The clash between the two goes to court Tommaso Zanello, aka Piotta, and the Tenco Prizeafter the case raised by the artist for the exclusion of his album One Infamous Night from the finalists of the Tenco award – scheduled for 17, 18 and 19 October at the Ariston theatre in Sanremo – in the category ‘Best album in dialect’.
The artist sent a formal warning to the organizers through his lawyers, asking for access to the documents and the suspension of the award for the dialect category, and calling it “unreasonable, specious and also incongruous from an artistic point of view”, since the album “is objectively performed in Roman dialect”. In the warning, the lawyers also expressed Piotta’s disappointment for the lack of advance communication of the exclusion, which was made known only after the official announcement of the finalists. According to the lawyers, “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”.
At this point, the Tenco Club also took action, which gave a mandate to the lawyer Davide Perrotta “to firmly respond to the warning of the singer Tommaso Zanello, aka Piotta”, speaking of accusations that were “unfounded and damaging to the image” of the organization. The Tenco Club, explains a note, “affirms the absolute conformity of its actions to the Targhe Tenco Regulations and reiterates the consequent groundlessness of the position expressed by the singer, moreover, through media attacks seriously capable of generating discredit to the image of the association”. Furthermore, it highlights that the Regulations require, “as an essential requirement for participation in the category ‘Best album in dialect’, that the participating works must contain at least half of the songs pertaining to the category in which they compete; therefore, in dialect”.
The reply states, in particular, that the album presented by Piotta “with his own self-candidacy for the Targhe, is absolutely lacking in the required requisite, since, with the exception of one song and a few words for each song, the songs presented by ‘Piotta’ are all sung – almost entirely – in Italian, and not, instead, through the prevalent use of dialect”. According to the Tenco Club, “the banal listening of the songs highlights the singer’s deliberate choice to express in Italian and not in Roman dialect – in this album – the prevalence of the characterizing expressions”.
Furthermore, it is further specified, “the Regulations and the application form are very clear on the point, where it is literally specified that: – the Best dialect album section must ‘contain at least half of the songs that are pertinent to the category in which they are competing’; – “the choice of category must comply with the regulations”; – “choosing the wrong category risks having the votes cancelled during the control phase, at the end of the voting”; – “the choice of category is the responsibility of the person uploading”; – “the Tenco Club will check the correctness of the categories after the first round of voting”; – “if a record has been mistakenly nominated in the wrong category, it will be eliminated from that category and any votes obtained will be lost”. “In this context of clarity – concludes the Tenco Club – the objection raised by the artist is revealed to be absolutely unfounded and damaging to the image of the association; being evident the absolute legitimacy of the actions of the Tenco Club, which limited itself – as obliged, also out of respect for the other participants – to dutifully complying with the regulation”.
