Fulminacci's first time in a sports hall

“My friends are there, my family is there, my fan club is there. In short, all of Rome is there”, Fulminacci gets excited, pointing to the stands of the stadium Sports Palace of his city. It is the only moment in which the show takes on the sacredness, if one can say so, of the concert-event, which in the case of Fulminacci last night at the former Palaeur in the capital coincided with the first time ever for the 26-year-old Roman singer-songwriter on the stage of a sports hall. Fulminacci arrived with three albums behind him (the 2019 debut with “La vita truly”, Targa Tenco in 2019 as Best First Work, among the most coveted awards for Italian singer-songwriters, “Tante care cose” in 2021 and “Infinito +1” last year), a participation in the Sanremo Festival (the one three years ago with “Santa Marinella”) and

zero Platinum records. He announced the concert last September, two months before the release of the new album: “The fear I had was that I was biting off more than I could chew. When my staff told me about the idea, I said, 'Are you crazy?' The way I see it, concerts should be held in places you can fill”, he said. In the end he was convinced. By changing his mind.

There is also room for stories like this in the Italian music of these years. Filippo Uttinacci's songs – his real name – are not bangers that break streaming platforms (the most popular on Spotify is “Tommaso”, which has “just” 20 million streams, a figure that for the least influential of new generation rappers would be ridiculous), they are not radio hits, they are not viral on TikTok, but in these five years they evidently took him far away: “I'm happy that you sing these songs, because when someone makes a new record it seems like it's destined not to be heard by anyone and instead you're screaming them all”, he marvels at the end of the acoustic interlude of the concert, the one “dedicated to the least popular songs on Spotify”, as he defines it, from “La siepe” to “Così cosà”, passing through “San Giovanni”. Be careful not to underestimate him, however. In front of 8 thousand spectators of the Palazzo dello Sport, Fulminacci goes wild, revealing himself to be a stage animal. And demonstrating that he is not absolutely out of context in such a situation, but that he has earned his place on the pitch.

It ranges from an intro à la The Weeknd, all keyboards and synthesizers, to the emotional piano and voice of “The bicycles” (and the cell phone flashes transform the rings into an expanse of lights), from the jazz sensations of “Borghese in borghese” allthe electronics of “Canguro”, “Resistenza” and “The wheels and the engines”. Light-hearted, but also thoughtful. Ironic and volcanic, but also melancholic and nostalgic. Fulminacci is a singer-songwriter who escapes definitions: “In this show I wanted to put everything I like, aesthetically and musically. Including TV show-style ballets from the 70s and 80s: that imagery drives me crazy”, he will tell backstage, once all the adrenaline has discharged.

On “Miss World Africa” ​​he duets with a mini brass section, on “Spacca” with the slap bass that sounds so 80s, on “Milioni” with a friend who has been measuring up to the arenas for some time (and now they're also tight for him: last year there were 45,000 spectators at his concert at the Olimpico and this year's tour of the sports halls was all sold out): it's .Gazelles.

“Years ago he gave me the opportunity to open one of his concerts in this very sports hall. In recent days I asked him to give me some suggestions on how to relate to the audience during the live performance. He told me: 'Nothing: every now and then you ask him 'How are you' and you get along like that',” the two joke. “Life really”, “Garlic and oil”, “+1”, “Tactics”, “Kiss me kiss me”, “Tommaso”. The concert flows like a delight, right up to the last piece in the setlist. “This is the song with which I didn't win Sanremo“, says Fulminacci, alluding to “Santa Marinella”. He's a intergenerational karaoke. Everyone sings: twenty-year-olds, children, forty-year-olds. Sing too Niccolo Fabi, undisputed protagonist of the generation that preceded Filippo's, applauding in the stands. Fulminacci's fairy tale has become reality: “Do they sell counterfeit cable ties outside the gates of the sports hall? – he jokes – then it means I did it”.