Diodato: “Author’s music must be free”
“This Targa Tenco means a lot to menot only because we are talking about one of the most important prizes in Italian music, but also because it comes with a song, ‘La mia terra’, which is a fundamental song for me.” This is how Diodato describes the Targa Tenco he received for “Best single song” thanks to the single “La mia terra”which celebrates the resilience and determination of the people of Taranto inspired by the story of the myth of its foundation.
The song, explains the singer-songwriter, which for him is “a human journey of life”, It required years of thought and work: “For many years I tried to write this song. It wasn’t easy, because I tried to talk about that internal battle that I’ve always carried within me, which many people from Taranto also carry within me”.
So what is the element that brought Diodato ever closer to the creation of “La mia terra”? “One of the things that brought me closer and closer to writing this song was showing my city to friends, to musicians, who came to Uno Maggio Taranto – therefore to people who didn’t know the history and the city of Taranto”, the artist says: “.Looking at my land through the eyes of someone else, who was amazed by the beauty they saw, was an important boost”. Regarding how it was decided to dress the song musically, he adds: “I wanted this song to also have traces of popular musicthe one that can also be traced back to my land. I wanted it to be in some way a timeless piece, without a clear temporal connotation, so that it contained a bit of all the music that I have listened to over the years and that has shaped me. I wanted Domenico Modugno himself to be felt inside, therefore something purely Apulian”.
Throughout his career, from growth and training to maturation, Diodato has always been accompanied by artists who, he says, “are truly part of Italian songwriting”: Domenico Modugno, Luigi Tenco, Sergio Endrigo, Bruno Lauzi, Fabrizio De André, Lucio Battisti. “Among my influences there is a lot of Italian music that mixed with my listening as a kid, when I was obsessed with Brit pop and Brito rock. This thing in me has created a particular mix”, adds the singer-songwriter: “But more and more I feel that my roots are in the tradition of Italian music”.
How, then, does Diodato see songwriting today? What commitment is required of artists? “I believe that author’s music should be freeas much as possible, to express ourselves, even outside of the fashions of the moment, outside of the topics we are used to hearing”, states the voice of “Make noise”:
“And I believe he also has the possibility, more than the responsibility, to talk about what is happening and to also show a certain dissent in the face of what is happening. At least, this is what drives me to write today, what stimulates me to try to make my voice heard, but also the voice of those human beings similar to me who in some way want to implement a small, big revolution with kind gestures, but also very visceral.”
On the stage of the Ariston Theater for the first of the three evenings of the Tenco Prize, in addition to the single “La mia terra”, Diodato played “Far away”, “An act of revolution” and “What a wonderful life”. Participation in Tenco is part of the live commitments that currently see the singer-songwriter engaged in a theater tour. “Touring theaters is a great challenge,” he says: “The theater places you in front of a sacred silence and somehow gives you the opportunity to do something different.”
