Sanremo 2026, Renga: “I do this job also thanks to Bowie”

Despite his long connection with the Ariston stage, Francesco Renga describes his return to Sanremo in the race with the song “The best of me“like a moment”important, of awareness and novelty“. Guest of the Rockol Lounge, at Superluna, the former Timoria says: “‘The best of me’ was born from an intimate journey of personal growth. I spent a lot of my life running away. At my age, in my opinion, the time had come to face my fears, my critical issues, my doubts“. He adds: “It is a song, in my opinion, very precise, in which I tried to finally find a balance between what must be a modernity of languagealso using a different, more direct, more modern, more contemporary, drier song, and younger writing, thanks also to the team of authors with whom I closed the song. So it’s a modern Francesco, but classic at the same time, which is what I’ve been trying to do for some time.”

For the covers evening, Renga chose to reread the Italian version of “Space Oddity”, entitled “Lonely boy, lonely girl“, with lyrics by Mogol. On the choice of the song, which he will present as a duet with Giusy Ferreri, Francesco Renga states: “I wanted to pay homage to David Bowie, who is one of my absolute myths, I consider him one of the very, very rare geniuses of world music, and I wanted to pay homage 10 years after his death.” He continues: “I wanted to do it with a song in Italian, and this is a song of which, when I listened to it, shortly after the 70s, thanks to my brother who is older than me, I immediately fell in love. Why hear Bowie sing in Italian it was an incredible surprise for me, and it is also perhaps one of the reasons why I chose to do this job. Singing it with a voice like Giusi’s is, in my opinion, a closing circle, it will be a big surprise for everyone.”

After the Festival, Renga says, “there will be more music I need to write” and promises: “There’s a record I’m trying to make with my new label. Afterwards I will be busy with the theater tour starting in October.”

Rockol’s video interviews are carried out in Woodworm’s SUPERLUNA space in collaboration with TicketOne and SCF.