A mystery hovers over the 2024 Tenco Prize. Piotta, a stage name that suggests Tommaso Zanello’s geographical origin, has sparked a controversy over the voting. A jury made up of around 300 journalists expressed up to three preferences for each of the six competing categories (which include Best Overall Album, Best Dialect Album, Best First Work Album, Best Performer Album, Best Single Song and Best Album project) for music published from 1 June 2023 to 31 May 2024. The Roman rapper, however, did not appear in the five finalists. “Yesterday, as you saw, the five winners of the Tenco Prize were released. Despite having received many votes from many of the jurors, whom I thank one by one, ‘Na notte infame’ is not in. There are rumors that these votes were not taken into consideration at all. If that were the case, I ask myself: ‘Why?'”, he wrote on social media, unable to hide his disappointment and dismay.
“If Club Tenco could give us the reason, it would demonstrate great transparency, out of respect for the entire project, given the reasons it was born from and all the journalists who vote”, he added. Club Tenco, after being called into question, responded to the artist with an official note: “This is how things are: the album ‘Na notte infame’ received several votes from the judges, but in the category ‘Best album in dialect’ and, according to the unequivocal parameters of our regulation, the lyrics of the work are not written and sung for more than 50% in any dialect or minority language”. The rapper was not satisfied and asked for greater clarity. “Weighing music by the kilo is a brainless and questionable operation. But who exactly weighed it? Is there a group of linguists, dialect experts? ‘Na notte infame’ is my most Roman work”, he explained.
Piotta also underlined that “the tradition of Rome is not stuck in a mythological time, but day by day it strengthens and renews itself. Even the Roman dialect I use now is not the one I used at the beginning of my career and certainly not the one Trilussa or Belli used. Rome is a city of four million people who come from all over the world: there is a continuous linguistic mixing of Frenchisms, Anglicisms, sayings but also a cadence that makes a way of speaking Roman. The dialect of Rome is not stuck in time but is a watered-down dialect that is constantly updated as close as possible to Italian. This – the rapper reiterated – is the most Roman work I have ever done because, compared to the past, it goes right to the heart of the city, into the stories of the city from the Years of Lead to today, quoting many poets. I think of Amelia Rosselli and Patrizia Cavalli. I totally reject the judgment that has been given. ‘Na notte infame’ represents Romanity”.
