Of
Chiara Maffioletti
The host of Unomattina: «After the success of ‘Furore’ I suffered professional injustices. Jovanotti got angry at my imitation”
We are republishing Chiara Maffioletti’s interview with Alessandro Greco, published in July, one of the most appreciated by our readers in 2025
«It’s not that I dreamed of doing this job. At the beginning, mine was more of a search for attention, but not in the sense of egocentrism, but rather of affection.” It is a journey that starts from afar, made up of many passages, turning points and encounters Alessandro Grecotoday the face of Unomattina estate, on Rai1. In a handful of years he went from street parties to the total success of a program like Furore, and then continued on that roller coaster that is the profession of entertainment, between beautiful moments and great injustices, which however he, as a believer, retraces trying to maintain “a sense of gratitude”.
He was talking about his search for affection.
«I come from a family negatively marked by the lack of affection and communication. There was a certain rigidity, an austere climate that I experienced almost as if I were an only child, having a sister and a brother ten years older than me: they supported each other, I breathed that western movie atmosphere alone, with the gun always smoking and at any moment the risk that tensions could arise, even strong ones. For this reason, when I realized that with my artistic aptitudes I entertained people and gave me affection, I no longer wanted to give up this exchange.”
He started doing street parties when he wasn’t yet of age.
«I presented but I also had my own performances: I imitated Lucio Dalla, Celentano, Pizzul. I had thus entered the world of traveling shows, in contact with those committees of which Michele Guardì (historical TV author, creator of I fatti tue, ed.) has made a religion. On one of those evenings, in the province of Bari, they told me that a pianist would be there: he started playing and was very good. He also had some spoken moments and made us laugh: he was Checco Zalone.”
Did you baptise Checco Zalone?
«I can say it. He was just starting out, and he was truly a very strange character, full of insecurities in his genius. You never knew where it was going to go, beautiful.”
His first appearance on TV?
«At 17 years old. I had won the new faces section in Castrocaro, they let me know via telegram. I went to the pageant and was faced with a goddess named Clarissa Burt. At the time he was with Troisi and after hearing me imitating him, he asked me to do it to him on the phone. Extremely embarrassed I obeyed. He said: “But I don’t talk too much (and he imitated his voice)”. “No, no, you’re talking exactly like that,” I replied.”
Shortly afterwards it was the turn of «Stasera mi tono».
«It was 1992, the year of my military service: I had been taken, unbelievable, without recommendations, by the Carabinieri. I ended up at the Fregene station and I had to cheekily ask the commander if he could authorize me to do an audition in Rome. He accepted, on the condition that I remained in uniform, except that at Dear (Rai television studios, ed.) they thought that the carabiniere was my character. They took me and my life changed: from midnight to 8 I was a guard, then I got in the car and arrived in Rimini, at the Bandiera Gialla, to do the rehearsals plus the live broadcast and then leave again. But I had finally entered semi-professionalism.”
Who was his Pippo Baudo?
«Raffaella Carrà, but before her I must also mention Lino Banfi who, in 1994, wanted me on his Radio 2 program: I imitated singers. Those were the years in which Pino Daniele, Jovanotti and Eros Ramazzotti played triumphant concerts together, the fans were expecting their album, but it never arrived…”.
She thought about it.
«Under the pseudonym Idem, I sang a series of songs written by the authors of “Perdere l’amore” imitating their three intertwining voices. The top song, “Evviva la musica (Ue’ guagliò)” caused a stir, selling over 80 thousand copies: it was broadcast on all the radios.”
How did the three of them take it?
“I do not know. I understand, however, that Jovanotti didn’t feel very happy about it, also because he had an album coming out… So, legitimately, he got angry. But in those years Fiorello had also covered famous songs on his album “Truly false”, it wasn’t anything fraudulent. Furthermore, he too is a person to whom I owe something.”
In what sense?
«He always supported me, and always remembered me. He also involved me in “Viva Rai2”, to sell glass, given that since 2015 I have been the testimonial of a company for which I am a salesman on TV. In the first Sanremo conducted with Amadeus, he also quoted me, telling him: “Don’t get excited, stay calm, it takes a moment to flop and then they say Amadeus away, Alessandro Greco arrives”. Many have seen evil where there is none: it was yet another of Rosario’s thoughts for me.”
Do you think you could have had more from your career?
«Freelancing is made up of ups and downs. I have often been called to remove chestnuts from the fire, like when I found myself hosting the final of Castrocaro, a few years ago, on Rai1: a competition that has inevitably declined over the years, yet we won the evening. The same happened when I presented the 80th anniversary of Miss Italia: over four hours in the era of political correctness. If you are a conductor, continuity matters, patchy use is difficult to manage. However, I try to leave my mark every time. But to answer the question, yes, I think I could have given more and also that I have suffered some injustices.”
For example?
«There were programs that were explained to me, proposed and which were then either not made or were broadcast hosted by others».
Why?
“Sometimes there are relationships that go beyond what should be the normal course of meritocracy.”
Chapter «Fury»: a revolution.
«It was the Italian disco. In 1998 he won the Telegatto, beating Sanremo, which was in the same category. Raffaella Carrà wanted me to run it, in fact. I was only 25 years old and there were already very famous people who wanted that job. I had done an audition that had convinced everyone and they told Raffaella, who was the project manager. He wanted to meet me and, looking me straight in the eyes, he said to me: but where do you come from? I basically told her what we are talking about in this interview and she only replied: “Now I understand”.
Did you think you had arrived in those years?
«To enter and exit the production center in Naples I had to be escorted, all hell had happened. I didn’t think I had arrived, but I realized that my apprenticeship had had value, that artistically I was no longer an unknown.”
In recent times, he participated in «Tale e Quale», also winning the version dedicated to Sanremo. How do you move from the role of host to that of competitor?
«It is enough to understand that the difference is made by coherence, not considering the other a threat but a stimulus. I consider Carlo Conti a friend and I am grateful for what he gave me as such.”
Returning to the topic of injustice, it seems that at a certain point the relationship with his wife, Beatrice Bocci, was also a nuisance. Was it like this?
«Absolutely yes. When we fell in love, certain values had not yet been rediscovered and we were described as two fundamentalists, obvious, boring… But we were simply two boys in love who had decided to start a family. When I met Beatrice, Alessandra, our daughter, was already 5 years old: I decided to be there for her too. “Poor Greek, he’s senile,” they told me. But I was in love and if you love you embrace the whole world of the other, even the difficulties of having to be a father while respecting an existing father. I had all the burdens but little honor. But in the end love prevailed, good always wins (together they also had a second child, ed.) and my daughter has been calling me dad for some time. At the beginning of our history, however, urban legends were also invented to discredit us.”
Which ones do you remember?
«There was talk of disproportionate mutual jealousy. Lie. As well as the fact that I made it a condition of having to work with her. Simply, we did the same job and we were both willing to do things together, but never as an imposition.”
You recently spoke about your chastity. Is it true that it’s been going on for almost four years?
«On the web we stop at titles that cannot explain what is actually the fruit of our journey of faith. It was a spousal decision to put the sacraments back at the center of our personal and couple life, so that we could also get married in Church, as happened in 2014, after we had a civil union in 2008. We accepted chastity after years of relationship and two children so that the priests could offer us the sacraments, which are the maximum level of union with God. No one prescribed us to do it, they didn’t give us a recipe saying to remain chaste. It was our free choice.”
Speaking of titles, he is in great shape today, but in the past there has also been a lot of talk about his weight.
«Today they would call it body shaming. At a certain point it was also said that I was no longer presentable, that I was undone. It hurt. The truth is that I have to be careful, because I have a black belt in food and wine and therefore, if I exaggerate, then I also have to atone, which I now do.”
Dreams for the future?
«I want to train in gratitude, for who I am and what I have. Maybe I’d like to start a family business. In general I feel like an emotionally fulfilled man.”
And his parents? How are things going with them today?
“They are rooting for me, so I won.”
December 28, 2025
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