Fausto Leali: "At Sanremo with Oxa and that overpriced horse. Born poor, but never racist."
MILAN – Among Fausto Leali 's many lives, his latest is arduous but enjoyable: touring Italy singing, regardless of his 80 years, which he still looks great in. "Summer is my kingdom," says the white "negro" (note the G, we'll talk about it) from Brescia. "I play about fifty dates with my six musicians." Among these, the Agerola Festival on August 20th, "one of the many festivals scattered throughout Italy's villages that bring us to life. You discover incredible places and sing in front of thousands of celebrating people, who know all my hits, from A chi to Ti lascerò , from Deborah to Mi manchi . How can I not be happy?"
But his life hadn't started well.
Let's just say it wasn't easy. My father returned from World War II, maimed, but his pension didn't arrive until years later, and in the meantime he had to work. He was a blacksmith, cycling 25 kilometers every day, returning home with a bleeding stump. We were poor, and I had to work too. At 10, I was a grocer's boy, earning 2,500 lire a week. But at 14, I was hired in an orchestra that toured dance halls, and I earned 3,000 lire a night.
And he became famous quite early, at 18 he was already on TV.
"And the only state-run TV. Right around 18, I began to develop this raspy, bluesy voice like the music I'd always loved, which I'd worked on a lot, and I was the first in Italy to record translations of the Beatles' songs, Please Please Me and She Loves You . I went on TV to sing them with my bob like them. Perhaps that's also why I was among those who opened for the foursome's Italian concerts in 1965."
In Milan, Genoa, and Rome. Before them, Peppino Di Capri, New Dada, and Guidone also took the stage. The obvious question is: who was Guidone?
«One of the Celentano Clan».
Now that we've cleared up any doubts about him, tell us about that experience.
The Beatles had a contract to play only 12 songs; the rest of us had to fill the time. And just think, the only video was secretly shot by Peppino with an amateur video camera: teenage fans, fainting, mass delirium—everything you remember about collective madness. And RAI had to buy those images later to cover those dates: believing the Beatles were a passing phenomenon, it hadn't even sent a cameraman to film them. In fact, they only lasted eight years, but they left a lasting impression on the collective memory like no other.
Eight years, amateurish compared to her. After the Beatles' 1965 album, came 1967's "A Chi," a poorly received album, if I may quip.
«Continuing the joke, I would say very little success; four million copies sold, number one of the year, surpassing A Whiter Shade of Pale , Penny Lane , September 29 , God Is Dead . And then other successes like Deborah and Black Angels ».
Negroes with a G, as they were called back then without any racism, and here it is worth talking about it for a moment: in 2020 he was kicked out of Big Brother VIP for calling Enock Barwuah, Mario Balotelli's brother, a negro (with a G).
A misunderstanding, in the sense that I grew up in an era when people were free to say "nigger" without any racist intent. Not only did I never discriminate against anyone, but "Angeli Negri" itself is a song that symbolized the civil rights struggles of the time. It also earned me the nickname "white nigger."
I should have been offended if I were racist. I, on the other hand, grew up with legends like Ray Charles and James Brown; Wilson Pickett was my daughter's godfather. However, I still sing the song with a G because that's how it was born. Only after the television controversy did I put it aside for a while. The result was public outcry, and it returned to the setlist.
By the end of the decade he was hugely famous, then he almost disappeared, until he returned with “Io amo” in 1987. What had happened?
"Musical trends had changed. I continued to sing, and I still had an audience, but much less so. Luckily, I hadn't gotten too big for my boots beforehand, and then I knew how to wait for the right opportunity. Which came with Io amo , which came fourth at Sanremo, but was once again a resounding success. Proof that you don't always have to win the festival."
But if it happens, you don't complain. Like she did in 1989 when she dueted with Anna Oxa in "Ti lascerò."
One of the clearest victories in the history of Sanremo. Nowadays, we move forward with juries, televoting, and so on. In 1989, the public voted with Totip betting slips, the old horse racing prediction competition. Concrete, tangible stuff, nothing vague or secretive. Anna and I got 6 million votes, Toto Cutugno, the second, less than two.
You were on a roll, even in the sense that you won one.
"A gift from Totip, the Littoriale galloper. A champion, he won several races, resulting in us having to pay the related fees. We donated him to Telefono Azzurro."
From Winning Horse to Crazy Horse.
"Yes. It was 1992 when Crazy Horse, aka Mario Appignani, a specialist in disrupting television programs, took the stage at the Festival as soon as the theme song ended and before anyone could stop him, he shouted, 'This Festival is rigged and Fausto Leali wins it.' He certainly wasn't very well informed, because I finished ninth. But he knew his way around backstage, where you never stop flashing your pass. How it happened, however, I don't know; I had nothing to do with it and never met him, and I can't be remembered for this episode."
Indeed, you are remembered, indeed, loved, for a career of grit and voice. Indeed, given that you turned 80 last year, you must have taken stock of your life.
"Yes and no. No, because I'm someone who lives every day intensely and still has a calendar packed with dates and festivals like the one in Agerola. Yes, because it's inevitable, and because I've lived a life I don't regret at all, full of work and success. Then I've also made mistakes, like everyone else, but I always discovered them too late. So no regrets."
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