Because “Roma Roma” by Venditti is not just a football anthem
In 2017 the French weekly France Football, which for those who don’t know is the same magazine that established and organizes the Ballon d’Or, placed it in second place in the ranking of the most beautiful football anthems of all time, behind only Gerry and the Pacemakers’ version of that “You’ll never walk alone” sung at the top of their lungs by Liverpool fans. But “Rome (Don’t argue, love)”, for brevity “Roma Roma”, it’s not just a football anthem. And its (co)author, Antonello Venditti, has always explained it: «The anthem is in our hearts and does not only exist in the stadium», underlines the Roman singer-songwriter, for whom the song goes beyond the sporting sphere and embodies a feeling, an attachment to the city – Rome, naturally – that unites everyone, fans and not, in a shared idea of Romanness and belonging. The song turns fifty and for the occasion As Roma in collaboration with Sony Music Italy are releasing two special vinyls of “Roma (Non si discus, si ama)” exclusively in the As Roma Stores and online containing two versions of the song: the re-release of the original 45 rpm single from 1975, contained in a yellow-red cover with the club logo, and a limited shaped edition which reproduces the shape of Gratton’s Cub – the iconic emblem of the team – printed in 1975 numbered copies in homage to the year of release.
From video game to digital version
After being included in Fc26the former FIFA, video game phenomenon for football fans, effectively marking the debut of Antonello Venditti in the world of video games, “Roma Roma” it also officially comes out digitally for the first timeboth in the original version from 1975 and in a new live version with the chorus of Giallorossi fans recorded last May in a special match: the one that on 18 May against Milan marked the last home bench of Claudio Ranieri, one of the most beloved coaches in the club’s history, in front of an absolute record attendance at the Olimpico, 68,143 spectators. And it is precisely the choir of the fans that provides the background to a video, now online, in which the last fifty years of Giallorossi football history are retraced and celebrated, from the championships of 1983 and 2001 to the Conference League won in 2022.
The story of the song
The celebrations started as early as December 15, 2024, the day of the precise anniversary of the first reproduction of the song from the speakers of the Olympic Stadium, during a Roma-Fiorentina match decided by a goal from a young Domenico Penzo. “Roma Roma” had been recorded a few weeks earlier in the Roman RCA studios in via Sant’Alessandro. According to what he later said Giampiero Scalamognaaka Gepy, main author of the song then entrusted to the voice of Venditti (among the authors also Sergio Bardotti and Franco Latini), the piece was born in 1974 in response to the song “(I’m) football crazy” that Oliver Onions, from Lazio, had the Biancoceleste striker Giorgio Chinaglia record: «As soon as I played the tune to Antonello, mentioning “Roma, Roma, Roma”, he immediately came out with “Core de sta città”. I told him: “If you do the whole piece like this, we’ll be fine.” And instead, after two months of not arriving, we sat there, me and Sergio Bardotti, and the text finally came out. – Scalamogna would later recall in an interview with Il Romanista – A few days later I went to Sergio’s house, a villa near Mentana. There was also Franco Latini, who was an avid Roma fan. Just then we finished the song, starting to sing it all together. And Franco, who however hadn’t made any particular contribution to the lyrics, said to us, at the end of those two hours spent there with us: “Oh my god, how beautiful this song is! Listen, since I’m a Roma fan and I love Roma more than anything else, can you sign it for me too?” I immediately said yes, because of the friendship that bound us and also because the distribution of rights didn’t make much difference. And so a quartet of names appears on the album: Bardotti, Latini, Venditti and Scalamogna.”
The controversies
Venditti included the song in the live albums “Circo Massimo” of 1983 and “Circo Massimo 2001”, recordings of the concerts with which he celebrated the victories of the championships of those years together with the Giallorossi fans in the ancient Roman stadium, as well as in the collections “Diamanti” of 2006 and “TuttoVenditti” of 2012: «I must say that if there are songs that can do without their author, they are precisely these: “Roma, Roma” and “Thanks Roma” can be sung freely. The extraordinary thing is that when the anthem starts, Roma Roma, I’m not there. I don’t exist. I’m anonymous because the Giallorossi fans sing it». In the history of the relationship between Antonello Venditti, “Roma Roma” and As Roma have not been lacking controversies. In 2013, at a critical moment in the club’s history from the point of view of corporate management, in an interview Venditti said: «Honestly, I would like it if they removed the Roma anthem, because I no longer find it identifying the team I knew». Subsequently the singer-songwriter clarified that his was «only a strong provocation to encourage the president and managers to bring AS Roma back to our culture, making it more similar to our great history of football support, sportsmanship and love».
