Franco Battiato, an Italian singer-songwriter, died at the age of 76 in Sicily. The musician had a close relationship with Spanish, to the point that he translated several of his songs into this language.
With his deep gaze, Franco Battiato, who died at the age of 76, was a music intellectual who raised the level of light song not only in Italian but also in Spanish, a language he cultivated as if it were his own. “With some songs it happens to me that it seems that I have translated them from Spanish to Italian and not vice versa,” he commented on the matter in one of his last interviews in Madrid, held in 2013 on the occasion of the publication of what has remained as his last disc in Castilian, “Ábrete Sésamo”.
That was a translation into Cervantes’ language of a previous album, “Apriti Sesamo” (2012), for whose adaptation of the lyrics he had the help of two references of Spanish alternative rock: J (Los Planetas) and Manu Ferrón (Grupo de Sun and Snow Experts). It was also the first album in twelve years that he had once again sing in this language since “Hierro forjado” (2001), a rarity difficult to find today, like many of the musical exercises put into practice by the author of world hits such as “ Permanent center of gravity ”.
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Battiato’s romance with the Spaniard began precisely in parallel with that song, contained in the album “La voce del padrone” (1981), which had a version released in Spain the following year as “La voz de su amo”, to the that the titles of the songs were simply translated. Two years later, the play was repeated with “Orizzonti Perduti”, that is, “Lost horizons”, another piece that is easier to locate in the Argentine market, in a quick internet search. The definitive leap was given with “Ecos de Danzas Sufí” (1985), in which Battiato returned to some of his most popular songs published in previous years in Italian to finally reinterpret them in Spanish, such as “The station of love” , one of the most emotional of his repertoire, or the aforementioned “Permanent Center of Gravity”. There was also his version of “The Tozeur Trains”, the theme with which in 1984 he represented Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest with Alice, and with which he concluded in fifth position, as well as his accelerated and personal reinterpretation of the “Cucurrucucú”, written by Tomás Méndez and popularized by Pedro Infante.
The experience worked and that is why “Nomada” (1987) was released, with other musical milestones transferred to Spanish, such as “Yo quiero verte dazar”, which was originally released as “Voglio Verderti Danzare”, to close his album “L ‘ Arca Di Noè ”(1982). The album contains unreleased songs, such as the one that gives it its name, a cut that he performed to the fervor of the public on each of his visits to Spain, just as he did in that mythical concert at the Teatro Real in Madrid in 2005, as well as his last tour of the country, in 2017.
Follow the news of El Espectador on Google News“For me, recording in Spanish is like an attitude, because the success that I have always had in Spain has been, in large part, for having sung in their language,” the Italian acknowledged in another talk. Lastly, his production in this language includes the publication of “Come un cammello in una grondaia” (1991), in which he signed four songs along with four “lieder” by classical music authors. That time he wanted to edit it completely in Spanish and thus, in 1993, “Como un camello en un canalón” arrived, in which for the adaptations of the lyrics he had the support of Carlos Toro, a regular collaborator of the Dynamic Duo and co-author, for example. , from “Resistiré”.