“Creuza de Mä” has become viral on Tiktok

The streets of Tiktok are infinite. In recent years, the social platform has managed to bring old songs back in vogue, to make unexpected songs trendy, to rediscover the new generations stuck pieces between the folds of the time. One of his latest magic It is the creation of thousands and thousands of videos, so as to jump at the top of the trend charts, with a background “Creuza de Mä”, in the version published by Bresh and Cristiano De Andréwho wanted to pay homage to Faber on the stage of the Sanremo Festival during the evening of the covers. They performed it at Ariston three times because of some technical problemsand this also made the curious and out of common performance. In short, Tiktok helped make a song in Genoese viral. Many share it or create content using it, without fully understanding its meaning and this is possible thanks to the strength of its sound. The song is part of the homonymous album released in 1984, published by Fabrizio De André, with music by Mauro Paganthe.

“I met Cristiano on the set of the documentary ‘The new Genoese school’ and something magical was born, we sang the piece in that context for the first time – said Bresh – I fought to bring this song to the cover evening. ‘Creuza de mä’ is a safe harbor, they are the flavors, colors and sounds of my land that turn into song – Bresh told – but that’s not only: Fabrizio De André chose the Genoese as a language of the Mediterraneantransmitting a sense of union between peoples and cultures. ‘Creuza de Mä’ has an international scope, goes beyond our borders and embraces the world. A message, especially today, very powerful“. The Ligurian phrase crêuza de mä, in Genoese, defines a path or a mule track, sometimes made on a staircase, which usually connects the hinterland with the sea. The literal translation is therefore “Mare of sea” or, in Ligurian speech, “Crosa di Mare”.

The text speaks of sailors who, returned from the sea, poetically described as a place where the moon shows naked, that is, not shaded by hills, plants or houses and where the night pointed the knife to the throat, they go to eatin a tavern, “from Andrea”, at the Fontana dei Colombi in the House of Stone, and think of those who could find you: people of Lugano not very recommendable and girls of good family. The song focuses on the figures of the sailors and their lives from Eternal Travelers. In an interview with Rockol, Pagani explained why the entire album is crossed by music left over time. Immortal music which, in fact, are still appreciated today also internationally by giants such as Peter Hammill of the Van der Graaf Generator, David Byrne and Thom Yorke. “Yes, the music was born out of time – underlined the composer in Rockol – I believe that that disc is unique because it comes to life from listening, from a study, and then everything else came. I had stopped following rock and prog, at the beginning of the 80s, and I concentrated on the music of the Mediterranean and the world. I listened to everything that could be found at that time and it was not easy to find it. The ‘Crêuza de Mä’ album, which was born from those research and was published in 1984, anticipated the World Music then brought in vogue a few years later by Peter Gabriel. ‘Crêuza de Mä’ brought Liguria, conceptually, to the center of the world, was a traditional album placed in the present and in the futurenot in the past “.

In August 2020 a new version of the song was created which gives the title to the album, sung by numerous Italian artists, on the initiative of Dori Ghezziwidow of De André (died in 1999), specifically for the inauguration ceremony, in Genoa, of Genova San Giorgio motorway viaduct, built to replace the previous Polcevera viaduct, collapsed two years earlier causing 43 victims. What can tell the new generations? “‘Creuza de Mä'” is a song that I have seen born. Even today it can transmit the value of going into contrast. My father and Pagani did not mimic anyone, but starting from roots, Ligurian and Mediterranean, they created something new, uniquewho belonged to them and all of us – concluded Cristiano De André, on the occasion of his participation in the Festival – I remember when the records came to the studio to listen to the first auditions. They asked my father if he was crazy and repeated continuously, complaining: ‘We will never sell many records’. And instead it was a gigantic, even commercial success“.