Valentina Giovagnini
Creatura nuda

The death of Valentina Giovagnini is shrouded in mystery. And not just for the tragic ending - a crash against a tree - of her accident. A tree, a plant. She was heading to her mother's store, which is called 'Panakeia', Panacea in Greek, "the myth of universal and omnipotent healing through plants" (as the newspaper "La Nazione" wrote).

She was working on a new album. So far she had only released this "Creatura nuda" in the now distant 2002, a few months after her now historic participation at the Sanremo Festival in the Youth category (second, after the ignoble Tatangelo). The album in question is an excellent collection of songs that mix the traditional pop sound with Celtic influences; supported in the lyrics and music respectively by Vincenzo Incenzo and Davide Pinelli, Giovagnini showcases a repertoire of pieces sung with strong emotional involvement on sound bases that sometimes recall Enya, other times Bjork, artists that Giovagnini loved and to whom she was often unfairly compared. Far from avoiding embarrassing comparisons, it's worth emphasizing how the album, despite numerous debts, tries to find a balance between catchy songs and experimentation.

The opening track "Senza origine" is emblematic in this sense, a chorus that drills into the brain and is both evocative and almost mystical. But for the radio and for the large Italian audience it cannot be appropriate, with that arrangement so sumptuous and refined. Hence, the first failure. "Il passo silenzioso delle neve" is perhaps the climax of the work, even though it is only the third track, filled as it is with Nordic instruments and the vocal evolutions of Giovagnini that here reach remarkable intensity. Not surprisingly, it positively impressed
those working at that festival many years ago.

The triptych of the short "Madrigale", "Il trono dei pazzi" and "Accarezzando ai piedi nudi l'erba delle colline di Donegal" elevates the quality of the album well beyond the pass mark. The first is a 50-second vocal piece where the singer uses her voice as if it were an instrument. The second, of which Giovagnini is also the author, is a frantic trip that would appeal to dozens of electronic music groups. The third is a beautiful instrumental characterized by the sound of a whistle played by Giovagnini herself, which could easily feature in any album by Enya or Loreena McKennitt.
The album concludes with the pop-dance of "Dovevo dire di no" and a brief acoustic reprise of "Senza Origine".

Mystery, I was saying. Why has this talented singer been so ignored all these years? She could have become a prominent figure in "serious" Italian music and at the same time not look out of place on the radio or in stores with commercial, quality, and sellable singles. Yet instead, there is nothing, now everyone mourns her and idolizes her as if she were a genius (the most hypocritical of choices).
To be honest, it's not like the media exerted themselves much to remember her in the days following her death: just small articles here and there, not even a trace of her name in the national news, and in Sanremo only a sincere dedication from the emerging Ania, in front of an embarrassingly silent Pippo Baudo, who rejected her proposals more than once. Just as Bonolis
did not admit to the festival of the dead her "Sonnambula", written by a giant like Gianni Maroccolo. Closed doors everywhere, years of silence and ever-increasing commitment. Not even a celebrity at the funeral. In an episode of Matrix, Pausini mentions her name in front of Gianna Nannini who asks "Who is she?" managing to hide the embarrassing gaffe thanks to the audience's applause.

Mystery, and again; in some of her lyrics, there is a scent of death, almost as if she herself was aware of her destiny.

"Lascerò che sia un veleno dolcissimo a uccidermi" (from "L'amore non ha fine", L'amore non ha fine, 2009)

"Mi vesto come un angelo che sa
che nelle ali ha nuove libertà
e mi abbandono al gesto di volare via da te
ma non c'è traccia che ti lascerò
non c'è commedia in cui mi applaudirai
il cuore ha il passo silenzioso della neve ormai" (from "Il passo silenzioso della neve", Creatura nuda, 2002)

"Ed anche se partire
Mi fa morire il cuore
Andare via vorrei ogni momento" (from "Madrigale", Creatura nuda, 2002)

"Andrò più in là
le nuvole salirò più in là
È incredibile ma è così" (from "Bellissima idea", L'amore non ha fine, 2009)
 

She died on January 2nd, like the two 2s of 2002, the year she participated in Sanremo. 2 like the only two albums released (one posthumously). 2 like the second position at the Sanremo Festival. 2 like the track "Creatura nuda" which is number two and gives the album its title. She released two albums, one in life and one posthumously, just like Jeff Buckley, who also died prematurely in an accident. In her second album "L'amore non ha fine" there is a cover of "Hallelujah," a famous song by Leonard Cohen of which there is a very famous version made immortal by Buckley himself.

Just random coincidences? Perhaps.

An album to have and to listen to. A thought for an artist who is no longer with us and who struggled to be present.