And Jovanotti brought Italy to the main stage of Sziget
It was 2006. Social media didn’t exist yet. There was YouTube, but it had been launched just a year earlier. The summer was that of the World Cup in Germany: from the magical night in Berlin in which Fabio Grosso had written the most moving ending to the adventure of Marcello Lippi’s Azzurri, to the end of the very hard-fought final against France, exactly one month had passed. At that time, Italians were the most hated people by the European football community.: calciopoli, the scandal that in those months hit Italian football, leading to the condemnation of Fiorentina, Lazio, Milan and Juventus, the latter even relegated to Serie B (five of the Bianconeri had participated in the expedition to Germany, Gigi Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro, Gianluca Zambrotta, Mauro German Camoranesi, Alex Del Piero, among the pillars of Lippi’s Italy), had cast a shadow on the Italian football movement.
And on Italy more generally, whose international credibility had already been widely undermined by the political events that since Tangentopoli had seen our country end up on the front pages of international newspapers. And so while in Italy “Seven nation army” by the White Stripes became an unlikely catchphrase to the sound of “poo po po po po poooo poo”, .abroad, making fun of the Boot, between clichés and false myths, had become an international sport. “The Italians are making a mess,” wrote the Guardian, one of the main British newspapers, already close to the start of the World Cup.
It was in this climate that the On August 10, 2006, Jovanotti performed on stage at the Sziget Festival in Budapest. proudly showing off a blue sweatshirt with the writing in white in the center: “Italy”. Lorenzo Cherubini had already performed at the festival hosted by the Danube island Hajógyári twice, first in 1999 and second in 2002. But the one in the summer of 2006 was an epochal performance for Italy. It was the first time ever that an Italian artist performed on the main stage of the Sziget Festivalthe main stage of the festival. For the record: that year the Sziget lineup included names such as Radiohead, Robert Plant, Placebo, Iggy Pop, The Prodigy, Franz Ferdinand. Fresh from the extraordinary success of the album “Buon sangue” (the one with “Tanto³”, “Falla gira” and “Mi fido di te”, with a video shot right in the Hungarian capital), Jova managed to gather under the stage 25 thousand spectatorswhich he unleashed to the tune of his hits. There are very few video testimonies of the show. Here is one:
After Jovanotti’s performance in 2006, only on two other occasions has an Italian artist had the privilege of performing on the main stage of Sziget: in 2010 it was Subsonica’s turn, last year it was Lazz’s turnto.
But there are many Italian artists who have passed through Sziget over the years, which has always given great space to the best musical realities from all over Europe. Even if not from the main stage: from Salmo to The Bloody Beetroots, from Diodato to Caparezza, passing through Coma Cose, Vinicio Capossela, Motta, Modena City Ramblers, Psicologi, Mezzosangue, Pop X. Also this year in the festival program, scheduled from 7 to 12 August in Budapest, there is a large tricolor delegation. Leading it – ideally – will be Victoria De Angelisthe bassist of Maneskin, expected at Sziget with a performance that the August 12th will represent her consecration as a DJ after the shows in Ibiza, Riccione, Manchester, Dublin, Barcelona, Berlin. Victoria will go behind the console of the Yettel Colosseum, one of the arenas set up on the island that has hosted the event since 1993, to unleash the thousands of spectators expected at Sziget with her set between techno and baile funk: The performance at the festival will be the last chance to hear her in Europe before she flies to Japanwhere on August 16th he will close the tour by playing at the Sonicmania Festival in Tokyo.
In addition to Victoria De Angelis, the name of stands out Set free. The mysterious Neapolitan artist has long enjoyed considerable success outside of Italy: with that very un-Italian sound he already conquered Primavera Sound and Sónar in Barcelona in 2018, later collecting performances on the stages of prestigious European clubs such as Kesselhaus in Berlin and Electric Brixton in London. He will play at Sziget August 9thmaking the crowd dance to hits like ““You are just falling in love”, “May 9th”, “You Forget Me”, “Lucky Gaiola” and “I Love You Very Much”. For Venerus, Sziget will represent a way to start putting his head outside of Italy.
The Milanese musician, born in 1992, will perform in Budapest on the same day as Liberato, August 9. “I have never made marketing-related arguments about my music. I worked on my music following my values, my philosophy. I know it works, because I am the first user of that stuff. I remember that in 2018, when I started to circulate my first pieces, people answered me: ‘Cool, original. But in Italy it is difficult for it to work’”, he says of his artistic proposal, allergic to any type of label and definition, between singer-songwriter, r&b, electronic, jazz, soul (a bit like that of .She Areal name Eleonora Antognini, born in 2002, between shades of 90s hip hop, the rhythm of boom bap, a sprinkling of jazz, funk and electronics: she is eagerly awaited on stage on August 8th). So much so that we were surprised when in 2022 the debut album “Magica musica” won the Gold Record: “NIt’s not a goal, but a symbol. With Mace we have made I don’t know how many productions that have become Gold and Platinum Records. But winning one with your music is different. Especially if you do it with this type of approach”. On the stage of Sziget, accompanied by his band, between solos, interludes, virtuosity and a notable musical sensitivity, Venerus will present the songs from the album “Il segreto”, released last summer.
After Lazza’s performance last year, this time it will be up to the Italian rap scene to represent it. Rhovewho comes to Sziget after the release of the album “Popolari”. The reborn tricolor pop-punk scene will be represented by Naska. To complete the Italian delegation on Hungarian soil there will also be Laila Al Habash, Giuse The Lizia, One Eat One, Folkatomik, Enrico Sangiuliano, Sam Paganini, Fideles, Anfisa Letyago, Elasi, Popa, WISM, 43.Nove, Guatemala, Leland Did It, Alex the Judge and the Forbidden Fruitsall ready to play at their best the great opportunity that the festival offers him.