Sandro Giacobbe
Signora Mia

I will never forget the way I ventured into the world of music.

I was born in '51, in a true Genoese family. Even as a child, I was passionate about music. I spent my adolescence admiring the feats and songs of my great predecessors. Like all boys, I was a dreamer. I decided to give everything to music, all my time. Without ever being sure that I would emerge from that world. Yet, they believed in me. I will never forget the strength given to me by the people I loved during my first steps in the world of music. I was a twenty-year-old like all young people with a dream in the drawer.

Just think, I enrolled in accounting. Studying wasn't for me, not for a boy with music in his blood. I immediately got going with my two brothers, forming the group 'Giacobbe & le Allucinazioni'’. They were tough times. Money was scarce, but passion drove us to tour various venues in the region. Finding a satisfactory recording contract is difficult. First of all, you need someone who strongly believes in you. And I found it, even if relatively. I was precisely 20 years old when I got my first, unforgettable contract with Dischi Ricordi.

I was a songwriter. One of those who wrote songs. I wrote for many, including Johnny Dorelli. The theme song for Gran Varietà was written by me. As you know, recording an LP is no small thing. Many wait years, I even waited 3. It was indeed 1974 when I entered the recording world with 'Signora Mia’. It was the period of greatest fame, women recognized me when they met me on the street, and others even courted me. I know of cases where mothers named their son Sandro. I, a young Genoese dreamer, had achieved the dream of becoming famous through music. I participated in Festivalbar, in that very year. I felt like a fish out of water. I suddenly found myself meeting all those I considered 'artists', and suddenly, in that instance, I saw myself in something similar too. I could never have imagined that the song I sang could be successful. Imagine, for me it was enough just to be there!

The edition was won by Claudio Baglioni with 'E tu', someone I was inspired by, to the point where some critics called me a 'copy' of the latter. Claudio and I were friends, but I don't believe we were that similar. The musical genre is the same, sure, but I find that each has their own approach to the song that distinguishes them. Among the much-renowned groups were Cugini di Campagna and Alunni Del Sole, but also the great Pooh. Second place went to Drupi, with 'Estate'. But for me, the important thing was to step onto that stage, which I so admired on television, and sing my song. It was 'Signora Mia', a song written in the company of colleagues, narrating love for an older woman. The idea didn't come to me only. I remember that in those years, the duo Battisti-Mogol with 'Tempo di morire' and Giardino dei Semplici with 'Un giorno tua madre' were circulating. In short, the idea was strong. We opted for a delicate yet lively text. We decided on a passion that goes beyond rationality, that is, the obligations that our different ages imposed. All through a theme that at the time was still seen as taboo. People went crazy. The song, though not even coming close to the final win, made me an icon in those years of an Italy that yearned not only for committed music like singer-songwriter encores but also for a light and carefree vein, like the evenings to which all youngsters like us were accustomed.

We tried again years later. There were some records in between, but with 'Gli occhi verdi di tua madre', we really hit it big. I then participated in Sanremo '76 with this song that somewhat resumed the theme of my first single. Once again, we decided that a somewhat more advanced lady in years would be the protagonist. The result was surprising. Third place! Although shared with 'Albatross' by Toto Cotugno. It was a great two-year period. We had success, that's undeniable. Critics lambasted us, saying we were too banal and simplistic, but after all, who doesn't critics target? We continued on our path, aware that I was just a meteor. The '80s took away everything of the light song, absorbing the genre through a thousand facets, making it unrecognizable. Yet we didn't give up at all. We kept producing songs for a small audience that never stopped following us. Even today, as then, we have a following of women who follow us. Only back then, they were about 20 years old, today a little more. Today they are just under my age, if not the same. And they are probably the very same ones who followed me in those magical '70s. I participated in Sanremo again several times, without having the hope or pretense of retracing the success I had previously.

The desire remains to tell everyone that when Italian song lived through its period of greatest splendor, I was there.