Costantino Vitagliano, on June 10th there are 50.
«Until not long ago I would have been strange: come on, 50 years old. Half century. Now I hear them all.”
How is your health?
«To say good would be an exaggeration: I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease a few months ago and I lost twenty kilos. However, the treatments seem to be working, I am reducing the cortisone which was causing side effects. I navigate by sight.”
Costantino (yesterday as today the surname is optional) is “il tronista”, a term born with him and entered into entertainment jargon. Influencer ante litteram (“They photographed me with a shirt, a hat, anything and the next day it was sold out”), at the same time anti influencer (“With social media everything is fake, filtered, on TV it is recorded. I have always been one “live” for better or for worse»), in the 2000s he strung together one engagement after another. Milanese from Calvairate, who grew up in the public housing in via Ugo Tommei, he made his debut in discos (“entertainer, cubist, stripper”), he did castings as a model (“With my book I stood in line for hours, even if sometimes the lines I skipped them”) and did odd jobs on TV (“the first time at 17: dark-haired Velino in sexy dungarees in the Viperissime program on Antenna 3, imitating Striscia”). Then the take-off, the audience of Men and Women conquered, the fame of “beautiful and damned”, the TV programs and the empyrean of guests. «I even did three, four in the evening, 365 days a year: people in a frenzy, everyone screaming my name».
And now?
“Now discos are no longer hosted: there are events in shops and shopping centres.”
What is your job in 2024?
«The one from before, I use my image».
How much did he earn in his golden years?
“Much. Suffice it to say that on a whim I suddenly bought a Bentley for 250 thousand euros, that I had six or seven houses. I couldn’t quantify. At a certain point the requests were too many, to limit the evenings the agency raised the fee to the maximum, going beyond ten thousand euros for an hour. And instead of decreasing, the questions increased. I earned and made others earn.”
How much does it cost to have Costantino at an event today?
«Much less than then, obviously. Two thousand euros plus expenses for 90 minutes. But I can choose.”
Couldn’t he before?
«I wanted to do everything. I basically didn’t sleep.”
And what does he choose now?
«They often ask to talk about those years and I do so willingly. They also call me in the shops: I evaluate. The other day they contacted me to attend an aperitif 700 kilometers from Milan, offering 500 euros. Reply: sorry, no. Answer: Others do! Then ask the others…”.
They haggle on the price.
«You can see everything. If they don’t pay me I won’t go.”
The balance sheet of 50 years?
«Positive, I achieved everything I wanted as a kid».
Which was?
«To be the most beautiful. Not the footballer, not anything else: it was the 90s and I wanted to be the most beautiful of all. For a while I did it. I watched TV, I saw luxury clothes, cars, holidays: I was born in the suburbs to a simple family and I was hungry for everything. I wanted to make a lot of money.”
How much raw realism.
«I gave myself and mine what I hadn’t had. Today I spend as much time as possible with my daughter Ayla (8 years old), the true joy. I’m happy to give her what I missed: mom and dad always worked to support us. He, Orazio, security guard; she, Rosa, did the cleaning. I got to where I am by allowing my family to lead a life a little different than the one I started from. Then mum didn’t want to leave the public housing because she was very attached to it…”.
Costantino, beautiful and that’s it. What does he reply?
«To build my physique I trained at least two hours a day, I followed drastic diets: it’s commitment. After middle school dad ruled: if you don’t want to study you have to work. Here I am, a porter at the Ortomercato in Milan, a bartender, a nightclub entertainer, a stripper. I was washing glasses at Jannacci’s human Bolgia who insisted: I’ll give you 50 thousand lire more, you have a nice presence, go to the dining room. Pamela Prati arrived at my uncle’s bar in Viale Piceno. Amazing years.”
Your first home in Milan?
«Outside Milan. A house in Paderno Dugnano, rented with another stripper. He cost less.”
Tronist par excellence. Have you ever felt like an object?
«I was in demand, I was excited for years. People were looking for me, I arrived and the delirium went away. I never felt used in a negative way. In the collective imagination, I’m the one at Lele Mora’s feet in the flirty photos: fake. Lele Mora and I worked together but Costantino never kissed or massaged feet, ever. Neither literally nor metaphorically.”
Do you still talk to Mora?
“I felt it a short time ago, when my health problem became known.”
An aside. At the end of 2023 Costantino Vitagliano was diagnosed with a serious illness: «I was having checks in the hospital. They saw a spot: the umbilical aorta had gone from 21 millimeters to 36. “You’re not leaving here.” The aorta could explode and there would be no more left for anyone. For 40 days I thought I had a tumor, I had to stay at absolute rest. Today I have two injections in my belly a week. I started training again, light things. I have changed physically: it is not easy but I move forward. On social media there are those who remind me of the injections, they ask if I have taken the therapy. In the virtual world many insult, they don’t believe in the disease, but there are also fantastic people.”
He said: three times I fell, three times I got up.
«One is this. I’m getting back up.”
Then there are the investigations.
«The agency that followed me, led by Lele Mora, collapsed. I settled my accounts with the taxman. Ten years ago I wondered how I would recover. From being the king of guests I had become an “unwelcome guest”. I sold property, used the earnings. You have never seen tears: investments have allowed me to stay on my feet.”
The third fall of Constantine?
«In the period of success. For six, seven years I lived like crazy. I was always working, I never stopped. I was just thinking about walking around, having fun, getting paid. Around 2007 I started to give in. It even bothered me to hear my name, to look at myself in the mirror. One day I passed out in spasms. The tour of the hospitals began, the tests were fine. In truth they were panic attacks, a malaise that was not yet understood: you’re strange, react because you have nothing! I pulled the plug.”
What did he do?
“I left. I also went to the USA. A large American television network reached me and proposed a program: I had to go to the beaches, sent among the kids. I answered no.”
Why was he overloaded?
«No, because I was stupid. I didn’t go beyond the logic of profit. It would have been an international leap but in Italy I earned more. They would have given me in a month what I got from us in a few days. With telephone chats alone I generated a million euro turnover in one year.”
Tell us about phone chats.
«The fans called 899 and talked to me, listened to me. Sometimes I told about my day, what I did, normal things.”
He said: in the world of entertainment there isn’t much place for people like me anymore. In what sense?
«That there is a lot of fiction, it’s all glossy. My life, however, is true. I am true for better or for worse, even aesthetically. No touch-ups, I don’t use Botox…”.
Is there anything you wouldn’t do again?
«I would do everything about my 50 years again».
