Sanremo 2025: the most beautiful moment (in my opinion)

This year I followed Sanremo from home, assisting on Raiplay to all the press conferences of the South (hours thrown to wait a few questions that concerned the music, which is what we deal with, and not the designer necklaces or the t -shirts with acronyms Mysterious that seem to have been the main interest of those who occupied the chairs of the press room) and following – not in full, and not all – the television evenings.

Rockol’s opinions on the Festival were expressed by those who were on the spot, Gianni Sibilla and Claudio Cabona. Mine does not care, but I would like to dedicate a few lines to a gesture that I did not expect and struck me.

Fausto Cogliati died on 14 January. I had known him in 1980: we were both under the weapons, and we both had a great deal of it to carve out a space that was not (alone) that of the gears and guards. In charge of the commander of the Piave di Albenga barracks, Lieutenant Colonel Giuseppe Farina, I had taken the organization of a varied art show – comedians, actors, musicians – who would be held in Casarsa della delight in Friuli in December. For this reason I had selected, among the military under the barracks of Albenga (Piave and Tourinetto), those who could have made a contribution to the realization of the show, which we would have named “the stars of the Aries” with little modesty. Fortunately, and also for a bit of a nose from Talent Scout, the cast of the show included some names that would get the way into music. In the musical group, the Cremisi Fez Band, there was Danilo Minotti, who would later become an important guitarist, would have collaborated among others with Claudio Baglioni and Mina, and unfortunately disappeared very young in 2015. There was Daniele Di Gregorio, who would become Paolo Conte’s percussionist. There was Francesco Romagna, who would then play for a long time with the giants. There were Marco Strada and Beppe Semeraro, excellent keyboard player and harmonicist. And there was also Fausto Cogliati, who was about to conclude his naja and that I managed to insert in the cast despite the fact that he only missed a few months to take off his uniform. With him we prepared the repertoire of the group – which opened the first and second part of the show with two songs by Fausto (“Fire!” And “Song for Elena”) – and we had fun putting together a medley of traditional songs from the various regions Italians rearranged at Disco Music, which we entitled “Disco Italia”.

Fausto did not participate in the tour of the barracks that “the stars of the Aries” undertook from January 1981 onwards: he had already returned home (I still had a few months to go to gray -green). I found him in 1988 in Sanremo, when he participated with his Lijao in the Festival with “For you young people”, and then I always followed his activity as a musician and producer: there are crossed other times, still others have felt on the phone, We participated in a reunion of comrades in a Milanese dinner, and in short we have not lost sight of it, here. The news of his death measured me a lot, and I went to the funeral, very crowded, where I am sure I saw both J-Ax and Fedez (if there was someone else among those who worked with him, I apologize for not having him recognized or mentioned). And I was pleased that they were there.

Just as I was very pleased, and here I come back to the title of this article, when Fedez, after singing “beats”, recalled Fausto with a few but heartfelt words. It was a nice gesture, and I thank Fedez for this.