Tiziano Ferro
Rosso Relativo

THE REVIEW

Let me indulge in some reflection.

This CD came out in (if I'm not mistaken) 1998. My brother sent me to the Moroccan vendor on the seafront with ten thousand lire to buy it for him. I was almost completely unaware of the identity of this little puppet on the cover (I hardly ever listened to the radio) and at first, I couldn't associate the clean-shaven face with that whiny guy who was apologizing with a rose (could he be the son of the Moroccan selling roses on the same seafront where his father peddles fake CDs? - I wondered). Then my brother discovered Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin and so on, and this masterpiece of mastering disappeared from the home rotation. Okay, peace. But now the former (although not quite so) clean-shaven guy is back. They say he's grown and matured.

Okay, listening to the latest CD it might even be true, but the reason for my writing is another: what remains inside Tiziano Ferro of the boy who weighed a hundred and eleven kilos? We see him super glamour and super cool wherever there is room for promotion, in the newspapers he trumpets his human solitude that drives him to write intimate and introspective lyrics (?). The Spanish versions of his CDs (this "Rojo Relativo", "Ciento Once" and "Nadie está solo") sell more than the Italian ones, in Latin America and Spain he's a god, but he casually calls Mexican women "baffone." He's said to be homosexual, but he's been rumored to have had a fling with Giorgia Surina (the super-hot girl from Mtv). He has undoubtedly found the philosopher's stone.

In light of all this, I think back to this debut, when with a unripe voice he entered the scene with a style, in his own way, original. Rhyming nursery rhymes on pop-r'n'b bases, casual look and clean face, capable of crying in front of everyone for the revelation award at the Festivalbar. I don't know if anyone ever had the chance to see him (it was an old episode of Meteore) as a contestant on a Z-list quiz show with the usual Mike: plump, bundled up in an oversized optical sweater terribly '80s, when asked by Mike "what will you do when you grow up?" the obvious answer "I would like to be a singer" and launched into one of his vibrated highs, raw but genuine.

He was somehow endearing, gave the impression of someone who was trying hard, who believed in it, who wanted at all costs his dream of rehearsals in the basement with a band of penniless guys to become reality and a profession, someone who despite offering a jingle-like legalized advertising tunes wasn't to be completely demolished (Greggio would say "they're just kiiiiids..."). Warm and deep soul-jazz voice, a natural gift perhaps lent to low-level charts, sold to the logic of commerce... on this CD the best song is "Il bimbo dentro", a bit obvious about the passing of time.

Does Tiziano still have a child inside him? End of reflection.