With "In the blue painted blue" Domenico Modugno is the winner of Sanremo. We are in 1958 with the eighth edition of the Festival. Premiere live in Eurovision hosted in the Salone delle Feste of the Sanremo Casino and conducted by Gianni Agus and Fulvia Colombo. The song written by Franco Migliacci and by Domenico Modugno, played by the latter paired with Johnny Dorelli, arouses unrivaled enthusiasm. The beginning of the story of a melody that has become the very emblem of Italy and of being Italian.
In the blue painted blue triumphs in Sanremo: a bit of history
The song was written a few months before being presented at the Festival. There are several stories about the origin of the song. One of these tells of Franco Migliacci who at that time lived in Rome, in via Vittoria. Domenico Modugno, at the time was already acting, appeared on television and had managed to buy a car. That day the two were supposed to go to the sea with Mimmo's car, but the latter did not show up (later it was learned that he had gone to the sea with his wife, Franca Gandolfi).
Migliacci, infuriated, decided to go home to drink a few sips of Chianti. Upon awakening, he looked at two reproductions of paintings by Marc Chagall attached to the wall. One was "La femme au coq rouge", The red rooster flying in the blue sky and the other was"Le peintre et son models“, The painter who has his face painted blue. And that's where the first words came out. Another version, told by Domenico Modugno, claims that the idea of the refrain came to him looking at the blue sky from the window of his home in Rome. Still another, told by the winner of Sanremo, sees the latter and Migliacci walking near Ponte Miglio, until one of the two (it is not known who) would have uttered the verse. I had painted myself blue.
La desire to start over, to free yourself and to… fly!
On January 31, 1958, Domenico Modugno presents the piece "Nel blu painted di blu" at the eighth Sanremo Festival. The reaction from the public and professionals is extraordinary. The room explodes in a riot of joy, of roar and of hands waving white handkerchiefs. Criticism speaks of an act poetic and revolutionary. In that space of just three minutes the sadness and thoughts that were connected to the post-war reconstruction are swept away. Modugno, with that liberating cry, with his open arms, communicates a collective desire. The desire to start over, to free yourself and to… fly!
In the blue painted blue triumphs in Sanremo, but it's not just the song that wins. The winner of Sanremo is Domenico Modugno, his theatrical gestures, the actor with the throaty voice and the mustache reminiscent of those of Clark Gable. The winner of Sanremo imposes himself in the collective imagination, embodies the new singer, the one that the admirers of the artist called "cantactor". The young people win and the man finally wins. The man who manages to unhinge the old patterns. With Nel blu painted blue, the Italian music scene awakens. That evening of 1958 the birth of the Genoese school songwriters began.
Mister Volare, the greatest of all
Mister Volare still embodies the Italian spirit today. The pure one, sentimentally revolutionary and endowed with immense passion. The irresistible force of the refrain and the breath of joy that pervade the listener, escape the control of time. Many covers, reinterpretations by national and international artists. A song that has been translated into many languages. "Volare" is that Italian record that reached the top of the American hits. A position held for thirteen weeks. A deserved victory, a journey that every Italian and every music lover can make with open eyes, remembering "the greatest of all" with the awareness that "A dream like this will never come back ..."
