“Hurray! Just as Bob Dylan received the Nobel, I received the XV Vittoriale prize in Gardone Riviera. It is a recognition of songwriting and “A NOI”, those who never went to school so willingly. I’m not used to receiving literary-cultural recognition, I’m a singer-songwriter, a rock music author. We musicians, in the popular mentality, are more closely related to the circus world. D’Annunzio was a true air force commander. Here I am the Komandante with a K. This definition was given to me somewhat as a joke by a dear friend from Bologna. In the sense that I am a commander who has never actually commanded anything. I also struggle to command myself”.
These are just some of the words that Vasco Rossi pronounced on the stage of the Vittoriale in Gardone Riviera on Wednesday 18 April as winner of the XV Premio del Vittoriale. Blasco now rightfully enters the list of prominent personalities, who with their works have given and are giving to this world something important, beautiful and eternal.
Vasco pleasantly conversed and joked with the audience, who came from all over, just as happens at his concerts, a host of fans who once again showed him esteem and affection, reaching him, despite knowing that he would not sing, just to share with him an important moment such as the recognition of an award. He was also present in Casalmaggiore in the person of Francesco Argento (Ciccio)which thus recounts this unusual and moving meeting, far from the atmosphere of stadium concerts
“THEYesterday it wasn’t a routine day, but my day, spent with the Komandante and his people. Once my commitments were over, I left alone, as I often do when I go to his concerts because for me it’s like a religion. It was a great emotion, first of all for the award given to him because he loves it all, then to have him there a few meters away, talking to us… we, who have followed him everywhere for years and now we almost all don’t know each other. The wait flew by, we talked, we sang songs and some school groups of very young people turned on the Bluetooth speakers sending his songs into the air, waiting for him to arrive: Bollicine, Albachiara, Una Canzone per Te;.every now and then “showers of rain” came but we didn’t care. The Vittoriale filled up in an instant and the historian, essayist and journalist, as well as president of the Giordano Bruno Guerri Anselmi foundation, entered punctually to present the event. Vasco’s entrance, shortly afterwards, was an explosion, a roar, a thrilling thing. He sings his emotions which are everyone’s emotions and we were there, to give him back some of the emotion that he has been giving us for so many years now. When the audience asked about the lineup of this year’s tour he replied that the summer concerts will be hard and angry, because we are all worried about what is happening around us, and we love it” (Ciccio)
We often witness phenomena of stardom towards actors, musicians and the like, constructed and pre-packaged ad hoc by experts in the star system, a phenomenon also well conveyed by the media. Stars become true icons, if not downright obsessions, of ordinary people, giving rise to gooses that lay golden eggs chased by directors, film/record companies, high fashion brands and stylists and so on and so forth, artists who become real commercial products, often meteors. However, when the artist and his work are sublime, they are an arrow that is planted in the heart, the work becomes a living and immortal creature that generates love for its creator and intimate cohesion among followers. The song in itself already has the power to enter the soul, to awaken memories like the Proustian madeleine in tea, to generate emotions that unite us with the singer-songwriter who seems to understand us. The song penetrates our senses with the music and shakes with the words, people agree around the musician, they understand each other and in feeling the same emotions, they don’t feel alone. Thus is born a King with his adoring people, an often naked King, a builder with a loving heart who takes it upon himself to interpret everyone’s discomfort, fear, pain and feelings through something beautiful; here then we can no longer speak of stardom, fanaticism or obsession but of an intertwining of loving senses.
Joanna Antwerp
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Tags: Vittoriale Prize Vasco Ciccio Argenti Komandante
