Parallel lives. A song without the physique du rôle of the hityet wonderful and epic, which by challenging the rules of the market, it ends up proving to be a surprise success. A squad who on the eve of the start of the last Serie A championship had a salary amount equal to a quarter of that of the club with the highest salary amount (for the record: Juventus), which against all odds and expectations he finds himself dreaming of a place in the next Champions League. The song is “Poetics” by Cesare Cremonini, the team Thiago Motta’s Bologna. In search of a chorus to dedicate to the triumphs of bomber Zirkzee and captain Ferguson, sixteen victories and just five defeats so far,
the rossoblu fans drew on the home’s musical tradition, withdrawing the hit that in 2017 led the Bolognese singer-songwriter to play in a championship of his own. From the social dedications to the chants in the stands of Dall’Ara: “You look beautiful this evening“, they sing.
Thiago Motta’s team truly is beautiful: the ideas and solutions brought by the former Inter and PSG midfielder, who succeeded the late in 2022 Siniša Mihajlovićhave allowed Bologna to gain the attention of the international media, over twenty years after the last qualification for a European cup. The videos of the fans singing the verses of Cremonini’s song in unison at the end of each team’s home match are viral on social media And they also excite those who support other colours.
“Football is the metaphor for life”, said Jean-Paul Sartre. Music is too, after all. The combo elevates the concept to the nth degree. .What Bologna is playing is a match similar to the one Cremonini decided to play on the eve of the release of “Possible Scenarios”, the album that marked a watershed in his career in 2017. He tells it himself, exclusively to Rockol: “When I decided to release ‘Poetica’ as the first single from ‘Possibili Scenarios’, in 2017, I was about to embark on my first stadium tour. The choice was painful. A song lasting over five minutes, completely outside of any trend of the moment, at a time when the homologation imposed by streaming platforms was already dominant. But I found it exciting and fundamental to play that match, right at that moment. For this reason ‘Poetica’ tells better than many of my other songs my relationship with music, which for the most part is that of an author and musician and then, on tour, also of a performer and singer. A relationship in which I started very young to think of pop music as a creative, stimulating, free context and above all capable of offering me the possibility of performing artistic and, even more importantly, provocative gestures, challenging the market, the homologation that we’re all noticing, but especially myself. Wasn’t ’50 special’ a breakup song too?”.
“In this world of heroes no one wants to be Robin”, sang Cremonini in another song on the same album. It lends itself well to telling the story philosophy behind Bologna’s virtuous model: a gross salary of 31.28 million, a figure – even lower than that of Cagliari and Sassuolo, who are fighting not to be relegated – which on paper would have allowed Thiago Motta’s team to aspire to a place in mid-table, let alone dream of a place among the big names in Europe (Inter is second, behind Juventus, in terms of wages: 115.17 million; followed by Roma with 102.92 million and Milan with 86 million). “Today, raising the bar without worrying about algorithms simply means breaking down the most dangerous barrier for any work, that of time. I have always and only wanted to write evergreen and ‘Poetica’ is in all respects a song that manages to describe my ambitions better than others, the enormous work behind it and that pinch of madness that we must never give up”, says Cremonini, drawing comparisons.
Bologna has an enormous history and doesn’t need to prove anything: “What excites us today is something deeper – the singer-songwriter reflected a few weeks ago on Instagram, also sharing photos with Thiago Motta and Joshua Zirkzee themselves – sometimes we it even moves. They are the values at stake, the generosity, the seriousness of those who take the field and those who work behind it, of the entire society. The feeling that there is a happy, honest project. In my opinion this is not only valid in sport but applies to every branch of society. Hope in the future repays the past, not so much the present. It should always be like this. And certain values don’t need a ranking, they still make a difference; in Serie A as well as in Serie C”.
Who knows, at this point, what it will be like”the coming year”, for the rossoblu. The quote is not accidental: in the Dall’Ara Cremonini playlist with “Poetica” he joined another giant of the home musical tradition like Lucio Dalla (his voice is also in the club’s official anthem, “Le tue ali Bologna”, performed together with Andrea Mingardi, Luca Carboni and Gianni Morandi).
“How I would like Lucio to see this Bologna. Who knows what words he would use to describe Zirkzee, would he say it’s a tulip in bloom? Who is a football genius? How Lucio would distort his surname by playing with those z’s, two in one word! That .for us Bolognese, the zeta is something all ours, a dangerous curve to cut, a step to jump every time, a dribble, a tunnel played first – fantastic Cremonini – I’m sure he’ll be enjoying it too, from up there. With us down here.”
Tags: Cesare Cremonini Poetica Bologna ode healthy madness
