Ligabue

A blend of genuineness, exertion, and amplified six-strings formed the core elements whose minimal shifts across decades propelled Ligabue into the upper ranks of contemporary Italian rock performers.

Luciano Ligabue entered the world on March 13, 1960, in Correggio near Reggio Emilia. Before committing to music he accumulated an array of occupations that included farm laborer, factory hand, traveling salesman, municipal council member, and club disc jockey. In 1987, fronting the group OraZero, he captured first place in a competition reserved for unsigned acts; the victory led the following year to his initial 7" single, which paired “Bar Mario” with “Anime in Plexiglass.” Between 1988 and 1989, singer-songwriter Pierangelo Bertoli cut two Ligabue compositions—“Sogni di Rock & Roll” on Tra Me e Me and “Figlio di un Cane” on Sedia Elettrica. Fronting the newly assembled ClanDestino—guitarist Max Cottafavi, drummer Gigi Cavalli Cocchi, and bassist Luciano Ghezzi—with sound engineer Paolo “Feiez” Panigada of Elio e le Storie Tese, Ligabue issued his self-titled debut album in 1990. Mixing romantic ballads with taut rock numbers, the record moved 500,000 copies, and its lead single “Balliamo Sul Mondo” claimed that year’s Festivalbar Giovani prize.

A subsequent tour stretched across three years and included opening slots for U2 on two Italian dates of the Zoo TV itinerary; during the same period Ligabue released Lambrusco Coltelli Rose & Popcorn in 1991 and the more diffuse Sopravvissuti e Sopravviventi in 1993. In 1994 he co-established the management agency and label Mescal. That same year the EP A Che Ora è la Fine del Mondo?—its title track rendering R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” in Italian—marked his final release with ClanDestino, which afterward issued two independent albums: ClanDestino in 1994 and Cuore Stomaco e Cervello in 1996.

Reconvening with a fresh rhythm section drawn from Rocking Chairs—guitarist Carmelo “Mel” Previte, bassist Antonio “Rigo” Righetti, drummer Roberto “Robby” Pellati—plus Litfiba guitarist Federico Poggipollini, Ligabue delivered Buon Compleanno Elvis in 1995. Powered by the massive singles “Certe Notti” and “Vivo Morto o X,” the album surpassed one million copies and remained on the Italian charts for seventy weeks. Two 1997 concerts at Milan’s San Siro stadium, attended by 110,000 spectators, ratified his stature among Italy’s premier rock figures. The same year saw publication of his debut short-story collection Fuori e Dentro il Borgo and the live album Su e Giù da un Palco; in 1998 he made his directorial debut with Radiofreccia, earning both the David di Donatello and Nastro d’Argento awards for Best New Director while also scoring the soundtrack. In 1999 he joined Jovanotti and Piero Pelù of Litfiba for the charity single “Il Mio Nome è Mai Più.” Miss Mondo appeared in 2002, featuring the soundtrack cut “Questa è la Mia Vita” from his second film Dazeroadieci and the Festivalbar-winning track “Eri Bellissima.” The 2003 theatrical tour, augmented by PFM’s Mauro Pagani and Almamegretta’s Stefano “D.RaD” Facchielli, was captured on the live set Giro d’Italia.

Ligabue’s novel La Neve Se Ne Frega reached bookstores in 2004, and Teramo University conferred upon him an honorary degree in communication sciences. Days before Nome e Cognome appeared in September 2005, he mounted a massive Campovolo festival near Reggio Emilia’s airport that drew 180,000 paying spectators—the largest single-artist audience recorded in Europe at that time. The five-DVD package Nome e Cognome Tour 2006 followed in 2006, while the single “Happy Hour” again triumphed at Festivalbar. That year Ligabue also contributed “Gli Ostacoli del Cuore” to Elisa’s retrospective Soundtrack ’96-’06 and issued the poetry volume Lettere d’Amore Nel Frigo. Primo Tempo, the first installment of a two-part anthology covering 1990–1995, surfaced in November 2007; Secondo Tempo, devoted to 1997–2005, was slated for May 2008.

In 2009 Ligabue performed “Domani 21/04.09” during a nationwide benefit for survivors of the central-Italian earthquake and released the orchestral live album Sette Notti in Arena. He further served on the jury of the 66th Venice Film Festival. Arrivederci, Mostro!, his ninth studio album, arrived in 2010 alongside a thirteen-date sold-out stadium tour. A documentary portrait, Niente Paura—Come Siamo, Come Eravamo e le Canzoni di Luciano Ligabue, premiered at that year’s Venice Film Festival. Another vast outdoor concert in Reggio Emilia in July 2011 attracted 120,000 fans and was preserved on Campovolo 2.011 plus a 3-D film screened in three hundred theaters. The second short-story collection, Il Rumore dei Baci a Vuoto, appeared in 2012, accompanied by the thirteen-disc DVD anthology LigaLive chronicling pivotal live performances.

Ligabue recorded and released his tenth studio album, Mondovisione, in 2013—a compact, politically charged hard-rock statement—then celebrated with five consecutive sold-out nights at Verona’s Arena. Giuseppe Antonelli’s extended interview book La Vita Non è in Rima (Per Quello Che Ne So) examined the songwriter’s intentions at length. Political and social concerns shaped the next project, the concept album Made in Italy, which debuted at number one in November 2016.