Tommaso Zanello, aka Piotta, has decided to take legal action against the organization of the 2024 Tenco Prize. After the ‘dialect case’, through his lawyers, the Roman artist presented a formal warning to the president of the Prize, requesting access to the documents and the suspension of the awarding of the prize for the ‘Album in dialect’ category. Piotta participated in the Tenco Prize with his latest album ‘Na Notte Infame’, published by La Grande Onda in 2024. The album’s candidacy in the ‘Album in dialect’ category – we read in the formal notice – was accepted without objection by the organizers . However, much to the surprise of the artist and his staff, the album was not included in the shortlist. Piotta’s lawyer expressed the artist’s disappointment at the lack of prior communication of the exclusion, which was made known only after the official announcement of the finalists.
The defense emphasizes that there is no reasonable motivation to justify this exclusion, which appears “unreasonable, specious and also incongruous from an artistic point of view”. The album ‘Na Notte Infame’, the lawyers write, “is objectively performed in Roman dialect”, and this “not only in our opinion but also in that of various cultural institutions and associations” and experts in the sector, including the Department of Culture Municipio Roma III, the Lando Fiorini Cultural Association, and various professors of linguistics and music. In particular, Giovanni Vacca of the University of Rome 3 – Dams praised Piotta’s work in an email sent to the Prize Commission while the president of the Accademia della Crusca, Paolo D’Achille, in an interview with Adnkronos said: “Piotta is right, the boundary between Italian and Roman is thin”.
The Tenco Club declared that the album did not comply with the requirements set out in the rules. According to the lawyers, however, it is not clear why this exclusion was not communicated before the start of voting. “It would undoubtedly have been more correct to exclude the work – if it really did not comply with the rules – before the opening of the voting operations by the jurors. It would have been so towards the artist but also as a sign of respect for the precious work carried out precisely by the aforementioned jurors.” In fact, the album was admitted to voting anyway and, by the organizers of the Award, received several votes. “In light of this unfortunate situation,” the artist, therefore, requests access to the documents of the voting procedure, including the precise number of votes received by the album and all the resolutions relating to the exclusion of the album and the admission of the other discographic works in dialect. As a precaution, we request the suspension of all operations related to the assignment of the Tenco Prize for the category “Album in dialect”, with the reservation of any further legal action, including compensation. The legal dispute continues.
