Alessio Bonomo
La croce

The Sanremo Festival is an event that allows slightly nerdy enthusiasts like myself to search for anecdotes, scour archives, and in this painstaking activity, it's easy to come across strange performances or simply bizarre songs, which, at the time of their presentation, caused embarrassment, hilarity, or weren't understood because they were too different from the standards the average viewers of that event were accustomed to.

Well, a song like "La croce" by Alessio Bonomo fits, if possible, into all the aforementioned categories. Let's try to understand why.

First of all, let's jump into the invaluable DeBasica time machine and go back almost a quarter of a century, specifically to the early 2000s, a period that still had the scent of the previous decade and in which the author of this review was enjoying PlayStation tournaments, purchasing hip-hop albums, and strange clothing items that have come back into fashion in this period (baggy pants, first and foremost).

Let's narrow the field of action further and project ourselves confidently into February 2000, when the fiftieth Italian song festival airs on RaiUno.

A young Fabio Fazio is hosting that edition, engaged in refreshing a competition that, after the national Pippo's dominance in the nineties, was starting to smell of mothballs, to say the least.

For the second year in a row, in short (having already successfully organized the 1999 edition), Fazio and artistic director Mario Maffucci decide to focus not only on the show and a more lively, less stiff presentation but especially on music, limiting the presence of authentic microphone dinosaurs and selecting emerging artists or those associated with more modern sounds (some names: Max Gazzè, Subsonica, Carmen Consoli, Samuele Bersani, and Avion Travel, who will rank first with the evocative "Sentimento").

However, let's focus on the New Proposals Section, because that's where we find our hero, the unknown Alessio Bonomo.

Probably driven by the same desire for renewal, Fazio and Maffucci choose a series of brave tracks, among which the beautiful "Strade" by Tiromancino and Riccardo Sinigallia stands out, a piece that manages to bring boom bap and DJ Stile's scratches to the Ariston stage and which, in my opinion, deserved the win instead of Jenny B's soul, still of excellent craftsmanship.

This atmosphere of change paves the way for a surreal performance like that of Neapolitan Alessio Bonomo.

First of all, it's necessary to say that Alessio wasn't the last arrival; he was a singer-songwriter who already had a contract with Sugar Music in his pocket and an active single, "Il deserto", released in 1999.

We find him the following year at the Festival, and from his first appearance, we understand that we're about to live an unforgettable experience, one that will definitely go down in history.

Alessio is triumphantly called by a Fabio Fazio dressed like a Jesuit. He wears a white shirt, a pair of jeans, and descends the stairs in a bewildered manner, looking around, perhaps wishing he was at an indie rock festival or at dinner with his girlfriend at Giuseppone a Mare: it doesn't matter, at that moment, he's there.

After the ritual announcement of the piece, titled, as mentioned, "La croce" (and no doubt, someone must have started to wrinkle their nose…), the performance begins, and a good part of the audience who had spent their wages to snag a seat in the stalls is petrified, shocked by something they never dreamed of seeing (and hearing) on the Ligurian Riviera.

Once the intro dominated by a wah-wah blasted at extremely high volumes is over, Alessio starts to recite his verses almost motionlessly, with a spacey gaze directed at the audience. All the while, he's accompanied by a distorted guitar riff worthy of the best Sonic Youth, which during the climax of the arrangement harmonizes with the pressing strings of the Sanremo orchestra.

Those expecting a religious-themed song, Catholic Action style, must have been nothing short of shocked after reading the lyrics. Just to mention a few gems: "And everyone has their cross/But some crosses are enormous"; "And everyone is a carpenter/And builds new crosses/And throws them on people"; and of course the legendary "Stuff to hit them with a pole between the eyes/Or to forgive them", a phrase that will cost Bonomo a lifetime ban from the competition and perhaps even the obligation of a pilgrimage to Lourdes or the Madonna of Međugorje.

Once the performance is over, Alessio leaves without saying anything, and this further amplifies the sense of discomfort that has spread among the attendees, although, to be honest, some welcome it with applause and nods of approval (probably friends sitting in the front rows).

"This is my way of expressing myself; I couldn't and wouldn't know how to do anything else. I wrote the song on impulse. It starts from a strong feeling and from the saying, 'everyone has their cross.' From there, I wrote instinctively. Even the music was born instinctively. It is obsessive like the text: the chorus is missing. I knew it was a risky choice, but I wanted it that way". Commendable statements, certainly, but they do not manage to save the song from criticism and from a fifteenth place in the ranking, which puts an end to the young Neapolitan's Sanremo experience.

As time passes, the controversies lessen, and in 2001 Alessio gifts us La rosa dei venti, a remarkable debut produced by the late Fausto Mesolella of Avion Travel. However, even in this case, misfortune befalls him, as not even a video directed by Oliviero Toscani will be enough to ensure his success, and he'll literally vanish into thin air, perhaps dropped by the same label that tried to launch him (and which, in my opinion, didn't even use many means to promote his record).

He will continue to write music for others (Nada, Andrea Bocelli, Alessandro Haber, etc.), release an EP in 2006, and publish two albums, Tra i confini di un'era and La musica non esiste, released in 2014 and 2018 for the independent label Esordisco.

Thus ends, for now, the artistic journey of Alessio Bonomo. His participation in the Festival is yet another example of how a prestigious context can turn into a media meat grinder, especially for musicians who are not used to performing in front of millions of people or who, despite being sponsored by major labels, present an experimental project that is not understood or even mocked by unprepared spectators and cruel journalists.

Stuff to hit them with a pole between the eyes
Or to forgive them
To kiss the ground with one's knees
And remain... like this...
Disarmed under the sky
Like a light bulb still on
Even though it's morning...