“The Million (Ticket) Pop”

Riccardo Zanotti, with his Nuclear Tactical Penguins, sold a million tickets in just one year.

«And at each date we realize that there are also spectators who are older than us, it’s really strange».

The prestigious Pollstar placed your tour in tenth place among the most significant global tours. In first place is Beyoncé’s, in sixth there is Ed Sheeran’s.

«We are aware of the results, it’s all nice, but what if you no longer achieve these goals? In short, we don’t live with this ax over our heads.”

Your album was at the top of the charts for practically two years.

«As expert record producers say, it’s better to be number 7 for your whole life than number 1 for just one week».

These three answers summarize the spirit of Nuclear Tactical Penguins, probably the most incisive popular musical phenomenon of recent times. There are six of them, they come from Bergamo and the surrounding area, they are not sex symbols, they don’t live on Instagram stories and they are outside the hype, as the title of one of their songs says, that is, they are strangers to the toxic and baroque sparkle of trap and slavery of followers or clicks. They also confirmed this the other evening in a Forum in Assago totally sold out by an audience that had never been so transversal. The children, the kids, the almost boomers, all singing every single song by heart as probably hadn’t been heard since the days of 883. In short, an atypical concert in the era of the typically exaggerated show. Here the sounds are “real” and the ritual is what many consider old-fashioned, that is, an audience that participates without hiding too much behind the mobile phone display and experiences the concert as a seriously shared party, not solitary as usual. And just look at how the singer Riccardo Zanotti moves on stage, he is not spectacular but he is convincing and walks to the ovations. Not a bad result for someone who has done it alone, concert after concert until he exalts himself in the concerts, and who in the show perhaps suffers from an excessive homogeneity of sounds and style. But this is the only limit of the Penguins, who have managed to occupy the only empty space in today’s popular music: that of songs to be sung at the top of one’s lungs with a good dose of good feelings, that is, that thing that is talked about less and less and , paradoxically, with ever more embarrassment.

Golden moment right?

«Yes but we talk too much about numbers and too little about art. After cases like that of Sangiovanni, who wanted to take a break, we understand that we run the risk of allowing ourselves to be overwhelmed by statistics and accounting data.”

The mess tin helps protect you.

«Yes, you learn to understand and calibrate yourself better. For example, at the beginning we talked too much before the songs, almost to attract attention and ingratiate ourselves with the public. Now we’re not like Bob Dylan, who doesn’t speak between songs, but we’ve found a balance.”

It’s not easy to maintain it by doing thirty-three concerts in a row.

«Thirty-three like the years of Christ». (smiles – ed.)

In any case, a very long queue.

«Well we are in the era where you do 3 or 4 concerts and you say you’ve done a tour. We are around for two months. Luckily our companions haven’t gotten tired yet and we, when we can, will return home between one concert and another.”

We are at the Forum, what is the most beautiful thing you have seen here?

«The Roger Waters one».

He does politics and you too, during the concert, quote the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.

«Politics often talks about music, why can’t music talk about politics? In reality we do not take sides against someone, but we take someone’s side. We are not divisive, basically we make light music and we limit ourselves to talking about the atrocities that are happening.”

In the setlist there are songs such as the initial Scrivile scemo which seem like an audience karaoke, the choirs are so powerful.

«At the beginning our audience was practically made up of peers. Now we see that there are many age groups and it is really strange to see spectators younger than us or even older under the stage.”

You just announced nine 2025 stadium concerts. Will there be a record out first?

«Well for sure there will be a new project, I don’t even know whether to call it a record anymore… Anyway something new will come out».

Will the title be the same as the tour? «Hello world».

«Well inside Hello world there is everything.

There is the ciao, that is, the opening, and there is the world, that is, the audience.”