Edoardo Bennato
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Edoardo Bennato (born 23 July 1946) is an Italian singer-songwriter. He is the brother of the singer-songwriter Eugenio Bennato. He is considered one of the greatest artists in Italian rock, a genre that he has often combined with
blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...
and
folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...
. Guitarist, harmonica player and singer, he later began to propose himself as
one-man band A one-man band is a musician who plays a number of instruments simultaneously using their hands, feet, limbs, and various mechanical or electronic contraptions. One-man bands also often sing while they perform. The simplest type of "one-man ban ...
, playing at the same time also tambourines, kazoo and other percussions. His texts are often ironic, irreverent, and turned in a biting way against power, at any level and in any form it manifests. He was the first Italian singer to fill the
San Siro Stadium San Siro is a association football, football stadium in the San Siro (district), San Siro district of Milan, Italy. It has a seating capacity of 75,817, making it the List of football stadiums in Italy, largest stadium in Italy and one of the ...
in Milan with more than sixty thousand people on July 19, 1980, and the first Italian singer to perform at the
Montreux Jazz Festival The Montreux Jazz Festival (formerly Festival de Jazz Montreux and Festival International de Jazz Montreux) is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second-largest annu ...
in 1976. Also, Bennato was the first singer to have released two albums only 15 days apart in March 1980: ''Uffà! Uffà!'' and ''Sono solo canzonette''.


Biography

Edoardo Bennato began his music career in the early Sixties (the first single was published on 1966) as one of the most creative and innovative songwriters of his time. His music distinguished itself for being an imaginative blend of
blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...
,
rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...
,
folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...
influences and even hints of opera. He has been described as "a cross between Bob Dylan and Lucio Battisti". After his first album ''Non farti cadere le braccia'' ("Don't let your arms fall", 1973), where he was still finding his way between tradition and innovation, Bennato decidedly chose the latter, many of his songs being performed by himself as a one-man band, with a 12-string acoustic guitar, harmonica, kazoo and foot-drum. During this early period, Bennato's lyrics were characterised by biting satire and
irony Irony, in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what, on the surface, appears to be the case with what is actually or expected to be the case. Originally a rhetorical device and literary technique, in modernity, modern times irony has a ...
, often addressed at the establishment and those self-proclaimed as "the good". His second album, ''I buoni e i cattivi'' ("The good and the bad ones", 1974), was an attack against the common-sense distinction between
good and evil In philosophy, religion, and psychology, "good and evil" is a common dichotomy. In religions with Manichaeism, Manichaean and Abrahamic influence, evil is perceived as the dualistic cosmology, dualistic antagonistic opposite of good, in which ...
, between the righteous and the villains. "Arrivano i buoni" ("Here come the good ones") was particularly significant: "Here come the good ones, they are resolute and they've already made a list of all the bad guys to eliminate... so now the good have declared war against the bad but they guarantee that it will be the last war ever to be fought...". With ''Io che non sono l'imperatore'' ("I, who am not the Emperor", 1975) Bennato pushed his music more towards experimentation, still mainly playing his acoustic guitar. The cover of the album shows a plan for the Naples light-rail system that Bennato had developed for his final project as a university student. While it was highly praised by his lecturers, the plan was never approved by the city council, giving him even more reason to deride and mock the powers to be. "Meno male che adesso non c'è Nerone" ("Fortunately there's no Nero now") and "Signor censore" ("Mister censor") are among Bennato's best examples of pungent criticism of the system. With ''La Torre di Babele'' ("The Tower of Babel", 1976) Bennato's music became more sophisticated – more musicians contributed to the album, which contains tracks of a very wide range of styles. Bennato was clearly evolving rapidly and this album reflects this process. "Cantautore" ("Songwriter") is an amusing piece mocking those songwriters who, at the time, were taking themselves too seriously. In the following year, Bennato finally reached commercial success with ''Burattino senza fili'' ("Marionette without strings", 1977). This is a concept album based on the
Pinocchio Pinocchio ( , ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel, ''The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a poor man named Geppetto in a Tuscan vil ...
fairy tale. The central idea is that having one's own freedom and independence is always better than giving in to the system and its rules, even if it means renouncing to some advantages that the system itself uses as luring temptations. Most of the songs in the album became classics, not only of Bennato's repertoire, but also of Italian pop music in general, "Il gatto e la volpe" ("The cat and the fox") probably being the most famous one. After this big success, no new album appeared until 1980, when Bennato surprised fans, critics and the whole music biz with a very unconventional move: two albums in less than a month: ''Uffa! Uffa!'' ("I'm fed up!", 1980) and ''Sono solo canzonette'' ("They're only pop songs", 1980). The two albums together sold more than a million copies, against all marketing rules and expectations. Bennato was clearly at the apex of his creativity. ''Uffa! Uffa!'', the most experimental of the two records, is an album where Bennato blatantly disregarded all commercial concerns and let his creativity free to indulge in all kinds of directions, from medieval ecclesiastical chants to punk rock. The album also contained big hits but was generally overshadowed by the hugely successful ''Sono solo canzonette'', a concept album based on the Pater Pan fairy tale and affirming the value of fantasy and imagination over reason and logic. By this time, Bennato was the most popular Italian songwriter. Inevitably, this period also coincided with the start of a very slow but perceptible decline. In 1983 another fairy-tale concept album, based on The Pied Piper of Hamelin appeared on the market (''È arrivato un bastimento'') but it wasn't as successful as the previous ones and this must have led Bennato to try different avenues. This he did with alternating fortune until the present day. Notably, on the occasion of the
1990 FIFA World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second ...
, which was held in Italy, Edoardo sang the official song of the event: "
Un'estate italiana "Un'estate italiana" (), "Un verano italiano" (; both meaning "An Italian summer") or "To Be Number One" is a 1989 song composed by Giorgio Moroder which was used as the official song of the 1990 FIFA World Cup held in Italy, the first to hold s ...
" ("An Italian Summer") together with
Gianna Nannini Gianna Nannini (; born 14 June 1954) is an Italian singer and songwriter. Her most notable songs include "America" (1979), "Fotoromanza" (1984), "I maschi" (1987), "Meravigliosa creatura" (1995), "Sei nell'anima" (2006) and "Bello e impossibile ...
.


Discography

* '' Non farti cadere le braccia'' (1973) * '' I buoni e i cattivi'' (1974) * '' Io che non-sono l'imperatore'' (1975) * '' La torre di Babele'' (1976) * '' Burattino senza fili'' (1977) * '' Uffà! Uffà!'' (1980) * '' Sono solo canzonette'' (1980) * '' È arrivato un bastimento'' (1983) * ''È goal! (Edoardo Bennato live)'' (1984) * ''Kaiwanna'' (1985) * ''OK Italia'' (1987) * ''Edoardo live'' (1987) * ''Il gioco continua'' (mini LP) (1988) * ''Abbi dubbi'' (1989) * ''Edo rinnegato'' (1990) * ''Capitan Uncino'' (1992) * ''Il paese dei balocchi'' (1992) * ''È asciuto pazzo 'o padrone'' (1992) * ''Se son rose fioriranno'' (1994) * ''Le ragazze fanno grandi sogni'' (1995) * ''All the best'' (1996) * ''Quartetto d'archi'' (1996) * ''Sbandato'' (1998) * ''Gli anni settanta'' (2 cd) (1998) * ''Sembra ieri'' (2000) * ''Afferrare una stella'' (2001) * ''Il principe e il pirata'' (2001) * ''L'uomo occidentale'' (2003) * ''Totò Sapore e la magica storia della pizza'' (2003) * ''La fantastica storia del Pifferaio Magico'' (2005) * ''Canzoni tour 2007'' (2007) * ''Canzoni tour 2008'' (2008) * ''Le vie del rock sono infinite'' (2010) * ''Pronti a salpare'' (2015) * ''Burattino senza fili 2017 (2017)'' * ''Live Anthology (2018)'' * ''Non c'è'' (2020)


References


External links

* *
Edo's Fan Club
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bennato, Edoardo 1946 births Living people Singers from Naples Musicians from Naples 20th-century Italian male singers 21st-century Italian male singers Italian male singer-songwriters Italian multi-instrumentalists 20th-century Italian singer-songwriters 21st-century Italian singer-songwriters Nastro d'Argento winners One-man bands