Because Negramaro have announced a break
After over twenty years of career, Negramaro have announced a break from the scene. The Salento band led by Giuliano Sangiorgi will return to the stage in the summer of 2026 for one last tour, “Una storia Ancora Simple” (a quote from the title of the collection “Una Storia Simple”, released in 2012), announced yesterday, before taking a long break. Nobody talks about a goodbye, but about a suspension: the band will be put on stand-by. And who knows, in the meantime, its members may not find the time to dedicate themselves to solo projects (already in September the frontman appeared as a soloist, without his bandmates, on the stage of “Pino è”, the tribute concert to Pino Daniele hosted in Piazza del Plebiscito in Naples on the tenth anniversary of the singer-songwriter’s death). A choice that surprises, but at the same time appears logical. Because if it is true that Negramaro have crossed the Italian music of the last two decades always maintaining an intensity and a well-defined sound identity, it is also true that in recent years the group’s path has appeared more jagged and less linear.
The dissolution almost occurred in 2017
The watershed of what has so far been the history of the band born in 2000 in Copertino, in the province of Lecce, from the meeting between Giuliano Sangiorgi (voice and pen), Emanuele “Lele” Spedicato (guitar) and Ermanno Carlà (bass), who were joined shortly afterwards by Andrea “Andro” Mariano (piano, keyboards), Andrea De Rocco (hand organ, backing vocals) and Danilo Tasco (drums and percussions), is represented by 2017. What happened that year, the group brought in 2005 by Caterina Caselli to compete at the Sanremo Festival with “cinque tutto passa”, and which was eliminated after only one visit to the Ariston (only to then take revenge thanks to the radio performances), has been abundantly told: Negramaro entered a crisis which led the band to almost break up. They sang – and played – that moment on the album “Love that you come back“, seeking a sort of catharsis in music. Shortly after, guitarist Lele Spedicato was struck by an illness: a stroke that caused a cerebral hemorrhage forcing him to undergo a long period of rehabilitation. He returned to the stage together with his bandmates only in 2019. When the group seemed to have found a balance, the pandemic: the tour linked to the album “Contact”, released in November 2020, was rescheduled amidst a thousand deviations.
The return to competition in Sanremo was subdued
So last year the band decided to get back into the game. He did it on the stage where in 2005 he achieved national-popular success: that of the Ariston Theatre, competing among the big names of the Sanremo Festival. Nineteen years after “While everything flows”, the participation with “Ricominciamo tutto” – a song with an enigmatic title – had the flavor of a circle that was closing. But not everything went as planned: the band only ranked 19th out of thirty participants. A result far from expectations and, perhaps, also from the specific weight that Negramaro – a path which, writes the press office in the press release with which next summer’s tour was launched, «is full of records and multi-platinum certifications with 8 studio albums, 1 live album, 1 greatest hits, 2 docu-films» – have had in Italian music of the last twenty years. Furthermore, the concerts in the stadiums of Bari and Messina scheduled that summer had been canceled due to «technical and logistical problems» (and converted into concerts in sports halls).
The escape to Berlin
Even if the move to Sanremo didn’t leave its mark, it didn’t stop Sangiorgi and co.’s desire to talk about themselves. So a few months after participating in the Festival a new album was released, the third in seven years, “Free love“, with which the Salento band tried to put together the threads of a complex artistic discourse. Sangiorgi and his companions recorded it at the Hensa Studios in Berlin, iconic recording studios frequented over the years by rock stars of the caliber of David Bowie, Bono, Depeche Mode, Iggy Pop: «We were looking for a dimension that would allow us to reset our souls. Like a new debut. In the past we had gone to record in San Francisco, but also in Canada: it seemed like a way to reappear the team, the Negramaro family, away from their respective family commitments. We wanted to experience a sense of wonder together again. More than an escape, we were looking for new stimuli and new horizons». The Salento band opened the doors of the studio to friends and colleagues such as Fabri Fibra (with whom Sangiorgi and associates recorded “Fino al giorno nuova”), Tiziano Ferro (“Solo se massimo”), Malika Ayane (“Io direi di Sì”), Elisa and Jovanotti (“Diamanti”) and Niccolò Fasbi (“Congiunzione astrale”): a work that confirmed their desire to seek new paths, even at the cost of taking risks.
Solo projects
The break, announced at the end of the tour in the sports halls, will perhaps serve the group to reset, find new stimuli, energies and ideas, after having put all this meat on the fire in recent years and before a possible new phase of their journey (perhaps also allowing themselves some space to soloistsas the Subsonica members have always done, who need to experience the thrill of the solo journey to remember every time how the group is “a common force that cushions everything” – Sangiorgi is already an author as a soloist; Andro has long been active as a DJ and producer, so to speak). A choice that, rather than hiding an air of crisis, seems to be dictated by the maturity of the members of the formationintent on protecting what Negramaro have always been: a cohesive group, capable of continually reinventing itself, but also of recognizing – as this time – when it is time to stop.
