Francesco Gabbani: “I bring serenity to the Festival”
Two victories (in consecutive years, 2016 among the young, 2017 among the big names) and a second place in 2020: Francesco Gabbani’s CV in Sanremo is impressive.
The singer-songwriter returns this year with “Viva la vita”, a ballad, after the pop of “Amen” and “Occidentali’s Karma” and the mid-tempo of “Viceversa”: “This song, when it came out, made me thinking about the Festival,” he says. “I imagined myself on stage singing it. The experiences I’ve already had have made me realize how important it is to go to the Festival when you have a song that you can naturally interpret well in that circumstance. Especially the first one evening, because you perform live for the first time with a song that the audience hasn’t heard yet. It’s a one-shot. And the fact of doing it with a song that you feel in an unconditional way is, in my opinion, a fundamental characteristic for go to Sanremo”.
After having demonstrated that it was not “just that of the monkey” in 2020 with “Viceversa”, Gabbani says that this could instead be the festival of maturity, of serenity.
Gabbani, who wrote the song with Pacifico, Davide Simonetta (who is also the producer), Giuseppe Zito, Claudio Gabelloni and Andrea Vittori, cites Tiziano Terzani among his main influences of this period. “This song well represents my inner research, digging inside and going to the bottom, then looking for what all human beings ultimately look for, that is, the meaning of our existence”.
A new album out February 21st
The song will be accompanied by an album, “Dalla tua parte”, which will be released on February 21st, a week after the festival – in which the more pop Gabbani returns in songs such as the single “Vengo a fiduciardi di te” and “Così come mi comes”, in which he plays with the Sanremo imagery (“the song that I would sing in Sanremo, and that goes pa pa pa na na na na na”).
The festival is also mentioned (indirectly) in “Frutta Malinconia”, which talks about “Travolta’s shoes in the grease festival”: citationism, says Gabbani, is a part of his way of writing. “And Sanremo is part of my history, certainly, and I believe of the history of the Italian people. In my songs I ultimately try to express my point of view, which in most cases, I say it sincerely, is also confused. I’m searching, often in songs there are more questions than answers, a self-provocation to try to analyze. In this approach of internal analysis there is the relationship with what is around me. It has always been a constant approach of mine: playing down depth.”
A cycle that closes and one that opens
At Monday’s listening sessions with the press, Conti wanted to start with Gabbani’s song, to renew a cycle: the last Festival of the current artistic director was precisely the one in which Gabbani won surprisingly over Fiorella Mannoia, in 2017. Yes he knelt in front of the singer as a sign of respect, but it was a turning point in the event: more contemporary pop had won over a more classic song. “I understood what had happened probably in hindsight. For me it was the culmination of a long, even tiring journey, but that was actually a song with a different language from the classic Sanremo song. Today, however, as I can say, the serenity of ‘Viva la Vita’, also in musical terms, is the acceptance of the maturity to also recognize the beauty of something classic, classically beautiful”.
The tour
These are the dates of Francesco Gabbani’s tour, after the one at the Forum in Milan last December 19th
15 March 2025 Florence – Mandela Forum
22 March 2025 Padua – Kioene Arena
04 April 2025 Terni – Palaterni
17 April 2025 Rome – Palazzo Dello Sport
01 October 2025 Verona Arena
05 November 2025 Bologna – Unipol Arena
07 November 2025 Livorno – Modigliani Forum, Livorno
14 November 2025 Conegliano Veneto – Prealpi Sanbiagio Arena
15 November 2025 Montichiari – Palageorge
16 November 2025 Vigevano – Palaelachem
03 December 2025 Naples – Palapartenope
