Lastdata in hand, is a phenomenon of colossal dimensions. Adored by the public across the board (from 15 to 70 years old he is liked by everyone, including VIPs, in the front row at his concerts), capable of stringing together three dates sold out at the Olimpico in Rome. His album Somewhere else was the best-selling in Italy in May, despite his songs not being broadcast on commercial radio (and his label Last Records is not a major). But Ultimo is at the same time king and outcast. King of the people and outcast by the elite, by certain press mainstream with whom he has never had a peaceful relationship. And that still today, in some way underestimates him, snubs him, does not give him the right credit.
Marked with the scarlet letter, which in his case coincides with the S of Sanremo. Why Lastin the century Niccolo Moriconistill pays the price of that famous 2019 Festival in which he blurted out to the journalists in the press roomdared to disagree for second place, behind Mahmood. A missed victory that he said was undeserved, given that the public had declared him the winner by a landslide, but the press vote had sent him back to second place. “You have this week to feel important and then you always have to be a pain in the ass. In any case, I am happy to have participated in the Festival, happy with the boy Mahmood who won…after all, whatever I say, you will find something to complain about”.
A bit of what happened this year Geolierso to speak: overall winner for the popular vote but then came second behind ad Angelina Mango thanks to the press room. In Ultimo’s case, however, the singer did not keep quiet and raised his voice with the journalists. From that moment on, like a stigma burned into the skin, some press has not forgotten.
Typing Utimo online, dozens of results come up about his love story with Jacqueline Moon Of Giacomoon the fact that he will become a fatheron the Heather Parisi question (who didn’t flinch at the news that she’s going to be a grandmother: in fact, she limited her comments on her social media accounts). Only one result on the phenomenonon the fact that it is really “The last king of Rome“, heir to Antonello Venditti, capable of moving and moving three generations of fans. In recent days in the capital there was talk of nothing else: from the baker to the bar, Ultimo’s concert was on everyone’s lips. And his note in his pocket.
Teenagers go crazy, mothers get emotional, celebrities are all lined up in the front row, for this 28 year old from San Basilio who writes and sings about simple emotions and feelings. Who doesn’t make summer hits, who doesn’t collaborate with any other trending artist, for commercial reasons. That he only writes what he feels. Far from trap, from rap, from that showbiz made up of guests, fashion weeks, parties, obligatory and well-paid appearances. Who doesn’t document his private life on social media (“Too many kids spend ten, twelve hours a day scrolling videos on TikTok. Social media anesthetizes you. They rape your brain”), who lives away from the spotlight. Ultimo is “ultimo” in this too, reluctant to socialise and advertise himself. Ultimo in the world of social media and lives on display. And perhaps for this very reason he is considered more real than others. But also for this reason he is less present than others on the cover and in the media, which cannot talk about him except for his incredible success. But they don’t willingly do so.
“Why am I so successful? Maybe because I’m real. Honest. One hundred percent transparent. Because I don’t write songs to make them a success, but to bring out what’s inside me. When I sing, I believe it. You can tell me whatever you want, even that I make you shit, someone told me and I shook his hand; but you can’t tell me that I don’t believe it, that I don’t feel what I sing. And I think people understand when something is true. People cling to me, to my words. They hug me in the street, they cry,” she said in an interview with Aldo Cazzullo.
Like Vasco in the early 1980s, which paid the price for being different – at a time when singer-songwriters were almost all engaged and politically aligned – , boycotted by the press (to which he also dedicated a song I’m going all out: “Better to take a risk than to become like that guy, that guy Who writes in the newspaper…” Last pays for not being fashionablemusically speaking, closer to gut-level songwriting than to the widespread and crafty trap, and certainly not very willing to indulge, to bend to commercial logic, to fashion, to convenience.
And just like Vasco then who, speaking of simple feelings, of everyday life, common to many kids of that generation, became a phenomenon in those years, so Ultimo, 40 years later, has done the same: no explicit politics (even if he says “In my small way I think I’m doing politics with my songs: On the side of the last to feel first it’s a political verse..”), no attack or controversy to the system in his songs, but life lived.
His girlfriend Jacqueline goes on stage without make-up, with her hair tied back, in a t-shirt, trousers and sneakers (also so different from the girlfriends/companions of many Ultimo artists of the same age) and the audience goes crazy for them.
Last is really the last to appear on the cover, the last to be broadcast on the most commercial radios. But the First in the hearts of the public and fill stadiums. And that’s a fact.
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