The incredible (and fascinating) story of Anonimo Italiano
It’s the beginning of 1995 when a mysterious and enigmatic artist appears on the Italian pop scene. He calls himself Anonimo Italiano, sings wearing a silver mask and has a vocal timbre that is very reminiscent of Claudio Baglioni’s. He also seems to be inspired – a little too much – by the singer-songwriter of “This little big love” in his compositional style: the song with which he climbs the charts and makes himself known to the public, “And so goodbye”, seems like a classic by Baglioni himself, a b-side taken from a “Saturday afternoon” or a “Strada fare”.
The phenomenon mounts immediately. After all, behind the character there is a powerhouse of Italian discography such as Bmg Ariola. .And then something like this, on a mainstream level, had never been seen in Italy until then (in 1995 the times in which Junior Cally, Myss Keta and Liberato will generate hype with their respective mysteries are still far away). Some speculate that Baglioni himself is behind the mask: the vocal characteristics, with that sandy timbre, are too similar. Some claim that Anonimo Italiano is a marketing move with which the Roman singer-songwriter is preparing his return to the scene five years after his last album “Oltre”. It’s not like that. And the first to underline it is Baglioni himself, who turns up his nose after listening to “E so addio”. And call his lawyers.
The singer-songwriter asks his lawyers to warn the record company of that Anonymous Italian who goes around imitating him, hidden behind the silver mask. Baglioni has BMG Ariola served with a 36-point warning, in which he essentially accuses the label of unfair competition. But the warning has no effect. Yes, because Anonimo Italiano does not sing well-known songs by Claudio Baglioni, but unreleased songs, which, even if they recall the singer-songwriter’s style, are not technically plagiarisms. The story ends up giving even more resonance to Anonimo Italiano.
“And so goodbye” climbs the charts and leads a complete album, simply titled “Anonymous Italian“, That it managed to sell 120 thousand copies in times when records were actually boughttwenty years before streaming. Inside there are ten pieces with titles that to say Baglioni are an understatement: “In a shuffling of leaves”, “This too is life”, “Keep me with you”, “In this melee”, “I want to disappear far away”, ” Who knows if you’ll be by my side anymore”, “Leave the radio on”, “It’s not difficult”, “Now that you’re leaving”. The songs are credited to authors such as Riccardo and Gianni Cundari, Stefano Borgia (not exactly a stranger: in 1985 he had participated among the young people at the Sanremo Festival with “Se ti felt truly un friend”, in 1989 he returned to Sanremo with “Sei tu” and as the author of “Le mamma” by Toto Cutugno, then Raffaella Carrà had wanted him as a guest in her program on Canale 5 “Il Principe Charming” and in 1992 with “La terra il mare il cielo” he had been among the finalists of the “Canzoniere of the summer” on Rai1) and
Mario Zanni Quirini (arranger and producer already behind the success of “Vattene amore” by Amedeo Minghi and Mietta, in 1990).
Another single is taken from the album, “This too is life”, which fuels the success of Anonimo Italiano and allows him to even win a Platinum recordwhile TV programs compete for it. The performance in the studio of “Non è la Rai” remains iconic, even thirty years later: presented by Ambra Angiolini, Anonimo Italiano performs behind a cloth accompanying himself on the piano, showing only his shadow.
«In the evening I went to play in the pub, but in life I was an advertising graphic designer and I didn’t really focus on music. When I sang certain songs, I almost naturally approached the vocals of a great like Claudio Baglioni. So one day I went to the studio to record two auditions. They took them to the big one Michele Mondella (historic promoter and record producer, passed away in 2018, ed.). He told me: “You are Anonymous Italian, like Anonymous Venetian. No one should see you and no one should know who you are In fact, I would even propose a silver mask to you.”
I thought: “What a cool idea”. I was 30 at the time. The idea worked and exploded everywhere. There was a real split of personality. I went into bars, I heard my song, I asked for a coffee and no one knew that I was the one singing on the radio”, said the artist, whose identity everyone knows today, in the clip presentation in the first episode of “.Now or never”, the Rai1 talent show starring old glories of Italian music looking for a relaunch.
When already in the summer of 1995 there were some rumors about the true identity of Anonimo Italiano, according to which the artist was someone named Roberto ScozziRoman from Centocelle, with a past as a piano bar musician on cruise ships, BMG denies everything: «We don’t even know who this Scozzi is. The news is totally wrong.” It’s a bluff to mislead insiders. But those voices they end up putting Anonimo Italiano in crisiswho knows he has been exposed and in the summer of 1995 he theatrically removed his mask during a press conference: «The idea of using the character of Anonimo Italiano and hiding my identity was born because I needed to stay behind the scenes:
I don’t want to be a star or inflate my image, in fact my desire was to be a recording personality. I revealed my identity, I had myself photographed without a mask but I will continue my career as an Anonymous Italian“, tells. «We invented a new character with an imaginative and non-marketing operation and there is nothing strange in the fact that one singer has a voice similar to another» explains, next to him, Michele Mondella, responsible for the promotion of Bmg Ariola.
Thirty years later, on “Now or Never” Scozza underlined how the game, after six months of masks, had become “unsustainable”. That conference sanctioned, in fact, the end of the Anonimo Italiano phenomenon (and its fable), which while continuing to make records – in 1997 “Buonafortuna” was released, in 2002 “Dimmi che ami il mondo”, in 2006 “L’ infinite inside us”, in 2013 “Five” and in 2014 “Diario di un amore” – he was never able to repeat the success of “And so addio” and “ Anche questo it’s life.” Scozza never denied that character “without identity” who up until that moment had brought him luck and who would probably have continued to bring him good luck, if he hadn’t taken off his mask, effectively making the enchantment of Anonimo Italiano vanish.
