Ornella Vanoni and Mahmood: inside a film by Özpetek

“The evening descends and descends, but tonight is so short / black, black riviera, there are those who hope and those who go”, sings Mahmood with his unmistakable timbre. And the voice of Ornella Vanoni, timeless, responds: “One prayer, two prayers I will pray, in the doubt of the evening / another sentence, half a sentence I will wait, hoping that it is true”.

It is an ultra-cinematographic duet between the 90-year-old Milanese diva and the 32-year-old prince of the new Italian pop on “Sant’allegria”, which after the preview proposed by the two last October during Mahmood’s concert at the Assago Forum now also lives again in a record version which enriches the tracklist of “Diverse”, the latest album by the voice of “L’avventura”:. for flavours, suggestions and atmospheres, it seems to come out of the soundtrack of a film by Ferzan Özpetek, with that unmistakable dreamlike and poetic style.

Mahmood enters the song on tiptoe and the duet with the velvety voice of the Milanese mob singer gives life to an intimate and refined harmony of voices. This version of “Sant’allegria” represents to all intents and purposes a sort of third life of the song, which Vanoni recorded in 1997 for his album “Argilla”, among the most loved in his discography: taking up “Bem leve” by the star of Brazilian popular music Marisa Montereleased three years earlier, the diva reinterpreted it in Italian with lyrics by Carlo Faca and Gianluca Martinelli for that album recorded with a band of champions of the Italian jazz scene such as the bassist and guitarist Beppe Quirtici, the drummers Claudio Fossati and Ettore Fioravanti, the keyboardist Antonello Salis, the double bass player Furio Di Castri and the trumpeter Paolo Fresu. This summer, however, a remix was released by the Florentine producer and DJ Jack Saniwhich became so viral that it won a Gold Record.

In the duet with Mahmood there is additional production of Francesco Fugazzaformer member of the Muut duo together with Marcello Grilli, part of the staff who has always supported Mahmood: adds an electronic flavor that coexists in an interesting way with the cinematic atmosphere of the song. “I like Alessandro a lot, I love his sweetness and when I sing with him I feel our voices mix perfectly. I remember our performance at the Forum with immense pleasure, it was a great emotion: he held my hand and together we shared a magical and special moment in front of an immense audience”, explains Vanoni. A caress.