Dori Ghezzi
Margherita non lo sa

Hello everyone, wanting to paint my musical reviews pink, and in search of a singer who properly represents the Italian '80s as I like to remember them, I decided to write about the beautiful and talented Dori Ghezzi, who, in 1983, came third at the Italian song festival with this lovely piece - released on a 45 rpm - narrowly giving way to the talented Tiziana Rivale and the second place Donatella Milani.

I remember well that in the spring-summer of that year, "Margherita non lo sa" was played in heavy rotation on many local radios, becoming the soundtrack for many young girls and women of that era. Not to be a cheap Proust, but I also remember it was my mother's hairdresser's favorite song, and surely also of your mothers' hairdressers, or your mothers themselves, especially if they were hairdressers. Mine was a housewife and preferred Toto Cutugno, who ranked fifth that year. I liked Dori, but for other reasons, decidedly not vocal, as the lovely photo next to this shows.

Putting aside my personal recherche and briefly discussing this piece, I note that it is a good melodic pop, with an easy-to-impact verse/chorus/verse alternation, on the whole quite simple and functional for the mentioned radio plays.

It should also be noted that this song was conceived for the Festival, being judged by the audience and critics in just a few minutes, forcing the authors into a search for synthesis between melody/harmony/rhythm, which is certainly not easy despite the apparent simplicity of the song.

The song presents lyrics I would define as "post-feminist", typically set in the reality of the '80s, describing with considerable disillusionment the feelings of a young woman, her inadequacy towards the world and feelings, also depicted through vivid images that refer to everyday reality: the contrast between the pleasant melody of the track and the fundamentally sad character of the song is interesting, perhaps not very hopeful, which emphasizes a certain pride and certain female autonomy, especially in the field of feelings. All of this well harmonizes with the context of the era of withdrawal, giving this song an interesting "testimonial" effectiveness.

The piece represents, probably, the best performance of solo Dori Ghezzi (we remember her paired with Wess in the '70s) and the last noteworthy song by the sweet Lombard singer, who slowly slipped into obscurity by the late '80s and retired definitively from the music world in the early '90s, due to vocal cord issues but also, I believe, due to an emerging awareness of the difficulties in re-establishing herself in an ever-changing music market.

Of Dori, of course, we would hear again in the '90s and more recently, not so much as a singer but as the wife of a well-known Italian singer-songwriter, a thousand miles away from her musical circles, confirming a certain irony of life: a small and forgotten icon of Italian pop who became first an inspiration and then a vestal of singer-songwriter music ignored by the hairdressers who, in that distant '83, hummed "Margherita non lo sa," probably even when during their summer holidays they went down to the sea along some coastal path.

This time, feeling the effect of nostalgia, I raise the score: 3/5, to be understood as an absolute value.

Yours sincerely

Il_Paolo