Tommaso Zanello, known as Piottahas decided to take legal action against the organization of the 2024 Tenco Award. Piotta participated in the Tenco Prize with his latest album One Infamous Nightpublished by La Grande Onda in 2024.
After the exclusion of his album from the five titles competing for the Tenco plaques, through his lawyers, the Roman artist sent a formal warning to the president of the Prize, requesting access to the documents and the suspension of the award for the “Album in dialect” category.
“The nomination of the album in the category ‘Album in dialect’”, the warning reads, “was accepted without objections by the organizers. However, to the great surprise of the artist and his staff, the album was not included in the finalists’ list”.
Piotta’s lawyer expressed the artist’s disappointment at the lack of advance notice of the exclusion, which was made public only after the official announcement of the finalists. The defense emphasizes that there is no reasonable justification to justify this exclusion.which appears “unreasonable, specious and even artistically incongruous”.
The album ‘One Infamous Nightthe lawyers write, “is objectively interpreted in Roman dialect”, and this “not only in our opinion but also in that of various cultural institutions and associations” and experts in the sector, including the Department of Culture of Municipio Roma III, the Lando Fiorini Cultural Association, and various professors of linguistics and music.
In particular, Giovanni Vacca of the University of Rome 3 – Dams praised Piotta’s work in an email sent to the Prize Commission while the president of the Accademia della Crusca, Paolo D’Achille, in an interview with Adnkronos said: “Piotta is right, the boundary between Italian and Roman is thin.“.
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The Tenco Club declared that the album did not meet the requirements set by the regulation. According to the lawyers, however, it is not clear why this exclusion was not communicated before the start of the voting. “It would undoubtedly have been more correct to exclude the work – if it really did not comply with the regulations – before the opening of the voting operations by the jurors.. It would have been towards the artist but also as a sign of respect for the precious work carried out precisely by the aforementioned jurors”.
In fact, the album was admitted to the vote anyway and, by the organizers of the Award themselves, received several votes. “In light of this unfortunate situation”, the artist therefore requests access to the voting procedure documents, including the precise number of votes received by the album and all the resolutions relating to the exclusion of the album. and to the admission of other discographic works in dialect. As a precautionary measure, we request the suspension of all operations connected to the assignment of the Tenco Prize for the “Album in Dialect” category, with the reservation of any further legal action, including compensation.
