Piero Cassano: “Grateful for the lifetime achievement award and in Sanremo we return to giving more space to art"

There are a few days left until the opening of the Sanremo Festival and for some time there has been talk of prizes and recognition for those who have made the history of Italian music in some way. Piero Cassano, historic co-founder of the Matia Bazar group, composer and producer with many artistic collaborations under his belt, will receive the 2026 “Dietrolequinte” award at the Victory Morgana during the Golden Press Gala. A special recognition for his splendid career which saw him as a protagonist on the Ariston stage, also as a winner with Matia Bazar 21 times. At Agi the 77-year-old Genoese singer talks about these emotions and reflects on how the largest Italian musical event has changed over time.

“Sanremo is, without a doubt, a launching pad – explains Cassano – but it can also be a point of arrival. It is a springboard for those young artists who, as has also happened this year and in past years, arrive among the big names and perhaps are not yet so well-known: some I had only heard of, others I had to look for to get to know them better. However, if we think about names like Giorgia’s, the situation changes. Personally, I don’t think that Giorgia needed another Sanremo: she a complete artist, beyond the Festival, despite owing a lot to that event for the beginning of her career. Last year she participated in the Festival because she had an extraordinary song, which was then sung by all of Italy, but all in all she didn’t particularly need it, perhaps it was Sanremo that needed a unique voice like hers”.

Cassano’s relationship with Sanremo

“With already established artists”, observes the composer, “a sort of compensation is often created: it is a mutual give and take between the artist and the Festival. For me Sanremo represented everything and more, it means a lot. I have participated 21 times and this year I receive a lifetime achievement award, which I consider a further gratification for everything that Sanremo has given me”. “I obtained three first places”, recalls Cassano, “two as an artist and one as a producer as well as a fourth place in the Youth category in 2005 with Laura Bono. Sanremo gave me a lot: I think of the victory with Eros Ramazzotti, those with Matia Bazar, ‘When a love is born’ with Anna Oxa and many other artists. The first time I even went there with Gatto Panceri, who later became a famous artist and author”.

Advice for artists and festival transformation

Advice? “The suggestion to participate must come above all from a record company rather than from a manager. The manager, rightly, tends to want to place the artist everywhere, but the one who is really aware of the artist’s abilities is the artist himself, as long as he doesn’t let himself be carried away only by the image or by the desire to emerge at all costs, to have a fame that is not always certain after he participates in Sanremo, which often remains assumed. Sometimes participating is a great good, other times it can highlight aspects that it would be better if they didn’t emerge, especially when a voice relies on autotune.” Cassano expresses some doubts about the transformation of the Festival: “I carry immense memories of Sanremo. It is an event which, thanks to Rai – continues Cassano – is known throughout the world and which over the years has also represented an extraordinary showcase at an international level, paving the way for Eurovision. Matia Bazar, for example, after their victory in Sanremo in 1978 with ‘…E dirsi ciao’, took part in the Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv with ‘Raggio di luna’. Today, however, it seems to me that Sanremo is no longer exclusively the place of great songs and great voices. It has also become a catwalk, very much linked to image and the surprise effect.” “Once we were amazed by the skill”, recalls the co-founder of Matia Bazar, “today we are amazed by what an artist manages to build around his own presence. It has become, forgive me for the term, more a business than an authentic moment of art. Once upon a time there was a rigorous selection, an idea of total art. Artists like Lucio Dalla, the New Trolls, Domenico Modugno arrived, names that perhaps younger people know less today, but who made history. There were also many foreign artists who duetted with the Italian ones: a sign of the great international relevance of the Festival”.

Cassano’s vision as artistic director

“If I were artistic director, I would give more space to beautiful voices”, is Cassano’s hope, “I also speak based on my age, my experience and my ear: when I listen to many songs of today, sometimes I have the feeling that the best part is when they end. I would start from the evaluation of the melody, the voice and the lyrics. Only in a second moment would I consider the image, I would instead think about the arrangement, which must be consistent with the times but respectful of the song”.

Criticism of autotune and arrangement

“I’ll give you an example”, he adds, “I’ve read a lot of criticism about Laura Pausini’s performance with the national anthem. Laura is a great voice, an extraordinary interpreter, known all over the world and winner of important awards. What I didn’t like was not her putting in her heart, emotion and ability but the arrangement”. “And I would ban autotune”, he adds, “for me it is no longer a creative effect, but too often a support for a lack of vocal ability”.

The origins and international success of Matia Bazar

“Matia Bazar”, says Cassano, returning to the foundation of the group, “were born from the previous experience of Jet, a progressive rock group active between the end of the Sixties and the beginning of the Seventies. With Jet”, recalls the artist, “we published an album entitled ‘Fede, Speranza, Carità’ and we carried forward progressive music with the belief that, by embracing the transformations of the time, we could create something special. And in fact we succeeded with Matia Bazar right from immediately, to propose a precise identity, starting from “Stasera che sera”, an extraordinary idea by Carlo Marrale on which we then all worked together. From there came songs like ‘Cavallo bianco’, ‘Che male fa’, ‘C’è tutto un mondo around’, songs that entered the hearts of the public and into the history of Italian music from the 70s up to the present day. The Matia Bazar brand has won two victories in Sanremo with different formations “…E say hello” and “Message of love” demonstrating the strength and continuity of the project. “In 2000, we left our mark with “Brivido Caldo” which, although it came eighth at the Sanremo festival, was sung throughout Italy. The true story of Matia Bazar, however, does not only concern Italy. Abroad we have achieved extraordinary results that have been talked about too little. In France, for example, ‘Solo tu’ sold around one and a half million copies, remaining at the top of the charts for five weeks, sung in Italian. Between Spain and South America we have exceeded two and a half million copies with the Spanish version. Important numbers, especially considering that we are talking about the end of the Seventies between 1977 and 1980. I have always wondered why these international results have never been given the right value.” On the Matia Bazar songs to which he is most attached, Cassano has clear ideas: “How can you not be attached to the first song?”.

Piero Cassano’s most loved songs

“I’ll say it again: ‘Stasera che sera’ was a great intuition by Carlo Marrale. However, if I have to choose songs to which I am attached, perhaps in a somewhat strong way, which I feel are totally mine, I say ‘Cavallo bianco’ and ‘Solo tu'”, states the co-founder of Matia Bazar, “‘Cavallo bianco’ because with Antonella Ruggiero, in the Gaggero brothers’ rehearsal rooms in Genoa, we spent whole days working on it”, he explains Cassano, “the second, ‘Solo tu’, because it is the song that brought Matia Bazar into the world, with extraordinary results especially abroad. Perhaps, together with ‘Ti I feel’ which arrived in a period in which I was no longer in the group, it is the song that more than any other has consecrated the name of Matia Bazar at an international level”.

The new generation of singer-songwriters

A look at the new generation of songwriters: “I have to be honest: I listen to them and I have respect for those who write and interpret their own world. Often – admits Cassano – I get to the end of the songs precisely out of respect for the work behind them. However, I don’t listen to the end to those songs that incite violence, to implausible gestures, perhaps to attract attention more with the image than with the substance. I believe that the most important thing, which I wish for everyone, today like yesterday, is the apprenticeship. Performing in front of twenty people, singing in a restaurant or at a wedding: it all helps to educate yourself, to understand the audience, to really measure yourself with the music and not to seek a path with fiery words. I continue to really love the singer-songwriters who are emerging from my Liguria, from Genoa: I think of Alfa, Olly and other good guys who are building a serious path its precise identity”.

Future projects by Piero Cassano

Plans for the future? “The general discussion is a bit particular because today, as I have always done throughout my authorial, compositional and productive career, I am looking for things that are a bit against the grain: I found them in two young artists. A lyrical tenor, Matteo Macchioni, with him we are carrying out a project that is not lyrical but crossover. He has a great voice and, making his own songs, ours, but also shows, he performs Queen songs in Freddie Mercury’s original key. The other artist I follow is a Calabrian singer-songwriter, Cecilia Larosa who shows her skill and her intonation, her skill of heart, of soul, of feeling. With Cecilia who is unique, there is a relationship of stubbornness, because she has a skill in singing and playing the piano and in fact she trained at the conservatory and I want to believe in her”.