The sugary sweet voice of Zucchero comes to the Baltics

  • 2012-03-28
  • By TBT Staff

POURING IT ON: Zucchero brings his syrupy ballads to his Baltic fans.

KAUNAS - "Every country produces one singer in each generation who represents that country, the way Bruce Springsteen represents America or Bono does Ireland. Zucchero is the Italian voice for everyone in the world,” world-famous singer Sting once said about this musician.

Zucchero is Italy’s most beloved rock star and one of the top Italian artists worldwide, having sold 40 million records over three decades. He has achieved numerous awards, including two World Music Awards, six IFPI Europe Platinum Awards and a Grammy Award nomination. As a singer-songwriter, guitarist and keyboardist, Zucchero has collaborated with the royalty of international rock, blues, R&B, jazz and classical music – from Bono, Sting and Eric Clapton to Miles Davis, John Lee Hooker and Solomon Burke to Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli.

Asked to describe Zucchero, his longstanding collaborator Bono said: “My friend Zucchero has had Italy singing and dancing for years… His boyish smile makes him the most charming man in Italy, that smile that just runs all over his face. But the voice is the sound of aged oak, like an old, oak-aged whisky.”
Born Adelmo Fornaciari in 1955 in the Italian province Reggio Emilia, Zucchero (the Italian word for sugar) – like only the very brightest luminaries in pop – has become known far and wide by his one-word nickname, bestowed on him by a schoolteacher back in his hometown in northern Italy.

He is probably best known internationally for the song “Senza Una Donna,” which is a duet with Paul Young and hit number 4 in the latter’s native United Kingdom, where Zucchero has generally made little commercial impact, in 1991. He commenced his musical career in 1970, with his first single in 1976 and his first album in 1983. His music, in Italian, Spanish and in English, is largely inspired by gospel, blues and rock, and alternates between syrupy ballads and more rhythmic boogie-like pieces.

His 1987 album “Blue’s” with Corrado Rustici, David Sancious plus Clarence Clemons and the Memphis Horns sold in excess of 1.3 million copies and was the biggest commercial breakthrough ever achieved by a rock music album in Italy.
Zucchero is as generous with his time as with his talent. With Luciano Pavarotti he devised the Pavarotti & Friends charity gala, which is now an annual event, and he continues to support Nelson Mandela’s 46664 campaign with concerts throughout the world.

In 1990 Zucchero became the first rock musician ever to perform on the Kremlin’s stage in Moscow, when during the concert he sang the song “Imagine” together with Randy Crawford.
Zucchero has performed in front of millions of people in many countries on different continents. However, the emotion in Zucchero’s words and the feeling in his music is something that we all share - it is international. There are no boundaries.

November 2010 saw the release of “Chocabeck,” already hailed as one of the best, if not the best, albums ever written by Zucchero. Recorded across the globe including stints in Los Angeles, Bolgheri and London, the album features production from some of music’s best known alumni including Don Was (The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and Roy Orbison) and Brendan O’Brien (AC/DC, Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam). Featuring some of Zucchero’s most poignant and touching lyrics, he also managed to enlist the assistance of his good friends Bono, who the lyrics for the track “Someone Else’s Tears” (Il Suono Della Domenica) and Brian Wilson (who recorded backing vocals for the title track). With this new record Zucchero opens up a new chapter in his illustrious and coveted career.

The 11 songs of Chocabeck loosely follow the cycle of life in an imaginary countryside location not dissimilar to the village where Zucchero was raised. “This album is all about my roots,” the musician says. “Fragments of life and emotions on a typical Sunday, from dawn to dusk, in the village where I grew up.”
Don’t miss your chance to see Zucchero, while he will be touring the Baltics within his Chocabeck world tour – on April 10 in Tallinn, April 12 in Riga and on April 14 in Kaunas.

Tickets can be purchased at: www.ticketpro.ee, www.bilesuserviss.lv or www.bilietupasaulis.lt