Taratata’s return to Italy
Almost thirty years after his first appearance on Italian screens, Taratata returns to Italy. The French format is a classic name for live music. In recent days, tickets have gone on sale for two evenings which will take place on Sunday 8 and Wednesday 11 February 2026 at the ChorusLife Arena in Bergamo: they will become a TV program for Mediaset, hosted by Paolo Bonolis.
The program is an institution of French musical television – with over 600 episodes – and had already been created by Rai between ’98 and 2001.
A monument of live music on TV
Born in 1993 on France 2 from an idea by Jean-Louis Blot and Nagui (who is still its producer and host), Taratata has over time become a true institution of French television, and beyond. With over 600 active episodes including regular, special and revival editions, the program has spanned three decades of international pop and rock music, hosting practically all the big names on the world scene: from David Bowie to the Smashing Pumpkins, from Stevie Wonder to the Cranberries and Jamiroquai, passing through hundreds of other artists – obviously French, international and even some Italians like Elisa and Zucchero.
In terms of quantity and quality of live performances, Taratata represents one of the most solid and recognizable models of music on TV, second in impact and influence only to the great MTV live music formats such as “Unplugged” and “Storytellers” – with a similar approach: not the filming of a concert, but the creation of a stage to put artists and performances in a new light, with attention to production and television quality, but without forcing the music to the medium, as often happens in entertainment programs. To wit: when the program was closed in 2013, there was a petition. The program restarted two years later and, on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary, a concert took place at the Défense Arena in Paris with 84 artists and 40,000 spectators.
The Italian experience of the late 90s
It is not the first time that Taratata arrives in Italy. Between 1998 and 2001 the format had an Italian version on Rai 1, hosted first by Enrico Silvestrin then by Natasha Stefanenko with Vincenzo Mollica: strictly live music and a mix of international and Italian guests. REM passed by (who were paired with Biagio Antonacci in a mini concert at the Paladozza in Bologna, where the first two editions took place), Blur, the Cranberries and also Madonna.
That experience, brief but significant, represented an exception in the Italian musical schedule of the time: the results were not exciting, nor were the critics (the program was panned by Corriere critic Aldo Grasso).
Taratata’s return is yet to be understood: the slogan is “At the center of music” and the poster shows a round stage in the center of the audience. It comes at a time when live music is very present in the media: live albums, the return of streaming concerts, or social media. Even on TV, Mediaset itself has broadcast several live concerts (Elisa, Elodie) in recent seasons. Here, however, we are dealing with an original production of live music for the screen, a format that is increasingly rare for TV – preferring to concentrate on the acquisition and broadcast of already existing concerts, or evenings with multiple performances (mostly in playback) in the summer period, on the model of the classic Festivalbar.
Taratata’s return was announced by Pier Silvio Berlusconi at the December press meeting, but apart from the production of Friends & Partners there isn’t much other information about it. “I like to play with music especially when this sound clay is in the hands of great artists. After all, in both English and French the same verb indicates both concepts (to play/jouer),” declared Bonolis. It will be interesting to see how this philosophy is put into practice, and with what kind of cast.
