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Claudio Baglioni

About:

Baglioni (born May 16, 1951, Rome) began his musical career in 1965 when he entered a competition for new talents in the Rome district of Centocelle. Between 1965 and 1968 he composed a musical suite to a poem by E. A. Poe entitled 'Annabel Lee', made a test recording for RCA, released his first album 'Claudio Baglioni'. In 1969, he entered the 'Disco per l'estate' competition with the song 'Una favola blu' and the 'Festivalbar' competition with 'Signora Lia'. The following year, Baglioni released his first album 'Claudio Baglioni', which didn't sell well and was retired from the market a few weeks after initial release.

Following the release of his second album 'Un cantastorie dei giorni nostri' in 1972, he made the big-time with 'Questo piccolo grande amore'. He set off for his first tour in 1973, the year of 'Gira che ti rigira amore bello'. On August 4, 1973, he married Paola Massari. In 1974 he produced 'E tu' in Paris in collaboration with Vangelis and in 1975 'Sabato pomeriggio' with arrangements by Louis Enriquez Bacalov. In 1977 he released 'Solo' and began a tour of the United States and Canada. 1978 was the year of 'E tu come stai?', released by his new record company CBS.

In 1981 he produced the hugely successful album 'Strada facendo' and gave a series of concerts in the palasport buildings. For the birth of his son Giovanni, in 1982, he composed 'Avrai', a song dedicated to his newborn son Giovanni, and set off for the highly acclaimed 'Alé-oó' tour, which spawned an album of the same name. In 1985 he produced 'La vita è adesso' and the following year set off for the 'Assolo' tour, a three-hour tour-de-force of vocals, guitar and piano. After two years of work, he released 'Oltre', an album which included the participation of numerous illustrious names from the international music world, such as Paco De Lucia, Pino Daniele, Mia Martini, Youssu N'Dour, Phil Palmer, Tony Levin and others. This resulted on his participation in 1988 of the Human Rights Tour commenced by Peter Gabriel.

From then until 1994 he went on a series of tours around Italy. In 1995 he produced 'Io sono qui', followed by the 'Tour Rosso' in palasport buildings. In the summer of 1998 his dream of holding concerts in the main Italian stadiums came true. In 1999 he released the album 'Viaggiatore sulla coda del tempo'. In 2003, Baglioni released a new album, 'Sono io, l'uomo della storia accanto', and won the Lunezia Prize for 'Crescendo e cercando' in 2005. In 2007 he gives a free concert with Gianni Morandi and Riccardo Cocciante at Valletta's Grand Harbour as part of his 'ciaO'scia' ('my breath') Project, conceived to raise awareness about the immigration problem in Italy. Baglioni's 'ciaO'scia Foundation' plans to organize similar events in Libya and the Canary Islands in the near future. In 2009 Claudio Baglioni’s classic song ‘Questo piccolo grande amore’ was turned into a movie by director Riccardo Donna.

On the web:

- Claudio's website: http://www.patapan.it
- Watch the trailer of ‘Questo piccolo grande amore': Click here

What do we think:

PR: Claudio is a troubadour from Rome. He is worldfamous... in Italy. Listening to some of his records makes you wonder: why does someone like Ramazotti have an international career and Baglioni not? It probably has something to do with Baglioni being loyal to his music principles and not wanting to make concessions for commercial reasons. Having said that, Baglioni is worth discovering if you are into husky, sexy male voices and good, traditional Italian singersongwriter material. Beware though, not every album release is of oustanding quality, so listen before buying (or check our personal ratings below).

DB: Claudio's warm voice always makes me feel a bit hot under the collar. And the men hasn't a bad appaerance either. I wish i'd look like that when I start nogging sixtie. Anyway, enough with the smooth talk. Is it musically any good? Yes it is, although Baglioni suffers from the problem that he has a hard time to kill his darlings. So he tends to squeeze every song in on his albums resulting in double and even triple albums. That can be a bit to much of a good thing. The other point of crtitique is that he follows the mantra of album-tour-livealbum-album-tour-livealbum-al.. well you get the point. How many live versions of 'Picollo grande amore' can a man stand? So Claudio, leave the mantra, be your sweet self and release a brilliant album again.

If you like this, you probably like.. / european counterparts:

Jean Luis Murat (France)

Recommended albums:

♪♪♪♪♪ - Questo piccolo grande amore - 1972

♪♪♪- Solo - 1977

♪♪♪- Strada facendo - 1981

♪♪♪ - Oltre - 1990

♪♪♪♪♪ - Io sono qui - 1995

♪♪♪♪♪ - Viaggiatore sulla coda del tempo - 1999

♪♪ - QPGA - 2009

Further listening:

Claudio Baglioni - 1970; Un cantastorie dei giorni nostri - 1971; Gira che ti rigira amore bello - 1973; E tu... - 1974; Sabato pomeriggio - 1975; E tu come stai? - 1978; Alè-oò - 1982; La vita è adesso - 1985; Assolo - 1986; Assieme - 1992; Ancorassieme - 1992; Attori e spettatori - 1996; Anime in gioco 1997; A-Live 1998; Acustico - 2000; Sono io, l'uomo della storia accanto - 2003; Crescendo e cercando - 2005; Quelli degli altri tutti qui - 2006; Buon viaggio della vita - 2007
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♪♪♪♪♪ = outstanding album, an absolute must-have
♪♪♪♪ = great album, highly recomended
♪♪♪ = nice album
♪♪ = be careful, requires listening before buying
♪ = best to be avoided