Claudio Cecchetto
In diretta - Il Giocajouer della mia vita

The multifaceted Claudio Cecchetto (dj, speaker, record producer, and TV host) has marked the Italian scene for several decades with an original success, as recounted in his autobiography ('In Diretta – Il Giocajouer della mia vita') where his artistic life philosophy, which has allowed him to stay in the spotlight for so long, is summarized in this phrase:

'An artist cannot be such on a schedule or in situations. The heart of an artist doesn't go on vacation, doesn't take lunch breaks, doesn't close the "cler" ("shutter" in Milanese, editor's note). It stays on even at home, at the gym, on weekends, with the wife, the husband, the children, the friends. I've always told my group: "If you spend the week waiting for Friday to put the skis on the car, it means you have chosen the wrong job" '.

A life 'in diretta', 'simultaneously living the things you do' (one of the traits he himself describes in the book), for which every job done and every experience are a continuous sequence never to know complete standstill, but with new opportunities around the corner; in short, a beautiful biography of motivational inspiration, even for my work as a teacher.

In a book where many events are followed by reflections or principles in italics, the upbringing of the young Cecchetto is interesting: starting from moving with his family to Milan from Ceggia, in the province of Venice/editor's note, at 3 years old, you might remember from a child his 'first contact with a "star"' the future Pope Paul VI, served during his first official visit to Milan, and, older, calmly accepting his surprise replacement on the drums of a group where he played with someone better than him, an experience useful to teach him to appreciate talented people and for his future job as a record producer.

The well-known Cecchetto develops mainly between the '70s and '90s, beginning as a dj (arriving at the only trendy nightclub in Milan, the 'Divina', and having developed his own style), moving on to the first free radio station in Milan (in 1975, as dj and speaker, after an impromptu audition), then co-hosting three music programs (including three editions of the Sanremo Festival and some of 'Festivalbar' [the summer version of Sanremo, with the most played Italian and foreign songs on jukeboxes and, editor's note, in clubs]), the birth and enormous success of 'Radio Deejay' - the first radio for young(ish, editor's note) people (among whose famous speakers were Gerry Scotti, Amadeus, Fiorello, Jovanotti - all discovered by him), the hosting of two music programs on Berlusconi's first free TV station, and the creation of a 'tv within the tv' (editor's note), 'Deejay Tv' (a pre-MTV [Italy], editor's note) broadcast on Canale 5, and then/editor's note, on Italia Uno (I used to watch it).

As a talent scout, not only for radio but also for music, the launch of 883, of Sandy Marton (of the '80s hit 'People from Ibiza'), of Sabrina Salerno (with 'Sexy girl' and 'Boys boys boys' 14 million records worldwide) and of Leonardo Pieraccioni (at 'Deejay Tv', later director).

In his history as a known personality, to finish the story of his famous track 'Giocajouer', born from a conversation on one of his performances with the dance corps of a program he hosted and learning about a practice of entertainers in tourist villages during customer entertainment evenings.

Interesting about the unknown Cecchetto having patented a type of can that preserves an open beverage that isn't consumed all at once, rejected by producers. And to close the story, a surprise birthday party at his home for his 60th birthday, in the company of closest collaborators and artists (Jovanotti, Max Pezzali, Fiorello, and Gerry Scotti).

Some testimonies from the artists he discovered, including those of Jovanotti (for whom Cecchetto's world is like the content of a famous series set in the West, where everything is possible - like him who has gone from mixing records to writing his own songs), Max Pezzali (for whom no record producer had understood his lyrics except Cecchetto - and, editor's note, he decided to produce him), Fiorello (who thought of himself as the toughest challenge in the world for Cecchetto, to get into the radio), Fabio Volo (initially a speaker for 'Radio Capital', overseen by Cecchetto) (for whom his job isn't just what he's done, but a true profession in itself that should be called 'Claudio Cecchetto') and Leonardo Pieraccioni (for whom Cecchetto has the gift of identifying 'energy disseminators' - as, editor's note, have been all our discoveries).