Sunday, May 22, 2011

The EuropeCrazy Holiday Hit List: Pisa, May 2011

Or not, as the case may be. Because this holiday was booked at very short notice it meant that I had very little time to familiarise myself with the latest Italian hits, therefore couldn't really identify them from what I heard on the radio.

There was one song (in Italian) which I liked, and which got a lot of airplay, but which I still don't know the title of. (I recorded a clip of it on my phone so I'll maybe put this in a separate post). It's like a guitar band pop/rock song, then goes into rapping on the chorus.

Another song which turned up regularly on the radio was "Eh...già" by Vasco Rossi which I did remember from the Italian charts update on this blog, and one of this year's Sanremo songs, "Arrivera" by Moda featuring Emma, was another regular radio fixture. I finally tracked down an Italian music station, Radio Italia ('solo musica Italiana') and heard lots of nice Italian pop tunes there. Significantly, despite their return to Eurovision after 14 years, I didn't hear Raphael Gualazzi once on the radio.

Unfortunately, like most other countries in Europe, Italy is suffering from the dominant globalisation of music. Switch on the radio and you'll never be more than a minute away from Bruno Mars, or Rihanna, or worst of all the Black Eyed Peas. These were also some of the most played songs of the week...

Set Fire To The Rain - Adele
Bright Lights Bigger City - Cee-Lo Green
Lifeline - Jamiroquai
Something In The Water - Brooke Fraser
Kidz - Take That.

2 comments:

Raquelita said...

I didn't know Arrivera was a San Remo song.Can't remember how it goes now but I know I like it.

Interesting (but sad) that you still heard a lot of American stuff.I don't know if it's because they're a bit more suspicious of American culture/proud of their own in the south but I heard practically nothing when I was there in March (apart from Lady Gaga but she's technically Italian anyway).Heard Raphael a couple of times,think it's only because of that that the song grew on me in time for ESC.

Have you heard any of Marco Carta's songs? I had a minor obsession with him a few weeks after I got home.Also,Tranne Te by Fabri Fibra is a great song to blast from the car on a hot summery day :)

Laura (EuropeCrazy) said...

Good recommendations - Tranne Te is soooo catchy. Hot summery day? We've had force 10 gales, torrential rain, slates falling off roofs and trees being blown down all over the place today!!
When (and not if) I ever go back to Italy I'll need to do my musical homework in advance. This is when I'm really missing Sounds of Europe of course!