It's 55 years ago since Domenico Modugno's
Volare (Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu) conquered the world. You probably all know that Eurocovers loves a bit of history, so the Eurovision classic features in
many posts, including the 2008 series
Anno Domenico.
I hadn't looked into it much recently, but after a rainy morning browsing the net I noticed that the everblue evergreen is still being recorded in it's 7th decade.
Emma
Followers of the Italian Festival di Sanremo, the mother of all songcontests, know Emma.
Emma Marrone entered the 2011 Sanremo together with Modà and the song Arriverà.
In 2012 she went it alone and won Sanremo with Non è L’Inferno.
As a true Sanremo star, Emma knows her classics and she recorded Volare for the film Benvenuti Al Nord. It’s a comedy about the rivalry between the Italian North and the Italian South. Emma’s Volare accompanies the end credits. (video)
The track was released on the re-issue of her 2011 album Sarò Libera (2012) which also added the Sanremo winner in two versions. (Universal music Italy).
Emma cites Gianna Nannini as one of her main inflences. She accompanied Gianna on her 2011 Io E Te tour (see below)
Emma's latest album is Schiena, released in April 2013.
2014: Emma Marone is selected to represent Italy in the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen, Denmark. Read all about that here at the Copenhagen Collection.
Chico and the Gypsies with Nana Mouskouri
Chico is Chico Bouchikhi, one of the founding members of the Gypsy Kings. in 2012 Chico and the Gypsies released an album with duets titled
Chico and the Gypsies....and Friends.
Since the Gypsy Kings 1989 hit,
Volare became a staple song for any self respecting Gypsy / Rumba outfit. So it's not unexpected the song found its way to this album. But the guest star on the song is a surprise: our Nana Mouskouri.
In Eurovision titles Nana Mouskouri would probably be the Grand Duchess of Eurovision or something.
In 1963 the Greek singer entered the Eurovision songcontest for Luxembourg with
A Force De Prier (By the power of praying) and ended 8th.
No further explanation is needed, Nana Mouskouri continued to superstardom ever since and she is still touring the world with her emotional and uplifting encyclopedia of songs.
Other guests on the Chico CD include Charles Aznavour and Eurovision stars Gerard Lenorman and Patrick Fiori.
Here's a live video of Chico and Nana doing
Volare
Chico and the Gypsies website
Gypsy Queens
U.K. based Gyspy Queens recorded
Volare for their eponymous 2012 album. The band, led by Didier Casnati, presents a more jazzy style of gypsy music. Check out a BBC breakfast performance of the Queens' Volare
here at their Youtube.
In 2010 Casnati already recorded
Volare with Peruvian singer Jaime Cuadra for his album
Latino (watch
video)
Gypsy Queens just played the Isle Of Wight festival and you can also catch them at this years Glastonbury.
Their new single, also on the album, is a cover of
L'Italiano, the Toto Cutugno classic. (
video)
Gypsy Queens website
ケツメイシ
In Eurocovers Galaxy it's a small step from Gypsy music to Japan. Ketsumeishi is a Japanese hip-hop-pop boy/man band going since 2000. Their albums are simply titled
Ketsunopolis (
ケツノポリス) 1to 8.
1 was released in 2000 and 8 saw the light in 2012.
Ketsunopolis 8 includes their coverversion of
Volare in Japanese (
ボラーレ).
Their 2012 hitsingle
Love Love Summer includes two versions of
Volare: The original album version and the FPM Everlust remix.
Volare is mostly a Gypsy Kings cover with some rappy bits thrown in, but still a great tune, especially the remix.
Ketsumeishi website
And some more
In 2010 actress
/ model / stylist / sex symbol Valeria Marini released Volare on a cdsingle
with DJ Roberto Onofri. The cdsingle was only avalable with a magazine (Di Più)
and allegedly sold 300.000 copies (of 500.000 pressed).
All
proceeds were for the victims of the Abruzzo earthquake.
Vanessa
Neigert recorded a German version of Volare fore her 2012 album also titled
Volare. The album also includes a version of Piove (Ciao Ciao Bambina), the
1959 Modugno Eurovision classic. Vanessa Neigert specializes in the classics
from the 50’s and 60’s. She recorded the German 1962 entry Zwei Kleine
Italiener for her debut album Mit 17 Hat Man Noch Träume (Ariola, 2009).
Gianna
Nannini is a famous singer in Italy, but attempts to make her success global
have not resulted in world domination. Pity, really as she made some incredible
albums. Her biggest claim to international fame is probably Un Estate Italiana (with Edoardo
Bennato), a theme tune to the 1990 football world cup. In the 80's she scored a few European hits with I Maschi and Bello E Impossibile.
She
released Volare on her 2011 album Io E Te. (Sony Music Italy) The song was also included on the live edition of the same album. Nannini probably had no trouble remembering the
lyrics as she was one of the singers who recorded Volare For Ethiopia back in
1985 (see this Eurocovers post)
Andrea
Bocelli never recorded a real studio version of Volare except for a Barilla
pasta commercial. But he has been performing the song live on many occasions.
Live album One Night In Central Park, recorded in (you guessed it) Central
park, New York features a live version with David Foster at the piano. (Sugar
Music, 2011)
Other stars
guesting are Tony Bennett and Eurovision Royal Celine Dion.
Francisco recorded
a Spanish live version of Volare with Santiago Segura for his album La Voz.
Now, many singers are named Francisco, so I don’t really know who this is. He must be someone, as the album has some impirtant guests.
Update: Francisco won the OTI contest (Spanish language Song contest) twice. (1981 and 1992) and is a well known singer in Spain. (Thanks José Antonio!)
Well worth mentioning is that La Voz also includes a version of Al Di Là (Más alla in Spanish) the Italian
1961 Eurovision entry, as it's a duet with no one less than Pastora Soler of Baku Eurovision fame.
And there's Dio Come Ti Amo (Dios como te amo in Spanish) performed with Paca Ribes. This is Domenico Modugno's 1966 Eurovision song.
Other people guesting are Julio Iglesias Jr. and Daniel Diges (Oslo 2010) (Warner music Spain).
