And then Giorgia arrived

On the Ariston stage, in front of millions of spectators, with the same bold and confident attitude with which until a few weeks earlier he performed in front of a few intimate friends on the stages of Roman clubs. As the BigMama, temple of Capitoline blues music where Giorgia Todrani was practically at home, before becoming one of the brightest stars of Italian pop. Everyone there knew her as “Giulio's daughter” (in Roman dialect: “Giulio's daughter”, in Italian): the fame of her father, Giulio Todrani, preceded her. After all, father Giulio was – and still is – a piece of Italian r&b history: in the 70s he had recorded some successful singles as a member of the cult duo Julie & Julie (composed together with Angela Cracchiolo), before acting as vocalist for many orchestras dedicated to black music.

The most famous of all, at least among the followers of the circuit, were I would like the black skin. A bit like father Fabrizio Pausini did a few kilometers away, in Romagna, with Laura.Giulio took Giorgia with him around the Roman clubs, especially on weekends. Becoming a star was perhaps her destiny: she had called her that, Giorgia, in honor of “Georgia on my mind” sung by the legendary Ray Charles. Except that for Giorgia Todrani that surname was perhaps a little cumbersome. So when three months before finding themselves competing among the New Proposals of Sanremo Festival 1994 with that “And then” who, thanks to an intuition from Pippo Baudo, would change her life, she had signed up for Sanremo Giovani, she had seen fit to cut her surname and leave only her name: simply Giorgia. He didn't want to shine with the light of others, but to emanate a light of his own.

“And then” marked the birth of the star. But the real calling card of the Roman singer, just twenty-two years old at the time, was the debut album with the eponymous title, “Giorgia”between more credible attempts at a rhythm and blues in Italian. It arrived in stores for the Italian BMG onJune 8, 1994: the exact thirtieth anniversary of the release will fall in a month and a half, but Sony has continued with the celebrations by rereleasing today – on the singer's 53rd birthday – a new edition of the album. The album that marked the debut of one of the most beautiful and precious voices that Italian pop music has ever known returns to the shops in two different versions, one of which is unreleased: in addition to

reissue of the CD (in the package there is also a 45 rpm single in colored recycled vinyl with the 1994 version of E poi and the 2002 version with gatefold cover, an 8-page booklet, an autographed insert), for the first time in thirty years the record arrives in stores in vinyl format (in a 180 gram transparent limited edition). “Thirty years ago, vinyl was a medium that was considered outdated and this makes you think about how everything is relative”, she jokes, celebrating the release.

From “Stai – Tomorrow's Child” to cover of “Nessun pain” by Battisti/Mogolpassing through “Nasceremo” (the song with which he won Sanremo Giovani), “You can – Fidarti di te”, “Without secrets”, “Father”, the same “E poi”, the duet with father Giulio on “Uomo nero”“Vorrei”: listening to it again today, thirty years later, “Giorgia” resembles a frame from a telescope which, at a distance of light years, immortalizes the first cry of a star. “Thirty years have flown by with the speed of the blink of an eye and the only thing unchanged in the photo are the shoes that are still in fashion”, says Giorgia, resharing the album cover on Instagram, a photo that portrays her in the splendor of her twenty-two years.

The album contains everything that had been Giorgia's life up to that moment: the performances with her father Giulio's Io Desir La Pelle Nera (the group appears among the credits of “Uomo nero”), the sessions with musicians of tip of the Roman scene like the bassist Massimo Calabresethe guitarist Marco Rinalduzzi and the drummer Derek J. Wilson (the same work team that he would share in subsequent years with Alex Baroniwhose star would have begun to shine in 1997, the year of “Change”, but would have burned out quickly, too quickly), the passion for black music from overseashanging out with artist friends like

Mike Francis (she had been his backing vocalist) e Gege Telesforo, cited in thanks for having shown her the way in some way.

The album was one of the record successes of that year, reaching to grind the beauty of 170 thousand copies sold when records were still bought, despite the fact that in Sanremo with “E poi” Giorgia had only ranked seventh among young people (for the record: Andrea Bocelli won with “Il mare calmo della sera”, Antonella Arancio second with “Ricordi del cuore” , third was Danilo Amerio with “Quelli come noi”, fourth was a still very immature Irene Grandi with “Fuori”, fifth was Valeria Visconti with “Così vivrai”, sixth was Lighea with “We can make our dreams come true”). The success of the album allowed the Roman singer to return to the Ariston the following year, this time among the big names: with “How would I know” at just 23 years old Giorgia's star definitively entered the firmament of Italian pop.