Piotta: his point of view after Tenco’s response

The top five finalists for the 2024 Targhe Tenco Awards have been revealed, and they will be awarded during the awards ceremony during the “Premio Tenco” evenings scheduled for 17, 18 and 19 October at the Ariston Theatre in Sanremo. Following the announcement, Piotta, through a post on social media, asked for clarification on the results achieved by his album, “‘Na notte infame”, which was excluded from the final rankings despite the many votes received. The Club Tenco responded promptly: “This is how things are: the album ‘Na notte infame’ received several votes from the judges, but in the category ‘Best album in dialect’ and, according to the unequivocal parameters of our regulation, the lyrics of the work are not written and sung for more than 50% in any dialect or minority language”. In light of this response, we contacted the rapper and singer-songwriter to explain his point of view in more detail:

I decided to make a post because dozens and dozens of journalists wrote to me telling me that they had voted for me and that they were saddened that I wasn’t in the final five. The first consideration that comes to my mind on the answer that Tenco gave me is: but why weren’t the jurors told that my album could not have ended up in the ‘Best album in dialect’ category? Why weren’t the votes diverted to another category? The Award calls together many professionals, asks them to vote, taking time, they vote, but in the end the votes are not valid and are canceled because no one tells them that that category is not the right one? What’s the point of all this? What’s the point of having all those votes dispersed?

Then Piotta’s reasoning continues on the concept of “Roman dialect”:

Here too there is little clarity. But who says what is in Roman dialect and what is not? Today the Roman dialect has changed, it is no longer that of the stornelli, it has mixed and contaminated with Italian, it has particular cadences. It’s spurious. My album is steeped in Romanness, it represents Rome like no other project of mine in the past. And this is what everyone who listened to him says. He talks about the neighborhoods of Rome, the years of lead in Rome and a personal loss that makes him very emotional. It’s in Roman dialect, then there are some refrains not in strict dialect, but with the Roman cadence: are those valid or not? Who decides? Even if we contacted a group of linguists there would probably be conflicting opinions. I don’t want to take anything away from any colleague. I just wanted to do my race with the votes I deserved and this was prevented. Tenco, among other things, writes to me that I received “several votes”. Well, how many? More than an award carried out with professionalism and transparency, it seems to me like a lottery in which others decide.