Time.news – “To be happy, one should rediscover the value of simplicity”. On World Happiness Day, an international anniversary established ten years ago by the United Nations, Al Bano Carrisi he clarified to Time.news that, despite 41 years having passed, he would not change “not a single iota” of ‘Felicità’, the song that came second at the 1982 Sanremo Festival which he sang all over the world with Romina Power:
“It’s eternal now.” If, according to Ipsos, Italy today is only 25th (out of 32) in the ranking of national happiness, to recover some positions Al Bano recommends focusing on the joy transmitted by the small, great gestures and elements of everyday life that he sang already in 1982: the “glass of wine with a sandwich”, the “holding hands” and also, he underlines, the happiness transmitted “by the water of the river”, by the “warmest ray of sunshine” and by the “rain that falls behind the curtains of the famous song. “Observing nature can give us a lot of joy, unfortunately we often forget about it and mistreat it”, he analyzes.
That piece written by Cristiano Minellono, Dario Farina and Gino De Stefano, 25 million copies sold worldwide, heard it for the first time, he says, in 1981: “I thought it was what was needed for Italy coming out of a terrible decade, the Red Brigades, the trains blowing up…”. He did not imagine that, perhaps due to an aspirational drive towards happiness, after the success in San Remo it would become an evergreen by popular acclaim: “Everyone sings it, it’s a song that has been around the world, I’ve even heard it sang by a child in Kazakhstan”.
But other than holding hands, a sandwich, and a glass of wine, what has been making him happy lately? “Having hosted four Ukrainian refugees at my house for a year, one of whom remained to live near Cellino San Marco – he explains – and also, with regard to the festival success of ‘Felicita’, the performance on stage at the latest edition , together with Gianni Morandi and Massimo Ranieri. That moment of union gave us an emotion that we managed to convey to the public. It was a great moment of individual and collective happiness”.
And Al Bano is sure to draw and instill joy also through the two concerts he will hold in Los Angeles in July together with the Iranian singer Fariman: “They will be dedicated to the Iranian people who are suffering a lot and who finally deserve some happiness”.