What do Anthony Patrick Hadley from London and Michele Salvemini from Molfetta, Bari, have in common? Well, maybe if I call them Tony Hadley and Caparezza the answer comes more easily to mind: music.
And yet the link between the two is not that obvious. Frontman for the 1980s New Romantic band Spandau Ballet, Hadley is famous for his amazing melodic voice and known also for his support to the Conservative Party and admiration of former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Margaret Thatcher. Rapper Caparezza is known as "the Beppe Grillo of music” among his fans because like Beppe Grillo, Caparezza criticizes society with a pungent irony in contexts which are often fantastic and unreal. So if you thought that Bono-Pavarotti duet was a little out of the ordinary, it means you have not listened to "Goodbye Malinconia" by Caparezza featuring Tony Hadley yet.
The song talks about the brain drain phenomenon from Italy which has recently captured the attention of the media and dominated public debate. Caparezza raps about the uneasiness of many Italians to live in their country in this difficult economical and political times and "malinconia" (melancholy) is the prevailing feeling among both those who leave and those who stay.
Following the harsh lyrics against a society that seems to have lost the way, the English lines bring some "speranza" (hope) into the song:
goodbye malinconia
maybe tomorrow i hope we find tomorrow
goodbye malinconia
hope did we get here, how did it get this far
goodbye malinconia
we had it all, fools we let it slip away
every step was out of place
and in this world we fell from grace,
looking back we lost our way,
an innocent time we all betrayed
and in time can we all learn,
not to crawl away and burn
stand up and don’t fall down
be a king for a day,
in man we all pray.
...because after all, Malinconia never comes without Speranza.
Caparezza new album "Il sogno eretico" is to hit shelves March 1.
