Cesare Cremonini: “The time for sequins is over”
«The time for sequins is over, I killed Ziggy». Cesare Cremonini announces an important turning point in his path and does so by referring to the famous alter ego by David Bowie: «I have a new album ready. It’s a very important work for me and will be released later this year. It was a very special record to create, which I worked on for the last four months in London, at Damon Albarn’s Studio 13. It’s a rock’n’roll record in the most literal sense of the term: completely engineered and played in the studio. It’s a breakthrough album, designed to break patterns and open new creative paths. It represents a change of pace, not only from a discographic point of view but also in terms of size live».
An unexpected declaration that the Bolognese singer-songwriter decides to make a few hours before he will “eat” the mammoth stage of the Circus Maximus in Rome: a rock stars from the sparkling jackets who choose to greet the audience with dizzying numbers with a bow of gratitude and respect, and then look to the future.
«As for the sequins, these will be the last five concerts. It’s not about rejecting anything, but about following a creative need that prevails over everything else. Life led me to experience something so deeply impacting and music came to my rescue.”
Cesare Cremonini runs, he always has: the albums, the squares, the clubs, the arenas, the stadiums and today these live in giant spaces in continuous evolution. «Today I bring my music to places that for me represent the culmination of a dream, a journey that I started as a child and that I desired in search of important numbers. My show is a shared, intense and lively experience. This, as I see it, is the highest point of a journey built with passion, study and daily dedication.”
In Rome, for the first date of Cremonini Live26 the attendance is close to 70 thousand people, the following day there will be the same number (the evening will be broadcast on Rai Uno in September). The effect is that of a huge and colorful mass of people filling the Circus Maximus, making it impossible to see all the way to the end of the dirt road. «Hello Rome, I want to look you all in the eyes, one by one. We started in 1999, how many years have passed? We’ve come a long way to get here.” Arms raised, banners, bandanas, the energy of those who want to enjoy a tour that started in the stadiums last year and continued naturally with these dates. After Rome, there will be the Milan racecourse, the Imola racetrack, the Florence arena. Five dates, five appointments to fully experience a live dimension that Cremonini has designed down to the smallest detail, making the show a journey where the music remains the center, but he wants his entire audience to stay inside those lights and those images.
A one hundred meter walkway that crosses the field, four 22 meter high towers with giant screens, a stage where time passes following the rhythm, first that of the Alaskan sunset, then that of the songs. Each dressed in a precise narrative, made up of three-dimensional images, diffused or projected lights. Rhythm and poetry, electronics and acoustic guitar, drums and sax melodies. On that stage the true meaning of making music does not disappear, it is a continuous celebration in detail: the songs dictate the rules, the rest is a consequence. Twenty-five songs in the setlist for two and a half hours of live performance which opens with “Alaska Baby” and a section of wind instruments and dancers to announce the start of the show. “They say about me”, “Father and mother” and a sax solo that introduces “The comedian (Sai che laughs)” and which ends with the instrument raised to the sky, a symbolic gesture. “He was the one who pushed me to make the new album,” he said at the press conference.
Today, however, he is here only for his spectators, those who have clogged the streets of the city coming from everywhere: he pays homage to him by mentioning “Roma capoccia” on the guitar, «with the Bolognese accent but the heart of Rome».
In “Buon viaggio (Share The Love)” he is accompanied by a horn section that surrounds him, but the most intimate moment of the evening comes with “Vorrei”, the song written at just 15 years old which he dedicates to his mother present at the evening. When he looks up from the piano and meets the eyes of the spectators, the emotion is evident. This tour is a celebration of music, of life, of his career. To share it, Cremonini calls some special traveling companions on stage. Jovanotti bursts onto the notes of “Mondo” with his usual overwhelming energy: together they run down the very long catwalk and, shortly after, “L’ombelico del mondo” literally explodes the crowd. It’s time to call our friend Valentino Rossi on stage, it’s a party to share.
Then we return to Cesare’s musical universe. Elisa comes on stage wrapped in a white dress for the duet on “Aurore Boreali”, before leaving room for “Nonostante tutto” in the remix version. Luca Carboni arrives towards the end of the setlist: it’s impossible not to pay homage to Bologna with “San Luca”, the song dedicated to the arcades and colors of the city.
Cremonini confirms himself as a complete showman. He pays homage to Freddie Mercury with “Tie Your Mother Down” alongside Ballo, his irreplaceable career partner, dances to the notes of “Grey Goose”, arrives on “50 Special” to ignite the evening and continues with “Marmellata #25”. Finally, he takes up the accordion for “Son of a King”, adding a further piece to a show that alternates energy, nostalgia and emotion. Then come “Poetica”, “No one wants to be Robin” and “A better day”, the song with which he always closes the setlist. Sweat, screams, an enthusiastic and grateful crowd watching the stage until the last second, perhaps hoping that collective immersion will never end.
Now it’s time to dance, then there will be space for the new album, which has arrived so forcefully that Cremonini even announces it from the stage. In the press conference he explained this need well: «As often happens in the history of music, an “accident” can pave the way for an artistic transformation: it changes the perspective. It had never happened to me to interrupt that “wheel” that accompanies the life of an artist, but this time I forced my hand, because I felt the need to go back to writing and recording. It was stronger than anything.” And the saxophone was theploy to overcome a moment of profound pain: «A private affair that I leave to legends. I think the new album tells everything I want to communicate. I have often compared this new album to my old ‘…Squérez?’: I was 17 then, today I’m 46, but the strength and energy remain the same. That album was also, in its own way, a rock’n’roll record, and today the new work maintains that authenticity. I didn’t know where it would take me and the same is true for this new project.” The new album served to “drown the pain” explains Cremonini, «transforming it into art has been a natural, daily thing for me, ever since I started writing songs as a teenager. Poets, artists and writers before me did it. For me it is a mark of quality, not a weakness or a drama to be made spectacular.”
And while the Circus Maximus sings “The new star of Broadway” at the top of its lungs, making their voices echo on the walls of Rome, it is impossible not to think of the Cremonini of tomorrow, away from the studies, at least for a while. «You ask me where I’ll play? I can’t anticipate anything, but I would like this project to start from its spark, from the place where it was born, that is, London.” And then, a final preview: «Donny McCaslin, one of the greatest contemporary saxophonists, also known for having collaborated on David Bowie’s ‘Blackstar’, played on the album. The saxophone opened the door for me to extraordinary musical exchanges and incredible personal experiences.”
The lineup of the Circus Maximus Live26 date
1. Looking for Camilla (The First Kiss on the Moon, 2008)
2. Alaska Baby (2024)
3. They say about me / Father mother (The first kiss on the moon, 2008/ Bagus, 2002)
4. The comedian (You know what laughter) (The theory of colors, 2012)
5. The Girl of the Future (The Girl of the Future, 2022)
6. Now That I Don’t Have You Anymore (Alaska Baby, 2024)
7. Broadway’s New Star (Color Theory, 2013)
8. Latin Lover (Bagus, 2002)
9. Possibili Scenari (Possibili Scenarios, 2017) – CREMONINI AND CHRISTMAS AT THE GONG DRUMM
10. Buon voyage (Share The Love) (Più che logico (live), 2015)
11. Acrobats – (Alaska Baby, 2024)
12. Come See Why – (Bagus, 2002)
13. Six twenty-six – (The first kiss on the moon, 2008)
14. World – WITH LORENZO JOVANOTTI
15. The navel of the world – WITH LORENZO JOVANOTTI
16. Logico – (Logico, 2014)
17. Gray Goose – (Logico, 2014)
18. Northern Lights – (Alaska baby, 2024) – WITH ELISA
19. Despite everything remix
20. Son of a King – (The First Kiss on the Moon, 2008)
21. San Luca – (Alaska baby, 2024) – WITH LUCA CARBONI
22. Tie your mother down – (tributes to Queen)
23. 50 Special – (…Sequérez?, 1999)
24. Jam #25 – (Fallow, 2005)
25. Poetics – (Possible scenarios, 2017)
26. Nobody Wants to Be Robin – (Possible Scenarios, 2017)
27. A Better Day – (…Sequérez?, 1999)
