#veruska

𖦹 guess who's back? may is here! purple core! ☆

Meanwhile at Sanremo. It's not been a vintage year at the Ariston Theatre. There are so many relatively unknown names that it failed to attract it's usual audience. The TV ratings for the show have been falling and this year, they're the lowest yet.

However there are some bright points even if the names haven't got the longest pedigree in the Italian music industry. Take Veruska Pieroni. She was discovered and encouraged by actress and record producer Claudia Mori. She's had four singles out on a variety of labels over the previous four years and a debut album in 2002 that was debuted at the penultimate ever Un Disco per l'Estate. Her second album is due out later in 2004 and this time she's managed to get an upgrade to Sanremo to promote it. The song she's sent to Sanremo is the title track - Un angelo legato a un palo (An Angel Tied to a Pole).

That does sound like a particularly strained metaphor, yet the story behind it is tragic. For the first verse and a half, she and her partner are happy together. Their love lets Veruska soar even if she thought he was a bit dumb at first. But then there's an explosion. A bomb. I'm unsure if this is a figurative bomb or a real one - it certainly put all the doves to flight. Whatever happened was sudden and he is no longer there, nor will he ever be again.

She puts a whole bunch of feeling and strength into her vocal as the orchestra swells to the crescendo of the choruses - she has to compete with most of the string section as well as the more conventional rock band instrumentation, but her voice can cope well and she's not overwhelmed. I feel that as the song closes, it could easily have gone on for another couple of minute with more of a coda. It's vocal melodrama.

I don't know why this strikes such a chord with me. Of all the songs this year at Sanremo, why is it this one that I love so much? I'm still trying to work it out. I think I may be alone here.

She didn't do great. Even in this weak year, Veruska could only finish eighteenth of the twenty-two songs. The album was released to presumably little success, and then she just disappears. All the biographical information for Veruska just ends with the release of her 2004 album, but there is one tantalising possibility.