(by Alessandra Magliaro)
The setlist doesn't exist yet —
"I'll draw blindfolded from my most famous titles" — but
the date is already set: June 21, 2027. On that day,
Nino D'Angelo turns 70 and takes over the entire Maradona
Stadium for a self-tribute "that will be a way to thank the
city and myself. Many people will come to join me on stage, and
I hope my entire extended family will be there too." Nino D'Angelo is a wellspring of stories; he'll be turning 70 but has already lived many lives, as the film directed by his son Toni, Nino 18 giorni, presented to great success at the last Venice Film Festival, made clear. By his side is his wife Annamaria, whom he kisses affectionately — there too is a story to tell. "At 17 I nearly lost my way, nearly did the wrong things; my father wanted to beat me, a stranger stepped in, defended me and gave me a great life lesson, but at his house I was struck by lightning by his daughter — she was 11 years old. We eloped, ran away, she got pregnant, they wanted to kill us both, but we are inseparable; we are celebrating 47 years of marriage and she has always been my strength," he recounts in an interview with ANSA, as a prize guest at the Marateale 2026. D'Angelo's biography is more than a novel: he grew up with 5 siblings in San Pietro a Patierno on the outskirts of Naples, with a father who had emigrated for work. "Real poverty, that's what I experienced. A real periphery and an empty fridge. At the table, the first course was ignorance — my parents had a second- or third-grade education; with my middle school diploma I was the intellectual of the family, it was my job to read the utility bills. I have great respect for that childhood of mine and for those hardships; they are my roots, that's where I started." Before the Nino of 'Nu jeans e 'na maglietta, there was the Nino beloved in Palermo, of the 45rpm single 'A storia mia, 'O scippo, of the theatre engagement that was supposed to last two days and instead ran for 18 in an endless sceneggiata, while back in Naples his first son Toni was being born. "I was a wedding singer — I did dozens of them. With the jeans and the T-shirt, and the accompanying box office hit film, I made my national breakthrough; people outside Naples and Palermo got to know me." For years, from the late 1970s through the '80s, during his years of greatest popular success, "I was the idol of the bootleggers. I am a miracle of the bootleggers: out of every 10 records sold, only 1 was an original. I even found out that my own father was copying cassettes and selling them — unbelievable — he used to ask me to give him an advance copy of the record before it came out; I didn't even have distribution," he recounts as though it were an episode from Sidney Sibilia's film Mixed by Erri. "I'm an admirer of that Nino, who found success but suffered so much and knew how to be reborn. I did no promotion; my success came through pirate radio stations, the radio stations in apartment buildings. They wouldn't put me in the charts because they said I didn't show up, since so much of my success was based on pirated cassettes. And it hurt me — my idol was Francesco De Gregori, I was selling as much as him but I was invisible; I was the embodiment of all the invisible people." Then, at a certain point, depression came too — "I had suffered too many injustices." Amid his success in Italy, his concerts in Argentina, in Brazil, there came at a certain point a festival in Romania, as important as Sanremo: "Peter Gabriel and I were on the same bill — incredible to say. With 4 chords he could do anything; he became one of my idols, and from that point I changed, things got better for me, I found the road to
world music". Does he go back to Naples? "After the Camorra shootings in the '80s, bullets that hit my house, we moved to Rome, I've been living in the Capital since then, but I still have my house in Naples and I'm happy to go back there". Is he still enjoying himself? "I was convinced to make a summer song – me, who can barely stand duets – but at Pino Daniele's last concert I was there with him, editor's note – and I'm happy about it: with Rovazzi and Arisa we made a summer hit, La Costiera Amalfitana, very ironic". At the Marateale he walks through crowds of fans and even under security protection – after all these years, how does he experience popular success? "Like a drug, hard to manage, but without it I'd be desperate. I'm self-made, I feel I deserve this affection".
Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA
