Gianna Nannini

Can you imagine being serenaded by alternative rock in the beautiful language that is Italian? I couldn’t until I decided to treat myself to go and see Gianna Nannini one evening. She had the audience in the palm of her hand, showcasing a radiance that captivated everyone so greatly. She opened with the moving “Ogni Tanto” a song where the introduction is a slightly driven electric guitar playing broken chords which lead into a verse showcasing some beautifully structured phrases and rhyming structures from this Italian songstress, who’s English by the way, is probably better than most of the audience’s this evening. She very kindly explains a lot of the song meanings to us, allowing us to take everything in properly. One of the most interesting things about this performance is the way that the emotion that she puts into this song gets translated and you kind of understand what Nannini is saying through these songs. All of the above is doused in a very husky rock n roll voice, with a huge range, moving the audience from start to finish.

Gianna Nannini is one of Italy's most worldly recognised alternative rock/pop artists due to the commercial success of her 1986 single 'Bello e Impossibile' which charted well across Europe. Since then Gianna has gone on to release a huge selection of albums which have topped charts in her native land and has toured to coincide with each of these consistent releases.

Despite now nearing her 60th birthday, she does not simply perform a live show, she attacks it as she has a huge amount of passion for her long discography. She jams out with her loyal musicians who have clearly accompanied her on many tours before this all soundtracked by huge cheers from her dedicated audience. She spends the majority of the time at the edge of the stage with microphone in hand in order to be as close to her devoted following as possible. They enjoy one final singalong to 'America' before the lights quickly black out and Nannini takes off at speed. Luckily for them she returns for an encore of 'Inno' to wrap up the proceedings tonight.

It was a great show on a small scale, not the big Sick Arena, but only a small part of it. That made it like a close-up concert. Gianna Nannini rocked the stage, in a good temper and full of energy when she was already 61 years old. Right at the front was a personal fan club, singing along loudly. A balloon in heart-shaped form flew through the air and also on the stage, which she quickly embraced and threw back into the audience. Clearly I was a bit sad, because she unfortunately did not sing my favourite song:"Donna d' Onna", but instead many other beautiful songs. I called to wish for the song, but with a 9 woman/man band it's relatively unlikely that they will play a song spontaneously, they have their setlist and even for the encore. But still a great concert!