From progressive rock to songwriting, there are numerous genres experimented with in the music of the Sicilian singer-songwriter Franco Battiato. His texts are also distinguished by their depth and philosophical significance.
Who was Franco Battiato
The singer-songwriter Francesco, said Franco Battiato was born in Ionia, Sicily, on 23 March 1945 and died at the age of 76 on 18 May 2021.
After having lived his childhood in Sicily, the singer-songwriter first moved to Rome and then to Milan where he starts playing in some clubs and continues his studies. After leaving university to devote himself completely to music, he knows the other fundamental voice in the Italian songwriting of the time: Giorgio Gaber. The latter presents Battiato to a record company. Thus began to see the light of many of Battiato’s songs, for example the one presented at the 1967 Sanremo Festival entitled “… so come on!”.
The first songs of the Sicilian singer-songwriter were mostly oriented on the genre of protest, while later he will try to record more romantic pieces to reach a wider audience.
The seventies are for Battiato the era of experimental and electronic music. This is how the records were born: “Fetus” in 1972, “Pollution” in the same year, “Sulle corde di Aries” and “Clic”, released in 1974. These are the years of counterculture and Battiato appears among the names of the most famous Italian musicians together to Francesco Guccini, Lucio Dalla and Francesco De Gregori.
In an interview, Battiato said:
Thirty years ago it was much easier. “Pollution” was in the charts at the top. Today I would not find anyone who publishes it to me. In my day at festivals, if they saw a Coca-Cola sticker, everything would fall apart. Today we are in apology for the brand.
In 1979 Battiato released an unforgettable album, “The era of the white boar”, which marks the approach to a new wave genre; while his most successful album was released in 1981, “The master’s voice”. This last album includes historical pieces such as “Permanent center of gravity”, “Bandiera Bianca” and “Cuccurucucù”. After this album the songwriter’s career has developed in great ascent and marked by important albums up to 2019, the year in which Battiato announces his retirement from the scene, now over seventy.
Private life
The Sicilian singer-songwriter Franco Battiato has never married. He said by the way, during an interview:
I’ve only been in love once, when I was sixteen. She made my legs shake. It was nice, because it ended there. Another year of those tremblements would have killed me.
He was very attached to mother, Grace, passed away in 1994 and her figure has resonated in many of Battiato’s songs. Furthermore has a brother named Michele, a former city councilor, and a niece who was named his heir.