Paola & Chiara
Ci chiamano bambine

I remember that Sanremo of 1997 well! There was a great choice of artists: Cattivi Pensieri, Pitura Freska, Dirotta su Cuba (by Simona Bencini) etc...etc...

On the side of the newcomers: Vito Marletta with "Innamorarsi è", Syria with "Sei tu" and them... Paola and Chiara, with "Amici come prima". Beautiful song. Perhaps not by chance it won the "New Proposals".

An article in "Tv sorrisi e canzoni" and Paola and Chiara were on their way...

The album soon after "Ci chiamano bambine", to give birth to a little star. The myth for me was personal during my adolescence: now I appreciate the beauty of the two sisters, even though some sensual scenes, rather than pleasing me, I don't find particularly exciting (I saw some photos on a website: their beauty is undeniable, but I don't like them).

What is this "Ci chiamano bambine"? It is a teenage journey through conflicts with parents, love, and friendship. There's also a piece about anorexia, but we'll talk about that later. The lyrical style of the two sisters does not reflect their brief stint with 883 as backup singers: Max Pezzali sings to the youth with the "company" slang; Paola and Chiara use a normal adolescent language.

"Ci chiamano bambine" has a dry and direct text on analyzing the conflict between children and parents: dad and mom when they used to say: "Work hard today for the future!", and sometimes it seemed like they were nagging you endlessly! And we who sometimes felt pressured and suffocated and it seemed like we could never breathe. The heartfelt appeal (not even that heartfelt, but more... shouted): "Let us explain/ we can make up/ let us vent/ we must become...".

"Tu non sai" is the first love song on the album: the musical structure is clearly that of an adolescent love song. The lyrics, too: the trivialities of a relationship. 

"Vola il tempo" (too fast for us...): we've all experienced high school and how many of us would have said: "...God, please, don't let me be interrogated again!". Honestly, very little for me: I never felt persecuted during catering school. But I did get my bad grades!

And how many of us "locked in a room without a reason", perhaps trapped in our fantasies and the carefreeness of that age.

I "cursed" (quoting a word - modifying it - from the song) if not the years, at least some moments of my life: if you consider that at about 16 I dropped out because I couldn't get a girlfriend for two years! Now it's not better, but I obviously have a different mindset.

But in all this "...time flies flies flies too fast for us": as predicted.

 "Do you remember... it seems like yesterday"
 END.

 "Amici come prima" is a song about those love relationships one has during adolescence. Let's say that if it's not a "serious" relationship, it's the friendship that could become "love" for a short period and then return to friendship. Here it talks about a disappointment and the person who caused it, who perhaps doesn't want to lose (behind this phrase) the so-called "loved" one. Even if in my case I heard it said in friendships. But in the song, the victim feels like loving the one who disappointed them (and they don't even know the "whyyyyy...").

"Bella" has a beautiful musical start and is the song that talks about anorexia, a theme mentioned at the start of this review. The topic was already relevant eleven years ago, and this piece could be proposed again today. Anorexia is the disease of those who want to conform to the image of today's celebrities, because they can't appreciate themselves for who they are. The anorexic fights with the scale in an attempt, I believe, to have lost weight while ensuring that the shape is also perfect. Paola and Chiara tackle this theme from a young perspective and invite the hypothetical teenager to take life lightly ("...you're so beautiful now that/you turn and burst into laughter...").

While also inviting her not to ruin her life, they seem to conclude the song with a beautiful invitation:

  "...but defend yourself, if you can,
darkness NEVER forgives".

 Beautiful, indeed. Clear: "Darkness NEVER forgives".

"Nascondi te" is a nice rock with a gritty vocal against her fake and stupid boyfriend who makes her suffer. But the anger and intensity of "Ci chiamano bambine" is much better than this song.

"Nascondi te" I've never loved, along with the next "Mi fa morire" where the guy who "when he walks looks like James Dean" and "like Elvis knows how to dance" is one of those 50s types, with "the white t-shirt and a tattoo" which made me think of the early Marlon Brando. The musical structure includes 60s guitar solos and the "uacciuuariuari" I believe from the Platters (certainly from Lucio Dalla's "4/3/1943").

"Nascondi te" has a strange relation to "Cast No Shadow" by Oasis: if Oasis's track starts with the same rhythm as "Wonderwall", "Nascondi te" has a slightly faster rhythm compared to the intro of "Amici come prima".

"Francy" is an invitation to freedom despite the disappointment of a love ("damned, that comes and goes") to the protagonist.

"Amore mio" is the last of the three love songs of "Ci chiamano bambine". It seems to me that in the text, on one hand, there's the desire to have the lover back; on the other hand, not a refusal but almost a distancing. In certain love stories (also and perhaps after the twenties) it's like that: you separate but there's always a little piece of the heart remaining. Cute.

"In viaggio" is a conclusion, but also a beginning: it is the real beginning of the two sisters from "Sanremo giovani" in 1996. If the chorus is beautiful ("In viaggio/verso una destinazione/sempre diritto..." and so on), the situations described here are even more beautiful. When one talks about "fields and houses from the window" (and "sun in the face/now I drive"), I have in mind the highways. However, it's more possible they are the state roads. "In viaggio" is a somewhat carefree song.

Paola and Chiara seem to boast in their debut a particular musical passion that I don't think I noticed in other beginners: they look to Ireland, and Ireland in their first musical season constitutes a good part of the structure of many songs.

Their popularity exploded so much that, a unique case, Luciana Littizzetto took advantage of it to impersonate the two sisters in some hilarious sketches on "Ciro, figlio di Target" (on Italia Uno) during the '97-'98 season. Revived in 2004 no longer with "Schiuuusa!" but with "Kamasiuuutraaaa!", the comedic effect seemed to disappear.

Up till now, the good beginning of the two sisters. The after... will be seen later.