ siamo noi la libertà/ pugni chiusi nelle tasche/ sangue fragole realtà”). Nannini was among the first to question that American myth long idealized by the youth counter-cultures of previous decades, from the beat generation onward.

"Io e Bobby McGee" - a daring cover of the famous "Me and Bobby McGee" - is a tribute to one of her guiding lights, Janis Joplin, whose raspy, scratchy vocal style she echoes in some way (although her true touchstone was always Suzi Quatro). Elsewhere, she indulges in sentimental ballads such as "Goodbye My Heart", with Pascoli's sax front and centre, and "Lei", both also written by Nannini.

On the other tracks, by contrast, guitarist Mauro Paoluzzi's contribution proves decisive, both musically and in the arrangements, while Roberto Vecchioni's input is crucial to the lyrics. Also standing out is the anguished delivery of "La Lupa e le Stelle", where piano and sax flank the classic rock-blues setup of guitar, bass and drums.

The success of California also cements her bond with Germany, selling a hundred thousand copies and leading to a string of appearances, including Berlin's Venus Welklang, the first all-female rock festival, the legendary Rock Palast in Essen, five hours of live Eurovision broadcast, the Open Air at Berlin's Waldbuehne, and the Golden Summernight Concerts alongside Police in Munich and Dusseldorf.

What strikes most is the exuberance and formidable punch of her live performances, setting her sharply apart from the tradition of Italian female singers. On stage she's a hurricane: screaming, jumping, touching herself, provoking the crowd. A "vaffanculo" shouted in German during one show cost her the chance to open for Guccini, but it crowned her a star on German soil.

1981 brings the excellent G.N., almost entirely written by Nannini herself, produced by Roberto Cacciapaglia, a composer with a refined classical background. The lead track is "Vieni ragazzo", a murky, electric novelty number with postmodern sounds that won over both critics and the public (it would reach second place at Festivalbar).

The album is dominated by a convulsive, cosmopolitan rock sound, more in step with the times than its predecessor, at times steeped in new wave flavours, as in the striking keyboard work on "Ad occhi aperti" or the nocturnal flight of the gorgeous "Nessuna direzione", which seems to tell exactly that "movie of a non-stop day, like a collection of emotional flashes that alternate through everyday life" which, according to the author herself, is what the whole record is really about.

Raw, hoarse, breathless in verse and rebellious in spirit, Gianna establishes herself as a superb interpreter of a restless, pan-European youthful spleen, made of roaring nights and long drives down a "motorway" of "thoughtless prairies", where one loses and exhausts oneself in draining journeys (“Autostrada/ Prendi la mia mente, stancami… Fammi uscire ancora, fammi uscire/ Autostrada/ Praterie senza pensiero”). An untamed, restless spirit, demanding only the occasional respite once it runs out of steam: “Ora spegni le luci dei fari/ addormentati sul tuo domani/ non ho voglia di muovermi/ non ho voglia di scegliere/ e mi piace vederti così/ sulle nuvole in cerca di me/ con la testa che prende il via/ a cavallo della follia” (the electrifying "Stop").

The bond with punk urgency still runs strong, evident in the syncopated, biting "Bi Bip", which pokes fun at beauty and emptiness. But even here, there's no shortage of gentler, dreamier moods, sublimated in the urban serenade of "Uò-uò".

That same year, Nannini founded the record label "Gienne" together with Swiss manager Peter Zumsteg, who would stand by her side as executive producer for a full twenty-three years. She also made contact with various international producers and wrote the soundtrack for Luciano Mannuzzi's film "Sconcerto rock".

Then, Berlin. The cradle of Bowie-style reinvention, an unavoidable crossroads for many avant-garde musicians of the era. Chafing against Italy's narrow horizons, Nannini landed near the Wall in 1982, sharing an apartment with a young Annie Lennox, who would soon take the world by storm with Eurythmics, and began mixing with the circle of artists orbiting the German capital.

The crucial encounter was with Conny Plank, the guru of the "German touch", who had already produced (among others) Kraftwerk, Ultravox, Eurythmics, Daf and Devo.

From the fusion of the German producer's electronic imprint and the Tuscan singer's Mediterranean melodicism comes Latin Lover, arguably the most ambitious album of her career. The raw, raspy Nannini of her early days transforms into a modern rockeuse with an international reach. Musically too, the record becomes intriguing: guitars drenched in chorus and sandpaper-fine micro-delay, German synthesizers galore, even the odd robotic drum machine. Recorded in Cologne between June and August of '82, the album is a huge success, especially in Germany; the concert of October 12th is unforgettable, helping it sell a full 250,000 copies in no time.

The title track, a sort of pastiche on the clichés of the “Latin male,” keeps up the connection with the anthemic rock of “America,” unleashing another gutsy vocal performance. But the album's masterpiece is the aching ballad “Ragazzo dell'Europa,” the absolute high point of her melodic quest and a portrait of poetic, bohemian romanticism. It's a tale of restlessness and wandering, perhaps autobiographical, steeped in Mitteleuropean moods and Cold War anxieties: Nannini's warm voice is carried by the solemn pulse of the keyboards (played by Annie Lennox) and the incisive drumming of Jaki Liebezeit (Can). The nostalgic “Carillon” continues in this melancholy vein, pouring out fresh pathos, while “Fumetto” and “Volo5/4” come close to wave-style paranoia. The collaboration with Mauro Paoluzzi also returns for the composition of “Primadonna,” another jolt of rock adrenaline vaguely reminiscent of the already-mentioned “America,” as well as of the title track and “Wagon-Lits,” which bears the mark of Teutonic influence in its sounds and noises.

In 1983, Nannini played Titania in Gabriele Salvatores's film “Sogno di una notte d'estate,” and together with Mauro Pagani she also wrote its soundtrack (including the tracks “Lontano” and “La luna”).

It would take until 1984, however, for her definitive consecration as a star, with the release of Puzzle, which reveals a shift away from her early rock sound toward a more commercial, melodic approach, bolstered by the heavy use of synthesizers and plastic-sounding textures framing her trademark raspy voice. The standout track is “Fotoromanza,” an electropop number with a sticky-sweet melody and a driving rhythm, featuring an ironic lyric (which riffs on a poem by Prévert) and, fittingly, a romanza-like flourish in the explosive refrain (“Questo amore è una camera a gas…”). Promoted by a video directed by none other than Michelangelo Antonioni, it became the song of the summer, winning at the Festivalbar, at Vota la voce, and the Telegatto for best lyric of the year. It also stayed at the top of the charts for a full two months, while Puzzle held a place in the top ten of the Italian hit parade for six months. For her detractors, the song would mark the definitive watershed between Nannini's earlier, more experimental work and her subsequent chart-oriented pop phase, but in truth the balance it strikes between catchiness and eccentric arrangements makes it more plausibly a product of the former.

Another standout, albeit on a much smaller scale, is “Kolossal,” with its nods to the world of rap. “L'urlo” departs from the album's radio-friendly mold, venturing into a more jagged structure built on a bass-drums interplay that counterpoints Nannini's raw, brash vocals. “Fiesta” plays with Latin sounds, while “Se Vai Via” pushes further into rock territory. Even two tracks like the synth-pop of “Ciao,” enriched by disorienting arrangements, and the techno-pop of “Ballami” (caught between Eastern instruments and driving beats) mark a new milestone in the marriage of catchiness and experimentation that the Siena-born artist kept pursuing.

Meanwhile, Nannini performed in numerous concerts across Italy and Europe, while the album climbed to the top of the charts in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, where it earned two gold records.

From recordings of concerts in Berlin, Montreux, Siena, Locarno and Dortmund came her first live album, Tutto live, released in 1985, the same year a new Italian tour kicked off.

1986 brought another hugely successful album: Profumo. Conny Plank's production is an unmistakable trademark, while Fabio Pianigiani co-wrote the music. The Eighties-style sonics of the previous record remain, but the rock edge comes through more firmly this time. The standout here is the single “Bello e impossibile,” a glossy pop-rock number whose catchy chorus earned the album two platinum records in Italy, one in Austria and Switzerland, and gold in Germany.

With “Avventuriera,” on the other hand, the energy becomes more forceful, though it still leaves room for a few interludes built around voice and keyboard; the eccentric “Seduzione” retraces the sounds of Seventies disco music, thanks to funky electric guitars. Even so, the album is rich in ballads, such as the title track, a sweet pop song that's a hymn to untamed love, as well as “Quale amore” and “Terra straniera,” whose electronic arrangements bear the particular stamp of Plank's work at the helm. “Gelosia,” finally, could be described as a hybrid of bossa nova and pop.

In 1987 came the compilation Maschi ed altri, which, alongside the classic hits, featured “I maschi,” another song steeped in gentle melodicism. It also included the single “Bla bla,” already released in 1984 and never included on any previous record. The album sold around a million copies, while the single “I maschi” was presented at the World Popular Song Festival in Tokyo. On May 1st, Nannini took part in another major international event: at the Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, together with Sting and Jack Bruce, she sang a selection of songs by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. The show was broadcast on several European television channels.

In 1987, the sudden death of Conny Plank, at just 47 years old, plunged Nannini into grief and forced an inevitable change of direction, one that would nonetheless take quite a while to yield convincing results.

The new “scandal” was the track “Hey Bionda,” also used as the Festivalbar theme song. The song, whose driving rhythm mimics a military march, takes colorful aim at women in the armed forces: in the accompanying video (censored for a spit aimed at the camera), Nannini expressed herself even more explicitly with the unmistakable gesture of telling someone off, which was also immortalized on the cover of her new album, Malafemmina (1998), produced by Alan Moulder (Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails).

Once again, tenderness and aggression alternate, moving from the brisk rock of “Time Lover” (which closely recalls Billy Idol's “Dancing With Myself”), “Revolution” and “Cuore zingaro,” to the sentimentality of “Voglio fare l'amore” and “Un ragazzo come te.” The tracklist closes with “Donne in amore,” a piano-and-voice piece dedicated to her grandmother Dina, the only track composed entirely by Nannini herself, while Pianigiani once again contributed to the music on the rest of the album.

Plank's absence is keenly felt: ideas run thin, and this time even the melodies feel rather muted. In short, a new restyling was badly needed.

Meanwhile, the occasion of Italy's 1990 World Cup brought Nannini a further, massive dose of popularity, thanks to the tournament's official anthem, “Un'estate italiana,” which she wrote and performed together with Edoardo Bennato, set to music by Giorgio Moroder.

In the autumn of that same year came Scandalo, along with the title single of the same name (among the blandest in her catalogue). The rock soul still makes itself heard (“Indiana”), though there's no shortage of soft ballads like “5 minuti” and “Sorridi.” Production came from Dave M. Allen (who had previously worked with the Cure), while musicians from all over Europe lent their contributions to the recording.

Overall, another misstep, but this emphatic, over-produced stadium rock in the vein of Vasco Rossi taps well into the mainstream taste of the period.

The success of the ensuing tour is documented, if only in small part, on the live album Giannissima.

In 1993, Per forza e per amore was released throughout Europe, driven by the single "Radio Baccano", whose rap section features Jovanotti (also co-author of the lyrics). The track became one of the summer's biggest hits, but the album's success, built around a "radical folk" hybrid, was also helped by other tracks such as the frenzied "Lamento", the heartfelt ode "Io senza te" and the other single "Tira tira", with its Latin-tinged groove. "Maremma", on the other hand, is a traditional piece in the so-called "cantar toscano" style. Dave M. Allen remained at the production helm, and Liebezeit also returned on drums for a few tracks, but the result falls well short of the peaks of her discography.

On January 1, 1995, one minute after midnight, the new single "Meravigliosa creatura" aired simultaneously on all the major radio networks. It's a smooth, hyper-melodic new ballad that paved the way for the release of the album Dispetto on February 13 of that same year, co-produced once again, for the third time, with Dave M. Allen. The record marks a return to her early rock sound, though it also includes tracks that revisit the "cantar toscano" style, such as "Ottava vita" and "500 anni". Worth noting too is a rock-leaning version of "Lontano lontano", the classic by Luigi Tenco. Almost all the lyrics are co-written with Mara Redeghieri, vocalist of Ustmamò, while the ballad "Ninna nera" was written by Francesco De Gregori; "Ottava vita", meanwhile, features an exceptional special guest: Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, who wrote both the lyrics and the music.

Despite this show of force, however, the album too often comes across as muddled and unfocused, getting lost in a bloated, toothless sound.

With the single "Meravigliosa creatura", though, Nannini returned to the top of the charts after a full 17 years. The track was later released in a voice-and-piano version on the 2004 compilation Perle, and years later, in 2007, it even became the soundtrack to a Fiat Bravo commercial.

Also in 1995, Gianna Nannini graduated in philosophy with top marks and honors, with a thesis titled "Il corpo nella voce – Relazioni corpo-voce in una prospettiva di antropologia musicale".

It was during this period that her commitment to humanitarian causes grew stronger: from the Concerto di Solidarietà per gli Immigrati at Cinecittà, alongside Jovanotti, Luca Carboni and Pino Daniele, to the show for Tibet in Turin with Timoria, the Nomadi and a choir of sixteen Tibetan monks, all the way to the Extravaganza Club Tour, powered entirely by solar energy.

Meanwhile, she also became established as a lesbian icon, despite never having stated a precise sexual preference: "When you find the right person, it doesn't matter if it's a man or a woman. I don't like calling myself bisexual. It feels like it excludes a lot of people, maybe trans people... I don't feel bisexual, I feel polysexual", she would explain in an interview with "Magazine".

On July 4, 1995, Nannini made headlines with one of the most striking acts of her rebellious career: a sensational raid on the French embassy, organized by Greenpeace to protest against then-President Chirac's decision to resume nuclear testing on the Mururoa atoll in Polynesia. Her manager's warnings went unheeded ("Be careful, if you get involved in this, you can forget about the French market, where you're selling 600,000 copies"). Her experience as a climber was more than enough to pull off the feat: scaling the balcony of the French embassy in Rome's Piazza Farnese and shouting "Stop ai test nucleari a Mururoa". Then came an impromptu concert on top of a van, performing "America" and "Ninna Nera". The crowd cheered, and the event made the front page of every news broadcast.

In 1996, a new anthology, Bomboloni, was released, featuring three previously unreleased tracks: "Contaminata" (later remixed by none other than Apparat), "M'anima" and the forgettable title track, whose video features her brother, Alessandro Nannini, the former Formula 1 driver.

In 1998, produced by Fabrizio Barbacci, came Cuore, a sharper album than its immediate predecessors, in which raw rock guitars mix with soul flavors and more refined lyrics. The verve of "Sola" turns an apparent admission of defeat into a proud declaration (“Sarà che ho sempre fatto come voglio e quante volte sbaglio ma lo rifarei…/ è sempre la stessa storia allora sto meglio sola/ stare al mio fianco è la tua fatica/ non trovo l’uomo l’uomo della mia vita”). The single "Giorno disumano" wraps a story of drugs and desperation in symphonic rock arrangements: its video would be censored for the rawness of its scenes. The guitars also bite into the passionate love story of "Bacio fondente" and the untamed rock of "Peccato originale", while a bass riff drives "Peccato originale", which opens up into another of her typically soaring melodies. "Centomila", finally, is another ballad: every beat of her heart, set to a taut, catchy rock rhythm.

On December 31, 1999, in Piazza San Carlo in Turin, Gianna Nannini welcomed the new millennium in front of five hundred thousand people.

In 2001 came the soundtrack to the film "Momo alla conquista del tempo" by Enzo D'Alò, the great animation director.

Riding the wave of emotion following the September 11 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York, Nannini took part in the Perugia-Assisi peace march.

Having relocated to Catania for a few months, she teams up with a post-punk trio (Raffaele Gulisano, bass; Tommaso Marletta, guitar; Davide Oliveri, drums). The fruit of this collaboration, along with her partnership with musician and composer Francesco Sartori, is the new album Aria, released in May 2002 after four long years of silence, preceded by the single "Uomini a metà".

For Nannini it's yet another turning point: she experiments with new sonorities, fusing her melodic rock with an electronic sound, thanks to the contribution of programmer Christian Lohre and producer Armand Volker, masters of "noise computer". The two don't just add artificial noises, but "manipulate" genuine instruments and real musicians (including Mauro Pagani, on mandolin in "Uomini a metà" and lute in "Meravigliosamente crudele"). Even Gianna's own voice is treated with the vocoder, turning into a striking new instrument. The surreal lyrics are equally surprising, born from Nannini's collaboration with "pulp" writer Isabella Santacroce ("Destroy", "Luminal") and packed with striking images like "sto male di luce" ("Uomini a metà") or "e non è facile restare senza più fate da rapire" ("Aria").

Between post-modern noisy tammurriate ("Volo"), bittersweet ballads ("Sveglia", but above all the heart-wrenching "Una luce") and red-light trance ("Dj Morphine", featuring Nannini's screams run through a computer synthesizer and a contribution from Pino Zimba of Zoè, one of the leading figures of Apulian "pizzica"), the record unfolds as a curious, elusive work, almost unique in her discography, flirting with the techno generation without ever losing its melodic roots.

"Immortale", featuring all the main guests - from the Catania trio to Sartori, all the way to Lohr on trumpet and vocals filtered through the vocoder - is the most comprehensive representation of this approach.

Finally, the romanza that serves as the title track is one of the most intense poetic moments in the Sienese singer's repertoire: it would be revisited years later, recorded with piano and strings, for Perle, a collection released in 2004 featuring acoustic versions of some of her best-known songs. "Aria" is performed by the London Session Orchestra, while the only new track is "Amandoti", a poignant cover of the song by Giovanni Lindo Ferretti (former leader of Cccp and Csi).

2006 is the year of Grazie, produced together with Wil Malone, the veteran and versatile arranger (who had already worked with Verve, Depeche Mode, Skunk Anansie and Iron Maiden), who brings in the warm presence of strings, conducting the orchestra himself. The curtain rises with "Sei nell'anima", a slow-burning, insistent love song delivered with open-hearted passion (it will later feature on the soundtrack of the film "Manuale d'amore - 2"); "Possiamo sempre", a kind of ode to free will, is a powerful rock track built on an electric guitar riff, enriched by an arpeggiated guitar line, which softens into a sweet refrain amid cellos and violins; "IO" is simply a fun, carefree track with Japanese flavors (its video, too, will be set in Japan); "Babbino caro", closing with a children's choir, is a tribute to her father Danilo, a gesture of reconciliation after a troubled relationship (she would lose him in February 2007); even more absorbing moments, however, can be found in the title track, a sweet love song with a bold sound, in the vibrant "Mi fai incazzare" (“il cielo è qui sopra di noi/ deserto scivola alle mani/ il cielo è su con gli avvoltoi/ se ti giri diventa assassino”) and in "Alla fine", the closing track, built around voice and piano, with the inevitable addition of strings.

Malone's collaboration proves crucial to the composition of the music, as does that of Pacifico (Gino De Crescenzo) and Isabella Santacroce for the lyrics, although many of the songs are credited to Nannini alone.

The album becomes her greatest commercial success: it stays at number one on the charts for eleven weeks (an absolute record for the Sienese singer-songwriter), earns five platinum discs and is named album of the year at the Festivalbar in September 2006. And it's hardly a coincidence: it's one of the finest records of her recent output.

After going through a chaotic period on a personal level ("Suddenly my soul just stopped, I had regressed to childhood," she would recall in an interview with L'Espresso), and having endured the pain of two miscarriages, Nannini finds a second artistic youth, winning over a new generation of fans and regaining the approval of critics who had abandoned her some years earlier.

So, buoyed by her renewed commercial success, she takes on a full-fledged gamble. On April 27, 2007, again produced by Malone, she releases Pia come la canto io: a concept album centered on the Sienese noblewoman Pia De' Tolomei, a prominent figure in Dante's Purgatorio. The story is well known: when her husband Nello dei Pannocchieschi leaves for war, his trusted friend Ghino courts Pia, who rejects him. In revenge, Ghino convinces Nello that the betrayal actually took place. Nello then has Pia locked away in a castle in the Maremma, where, stricken with malaria, she is cared for by a gypsy woman until her death. The story, set to an electronic pop-rock sound with symphonic touches, is clearly transposed into the present, in all its modernity.

The intro “La Divina Commedia”, backed by strings, opens with a spoken recitation that serves as a prelude to the work: “Deh, quando tu sarai tornato al mondo e riposato de la lunga via, ricorditi di me, che son la Pia: Siena mi fe’, disfecemi Maremma: salsi colui che ‘nnanellata pria disposando m’avea con la sua gemma”. “Dolente Pia” is the album’s manifesto, laying bare both its virtues (a passionate, romanza-like melodicism) and its flaws (forced metre, operatic slides into kitsch).

The concept gives the songs a sense of continuity, even though some of them could stand on their own. Among these, worth noting are "Mura mura", the single that preceded the album's release, the twilight-toned, evocative "Non c'è più sole" and the driving rock of "Contrasto"; also memorable is the playful, electronic divertissement of "Corna". "Settimanima", meanwhile, rises on a five-four rhythm, within an ambient atmosphere steeped in synthesizers and strings. The tracklist closes with the moving "Meravigliati i boschi", its harmony underscored by acoustic guitar.

Recorded between April 2006 and February 2007 in London, Pia come la canto io anticipates the stage show, complete with a preview event organized by David Zard. The music is by Nannini, the lyrics by another Pia: writer Pia Pera.

At the end of 2007, Gianna comes forward with a 30-track collection, GiannaBest, which, besides the new version of "Meravigliosa creatura", includes a few new tracks: "Suicidio d'amore", produced by Wil Malone, stands out for its evocative harmonies and the extreme tenderness of its lyrics, which blend beautifully with the melody; "Pazienza" is built on an effective combination of piano and violin and serves as the soundtrack to the film "Riprendimi", produced by Francesca Neri; "Mosca cieca", whose video was shot in Prague, is a tribute to Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian journalist killed in Moscow on October 7, 2006.

In 2008 Nannini also pulls off the feat of helping the unlikely duo Lola Ponce-Giò Di Tonno win the Sanremo Festival, crafting "Colpo di fulmine" for them. The song, however, is accused of plagiarism: its chorus, in fact, bears a resemblance to "Dreaming", a track by Umberto D'Auria released in 2006. The lawsuit is still pending. That same year, Nannini also appears on Fabri Fibra's single "In Italy" and collaborates with Pacifico on "Tu che sei parte di me".

That summer she scores a huge success opening for Bon Jovi's concerts in Germany, during the "Lost Highway Tour".

For a new album of entirely original material, fans had to wait until March 27, 2009, when Giannadream – Solo i sogni sono veri came out; Wil Malone returned to the production helm, so the string arrangements are once again the icing on the cake. As always, dreamy ballads alternate with exuberance, spiritual themes with profane ones: a union of rock and symphonic melody. There's also a noticeable African influence, especially in some of the rhythmic parts (the intro of "Maledetto ciao", inspired by a trip to Namibia). On the single "Attimo", co-written with Pacifico, actress Valeria Solarino makes an impromptu appearance as vocalist.

Giannadream features several musically elaborate tracks, with sudden shifts in rhythm: the clearest example is "Siamo nella merda", performed with Fabri Fibra, which moves from a hip-hop beat to full-on jungle, laced with rapid-fire electric guitars and breakneck drums. The real standouts, though, are "Scossa magica", with its almost fairy-tale atmosphere built on various chord progressions, and above all "Ologramma", a ballad that echoes the Tuscan singer's old, unmistakable style but with an extra dose of emotional punch, reconciling her irrepressible energy with a dreamy bitterness ("Questa notte piove, respiro… "And if God doesn't want it I'll survive this rage, this sky that shines black"). A sweeping melodic quality also dominates the spiritual meditation of "Sogno" ("Sogno la mia carne diventare puro spirito") and the standard romantic ballad "Bambolina". Finally, "Sogno per vivere" appears twice: first, in a slow version, it closes the first half of the record, then, recast in a more rocking, up-tempo key, it wraps up the entire tracklist.

A very eclectic album, then, though conventional in form; many tracks, however, come across as a rehash of her classics, lacking those melodic peaks that had made Grazie such a success.

After the Abruzzo earthquake, on June 21, 2009 Nannini took part in the charity project "Amiche per l'Abruzzo", performing before 60,000 people at Milan's Meazza stadium alongside, among others, Laura Pausini, Giorgia, Elisa and Fiorella Mannoia. The live show was broadcast by as many as 12 joined radio stations, reaching an audience of 30 million listeners, and was also released as a DVD.

Then, on September 13, 2009, she gave a symphonic rock concert at the Arena di Verona in front of more than 12,000 fans, backed by Wil Malone's London Studio Orchestra. Three tracks from that concert, along with two new songs (including "Salvami", a duet with Giorgia) and the tracks from GiannaDream, would later be included on the album Extradream.

In 2011 came Io e te, the Tuscan singer-songwriter's seventeenth album of original material, which pictures her on the cover visibly pregnant, expecting her daughter Penelope, born on November 25, 2010.

Recorded in London at Abbey Road Studios, the album features a new collaboration with Pacifico, which yields the hit single "Ogni tanto", with its airy, instantly singable chorus, as well as the evocative "Dimentica", where Nannini's voice turns softer and more sinuous. Her collaboration with Isabella Santacroce also continues, with the writer credited on no fewer than seven lyrics, including "Ti voglio tanto bene", one of the most cryptic tracks, which opens up in the chorus, and "Perché", a pop-rock number driven by swelling percussion and a refrain reminiscent of Battisti.

Elsewhere, more distinctly rock accents return ("Perfetto", "Rock 2", "Mi ami"), though without ever really biting. Better, if anything, are the orchestral textures of the title track, with Nannini's impassioned voice front and centre, while the "crossover" cover of Domenico Modugno's "Nel blu dipinto di blu" is best left unmentioned.

A transitional record, with no real high points, but one that conveys all the emotion and tenderness of a new Gianna Nannini, a first-time mother at the age of 54.

The new album Inno (2013), preceded by the catchy single "La fine del mondo", is another commercial success: it goes straight to number one on the charts and is certified gold.

The content, however, doesn't live up to expectations. Now reassured by her happy status as a mother, at peace with the world and far from the restless ghosts of her youth, the Tuscan singer retreats into formulaic pop-rock that never really bites, even where it apparently sets out to ("Dimmelo chi sei", "Sex drugs and beneficenza").

Hers is, precisely, a hymn to life and happiness, which perhaps jars with the current Italian mood. The fact remains that, helped also by collaborations with two heavyweights of pop like Pacifico and Tiziano Ferro, the melodies are plentiful, at times reaching real heights of expressiveness, as in the intense ballad "Tornerai", written by novelist Isabella Santacroce and dedicated to the singer's father (with a few lines from Elsa Morante, to whom the whole album is dedicated, setting the tone). But this vein of sweetness risks tipping into syrup when the former rebel surrounds herself with the strings of the London Studio Orchestra on "Ninna nein", dedicated to her daughter Penelope.

In short, Nannini is no longer the caged animal who once scratched up the Italian rock landscape, but a settled, reassuring singer-songwriter who is content to hit the charts on the strength of her voice and her productions alone. The same goes, predictably, for Hitalia (2014), a collection of Italian classics reworked in a rock vein, starting with the single "Lontano dagli occhi", a successful new version of Sergio Endrigo's masterpiece, accompanied by a video shot in Sicily by Gaetano Morbioli.

The album's 17 tracks include Gino Paoli's "Il cielo in una stanza", Don Backy's "L'Immensità", Fabrizio De André's "La canzone di Marinella", Vasco Rossi's "C'è chi dice no", Caterina Caselli's "Insieme a te non ci sto più", Lucio Dalla's "Caruso", "Un'avventura" by Lucio Battisti and Mogol, and Domenico Modugno's "Nel blu dipinto di blu", "Dio è morto" – written by Francesco Guccini and performed by Nomadi – and "Dedicato" by Ivano Fossati, made famous by Loredana Berté, as well as national evergreens like "Io che non vivo senza te", "Io che amo solo te", "Mamma", "Il Mondo", "Pugni chiusi" and "O sole mio".

An operation as crowd-pleasing as it is effective, which keeps the Sienese singer afloat despite a few televised missteps, such as her dubious performances at the Sanremo Festival and on the talent show X-Factor.

Three years later came a new studio album, Amore gigante (2017), made with her trusted collaborators Wil Malone and Alan Moulder, but also with a contribution from Michele Canova Iorfida, one of the architects of Italian-made pop in recent years. "It's an album about love freed from the anger and conflicts inherent in relationships," Nannini explains.

The single "Fenomenale", submerged in a blanket of electronics, between reverbs and drum machines, doesn't live up to its title, getting lost in a bland refrain. Little more can be expected from the rather conventional co-writers, longtime fixtures of contemporary Italian pop, such as Dario Faini (Fedez, Alessandra Amoroso, Lorenzo Fragola, Emma, Annalisa) and Davide Petrella (Fabri Fibra, Cesare Cremonini, Francesco Renga). Things fare better, if anything, on the lyrical side, where we find Pacifico and Isabella Santacroce, who together with Nannini and Fortunato Zampaglione co-write the energetic title track, an anthem urging listeners to free "emotions without fear of difference". The closing track, "L'ultimo latin lover" (penned by Francesco Bianconi of Baustelle), inevitably recalls the famous "Latin Lover" from 1982, but it's only a pale echo, despite the booming roar of a Formula 1 car, a tribute to her brother Alessandro Nannini.

In between, there are more pensive, melancholy episodes ("Cinema", "Pensami"), chronicles of genuine romantic battles ("Tutta mia", "Non è vero", "Quasi quasi rimango", "Cosa vuoi"). Songs born out of a difficult period in their author's life: "My mother had died, I didn't have the energy to write cheerful things," she has recounted.

Overall, it's an album whose careful arrangements and polished instrumental sheen aren't matched by songwriting of equal quality, getting lost in a middling mood - neither lively nor melancholy - that reflects some of the artistic struggles of the current-day Nannini.

Conceived in just three months at a studio on Gloucester Road in London and recorded in Nashville at John McBride's Blackbird Studios, the following album, La differenza (2019), was preceded by its title track, which immediately signals the change of direction: an acoustic guitar, a voice sketching out a melody, the usual strings drawing an orchestral backdrop, over which Gianna tells of a love in which "everything I had, I gave to you".

Overall, a more acoustic, stripped-down approach prevails, reaffirmed by the ethereal tenderness of "A chi non ha risposte", cradled by a dreamlike melody and crystalline backing vocals supporting the Sienese artist's roar, and by the aching "Canzoni buttate".

Elsewhere Gianna goes back to clawing at more rock-oriented tones, as on the driving "Assenza", the bluesy "Romantico e bestiale" or the immediate "L'aria sta finendo". On "Motivo" she's joined by Coez, in a melancholy narrative of a love worn down by distance. A "nailed it in one take" atmosphere also pervades the acoustic "Gloucester Road", while "Per oggi non si muore" revisits the orchestral blueprint of the title track while upping the tempo.

Seeking a more intimate, close-knit feel, Nannini at least manages to find herself again, in tracks that sound more direct and spontaneous, even if still far from her best standards. But La differenza is her twentieth studio album: how many other Italian female artists can say they've reached that milestone?

Now the quintessential Italian rockeuse, an unusual hybrid of Tuscan roots and international scope, rock edge and traditional Italian song melodicism, Gianna Nannini, despite her ups and downs, is practically the only Italian woman who has managed to sell records making rock music while also winning over more than a little critical acclaim, including the Mtv Rock Icon, the special award the music network reserves only for rock's greats. It may not be everything, but it's certainly not nothing.

Contributions by Claudio Fabretti, Luca Fusari

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