Jalisse out of Sanremo for the 25th year in a row after winning 1997 with Rivers of words: because? We asked them
It is impossible to talk about Sanremo without talking about the Jalisse, this year more than ever. In the list of the big names selected for the 2022 edition unveiled by Amadeus, the historic duo composed of Alessandra Drusian and Fabio Ricci does not appear.
The umpteenth disappointment (the twenty-fifth, to be exact) that the winners of the 1997 Festival have now learned to take philosophically, without however ceasing to wonder the reason for this ostracism. We also asked ourselves to affaritaliani.it and we talked about it directly with the protagonists, Alessandra and Fabio.
From 4 December the “Jalisse case” exploded on social media and many pages unexpectedly talk about you, like Taste of Evil The Father Pio (not the real one but the “from Pietrelcina” one). Are you surprised at this support from the younger generations who, paradoxically, should know you less?
F Among the detractors, many label us as “past”, part of an old path, but we know we have the love and esteem of many young people, there are also Facebook and Instagram fan pages born spontaneously. When Alessandra did Such and what show was overwhelmed by the affection of many: in addition to finding our public of ’97 also many young people who discovered us.
A Perhaps we have conquered them precisely because they do not know our past and only see our present.
Speaking of your past, how did you get there after 25 years of exclusion from Sanremo?
A We can’t figure it out. Don’t like our lyrics? Our music? Don’t like us? Or maybe we broke so much the boxes in ’97 that we still serve this sentence?
F We do not know. At first we got more angry, we did not accept this exclusion, but then we continued to make music and chose to speak through music, with our projects with the Moltalcini Foundation, in schools, with the Mike Bongiorno Foundation for prisoners of San Vittore… We responded by working on the pitch, with less visibility but always with music. We love and respect Sanremo because we were born there, then there was Eurovision, when Rai still didn’t consider it, where we finished fourth. So why this wickedness? We do not know.
Someone speculates a conspiracy.
F A lot has been said, many have written about it, there is the book by Gigi Vesigna, the interviews of the jurors present at our vote, and still there are people who say that we should not have won that Festival. But if there were the votes of the public on our side … it means not accepting the democracy of the vote. The song is a popular hit. Yet for 25 years we haven’t had the visibility to promote the hundreds of songs we’ve composed, which for an independent label is essential. We are not alone Rivers of words.
And if, as the book of Vesigna suggests, you have really unhinged a system based on winners decided a priori?
F We never knew. When Vesigna presented this book to the press in 2010, I was stunned and asked him why he hadn’t told us before, but he glossed over it, remained vague… in short, we never found out. Certainly every year we present our songs at the Festival and they are not accepted.
And how does it work? Are you notified first if you have been chosen or not?
A No, we find out from TV, from newspapers, like everyone else.
F Last year, it was December 18th, Amadeus announced the big names on TV, while Alessandra and I were on the sofa at home watching: all the artists called were already present in the studio. So we already knew we were going to stay out.
And in 25 years no one has ever shown up to explain the reason for this ostracism?
F Nobody. We are waiting to know what we are wrong, what is not working. There are those who say that the majors impose their own artists, that the great managers do not like Jalisse, everything can only be said halfway, journalists speak up to a certain point … but they are always hypotheses. We want certainties. But we like the idea of being able to give an example to young people, to our daughters first of all: guys, don’t give up, especially when it comes to work. Music is a job: the visibility of Sanremo would have been useful, behind us there are 15 families who make a living from this.
Yet the exclusion from Sanremo brings you visibility, everyone is talking about the Jalisse.
A There is talk of the Jalisse, but we would like the music of the Jalisse to be heard.
F Indeed, we talk too much about the Jalisses, it’s time to listen. We do not go to Sanremo but in Sanremo we talk about the Jalisse. Fedez and Michielin quoted us with a cover in the evening duets of the last edition and they were exceptional, but others treat us as the ghost of the Festival, even though we exist in flesh and blood. There are fake journalists who shoot at zero without knowing what they are talking about, bad guys who allow themselves to make inferences and lies, when it would be enough to inform themselves. We are here, a husband and a wife, a father and a mother, and we work making music, like any other craftsman. We don’t like the motto: “For better or for worse as long as we talk about it”. Instead of saying bad things, it would be better not to talk and listen to our music. Rivers of words was it ugly? However you think about it, 25 years have passed, we have done a lot more.
A Even in ’97, after the victory, the first thing the journalists asked us was if we were a couple in life too: we talked about everything except work and music, and today we are still there. But thanks to social media we are able to get to know each other better, we too have changed: at the time we were young, now we are more open, more experienced.
Let’s talk about this: who are the Jalissas today?
A Soldiers fighting on the front lines, without weapons but with smiles. We are working on a new album, we released another one last year with a song dedicated to our grandparents that we lost to Covid, and of which Mattarella also wrote us to have a copy. We also promote the docufilm The charm and the delight so we took care of the soundtrack with the song Don’t be afraid to call it love. And we hope to be back on the stages soon because the real emotion from the public can only be felt with the live shows: if there is to be a restart, let it be for everyone, not just for a few.
F And starting from the emotions in this period of confusion, difficulty and wickedness, also due to the Covid emergency, is the right way, rediscovering the true values … things we talk about in the passage we have nominated for Sanremo (you can read the text by clicking here, ed), by title This is exactly what we lack.
Since we are back on the subject, I ask you: who will you cheer for in Sanremo?
A You can say? For the Rector, who is Venetian like me, a tough woman, as well as Zanicchi, two extraordinary artists.