“Volevo Essere Un Duro: The Authentic Soul Behind Italy’s Eurovision Entry”
Hi, all you Eurovision fans. How will we survive until the next one?
I am going to do my first review blog ever. Lucio and Tommaso, you are it!
I am new to this. My background is languages, music and soul-searching, and when I heard this song, I connected with it on multiple levels within seconds.
Firstly, the visual appearance of the artistic lead singer, the slightly built Lucio Corsi, with his visually striking painted face, yellow top with padded shoulders, slim legs and cool boots. The striking whiteness of his painted face contrasted perfectly with his teeth, which were not a brilliant ‘manufactured for the world to see’ white. I loved the fact that he did not have Simon Cowell or Rylan Clark excessively white and unreal, unnatural looking teeth. (Rylan, if you are reading this, I love you and think you’re cool anyway). Ok, plastic fantastic may be for some, not for me, chacun à son goût, i gusti sono gusti. ‘Al naturale’ screams to me without uttering a sound. The fact that Lucio was not trying to convey an image of perfection was perfetto; having the inclusion of subtitles for the audience, Lucio translated and communicated authenticity as well as empathy and art.
The imposing grand piano contrasted with the slight figure of Lucio. It was like David and Goliath, where David was much more imposing. ‘Volevo essere un duro’ is quite ironic, as Lucio’s whole persona, voice and delivery conveyed he was not a tough guy, but he certainly was ‘un uomo di sostanza’, much more preferable to have access to your soul.
As the song continued, the catchy melody and the ‘Marc Bolanesque’ raw voice of Lucio shone through and impressed me loads. As he continued to play, the lyrics were genius and touching. The ‘Andy’ written on the sole (I originally had ‘soul’) of his shoe, which could almost have been missed, was another visual connect and fitted perfectly. Emotionally, the lyrics were ‘colpire forte’, yet ‘gentile’. This song was full of contrast and artistic genius. Bravo, Lucio.
Lucio is a man of many talents – in this song, he is a singer with a voice and words that reach your inner soul, a visual appearance that charms the viewer, a song that pulls on one’s heart strings and elicits a gut reaction and is mindful of the subtler touches. This artist is a shining light, a beacon of talent. In this performance he carried everything off in such a relaxed, professional and confident manner – holding the microphone under his arm, playing the electric guitar to perfection, playing the harmonica while still managing the microphone, everything worked. Bellissimo!
I read afterwards that Lucio had stuffed Pom-Bears to work as shoulder pads and I loved that this fine soul did not care what anyone thought of this; his carefree attitude and lack of care for perfection ended up creating absolute perfection. Genio!
I connected with the whole package and douze points was an easy choice for me. The beauty of the Italian language added to the aesthetics and rolled off the tongue so smoothly and beautifully. Connecting with and involving his friend and fellow singer Tommaso was warm and inclusive.
Lucio successfully and simply conveyed beauty, authenticity, vulnerability, friendship, connection, love and pure art. The world could learn from this. Be yourself, be real.
From never having heard of this guy until less than a week ago (I usually would have been familiar with every entry long before this, but unfortunately this was not possible this year), I recognise that he has the ‘non so cosa’, the ‘je ne sais quoi’ that everyone wishes they had but few are brave enough to strip away the mask to reveal ‘l’articolo autentico’. Lucio e Tommaso, bella prestazione, ragazzi! Stelle spelndenti!
Soul Notes 