Tiziano International

The years passed, I’d written other little “spontaneous” songs and the second album was born a little by itself: I think “Centoundici” is my most instinctive album. The songs came out during a flow of consciousness, the inspiration didn’t stem itself. So it was in 2003 that I found myself with a bunch of songs ready: they were there, and even though I hadn’t done anything other than follow the creative impulse, I was happy and satisfied.

But one thing hadn’t come back.

Where was that little song born on Easter Sunday three years ago? I realized that the development of the new album had followed its own specific course and that my way of looking at the world had changed since 2000, but for me there was no way: I needed to include the missing song… and like that it happened.

“Centoundici” started well, selling 100,000 copies in a month and even more in the following period, thanks to “Sere nere”. At that point, the plan called for the release of a third single which, according to the record label, would have to be “In bagno in aeroporto”: the summer was approaching and they needed a fresh, fast song.

I had many sleepless nights. I didn’t know how to say it, or WHO to start saying it to: to me, the single to release was another one.

But we came from a slow and dramatic single, releasing another ballad - especially with the summer outside - would be considered an error, a real commercial suicide.

I didn’t know what to do.

As usual, the instinct prevailed and the resolve was rewarded.

I was in Madrid for promotion, when I decided in a definitive matter that the plans had to change, and also the course of the singles. It was a rainy day and I moved from radio station to another with a tormented brain, I couldn’t think of anything else. At that point, a telephone call.

It was Fabrizio Giannini, then artistic director at EMI: he wanted to talk to me. 

I don’t know how, I don’t know why, but my mind started to travel at three hundred miles an hour and, without giving Giannini the time to say even half a word, I cut him off: “I know what you want to say and I agree.”

Flabbergasted, he replies: “Huh? What do you mean? In what sense do you agree? With what?”

And I, dryly: “The next single is not ‘In bagno in aeroporto’”.

The rest is, as they say, history.

Why did we ever wait so long to give space to a song that would later turn out to be so important for me and for my career?

It’s just a matter of saying: “Non me lo so spiegare”! [I can’t figure it out!]