It’s been 40 years since the album was released Heartone of the flagship albums of Antonello Venditti’s career, and so for 40 years there has been a track from that project that has given high school graduates, from generation to generation, an unmissable soundtrack: Night before exams. And what better date to celebrate these anniversaries than the night before the start of the written high school exams? The Roman singer-songwriter performed at the Baths of Caracalla, where he will also sing on 19 and 21 June, on 18 June in a sold out concert in front of over 4000 people of all ages. A setlist divided into three acts so as not to leave out anything from the repertoire: the first and last featured his greatest successes, while the central part remains the “Heart” of the live show, with the album performed in tracklist order which ends with Say a word (a bridge between past and future, the song, in fact, was published on May 10th and is contained in the reissue Heart 40th Anniversary Edition). But the celebration is not only at the Baths of Caracalla. In many high schools, including Giulio Cesare in Rome (attended by the same singer-songwriter), the graduates sang at the top of their lungs Night before examswhile on the morning of the 19th, before the start of the written exams, holy cards with Venditti’s face were distributed outside various institutes in Milan and Rome to “protect” all students.
forty years that seem like a day
“40 years have passed, but basically a day has passed. And this is my home,” Venditti said during the concert. The event had the patronage of the Ministry of Culture and, after the three Roman dates in Caracalla, it will not end here. The celebrations of 40 years of Heart they will continue in the summer with a tour starting on July 13th from Pistoia and then in December with five dates in the sports halls (06 December Florence, 11 December Bologna, 13 December Assago (MI), 17 December Turin, 20 December Rome).
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Night before the exams, lyrics and meaning of Venditti’s song
The ladder
Act I
1. Bomb or no bomb
2. Under the sign of Pisces
3. Sarah
4. Julia
5. Tears of rain
6. Peppino
7. Julius Caesar
II Act
8. Night before exams
9. Never any videos ever
10. Here
11. It’s not cocaine
12. We could use a friend
13. The optimist
14. Piero and Cinzia
15. Star
III Act
16. Say a word
17. What an amazing story life is
18. From skin to heart
19. Unique
20. Never friends
21. High tide
22. Welcome to paradise
23. In this world of thieves
24. Remember me
BIS
25. Rome boss
High schools sing Venditti
As per tradition, for 40 years now, many students have gathered to sing Night before exams and thus exorcise fear before the start of the written tests. In front of the Giulio Cesare high school in Rome, attended by Antonello Venditti himself in the 1960s, the high school graduates gathered to sing the timeless success together at the top of their lungs.
The Santino
This year Antonello Venditti is close to the graduates not only with his music. As the record company Sony Music explained, on the first day of the final exams the students of some high schools in Rome and Milan were given a “protector” holy card with the face of Antonello Venditti to help them chase away the fear of the first test. In Rome the object was delivered to the high school graduates outside the Giulio Cesare high schools (where Venditti had taken his high school diploma in 1966), Torquato Tasso, Mameli and Lucrezio Caro. In Milan, however, in the Volta, Virgilio, Tenca institutes and in the high schools in Via Don Calabria (Maxwell and Natta).
