Antonello Venditti was born in Rome, the son of a police commissary.
He studied piano in his youth and made his debut in the music world in the early 1970s at the Folkstudio of Rome, together with singers the like of Francesco De Gregori and Giorgio Lo Cascio. In duo with the former he released in 1972 his first LP, Theorius Campus. The LP scored little success, but Venditti at least made himself being noted for the strength of his vocal qualities and for his attention for social issues, evidenced by pieces like "Sora Rosa" which is sung in Roman dialect. Also in dialect was "Roma Capoccia", a declaration of love for his city, that later became one of his most famous songs. Curiously, Venditti refused to sing it for several years, as he considered it not politically or socially "engaged" enough.
Venditti subsequently moved to Milan and released L'orso bruno (1973), made in collaboration with musician Vince Tempera: this album included another song in dialect, "E Li Ponti So’ Soli", but for the rest was marked by an even stronger attention to social themes. His next work, Le cose della vita ("Things of Our Life"), released the same year for the colossus RCA Music, confirmed this tendency. The following LP Quando verrà Natale ("When Christmas Will Come") was similar; its even more naked arrangements emphasize the strength of Venditti's denunciation. After a live performance of the song "A Cristo" ("Hey, Christ"), he was denounced by an Italian Police officer for blasphemy: Venditti, however, was later totally acquitted.
Venditti's fortunes grew and peaked in 1975, with the LP Lilly: the yearning title-track was another strong accusation, this time against drugs, but it met an outstanding success anyway. Other famous pieces in the album were "Compagno di scuola" ("Schoolmate") and the long ballad "Lo Stambecco Ferito" ("The Wounded Steinbeck"), the story of a corrupted Northern Italy tycoon. Venditti continued to deal with front-page facts with the following LP, Ullalà (1976), whose "Canzone per Seveso" was about the eponymous industrial accident that happened in July of that year.
Political involvement, however, had side-effects on Venditti's inspiration in the late 1970s, marked in Italy by the growing menace of terrorism and by the strategia della tensione: some events (like the public booing of his friend De Gregori by politicized fans during a show) forced him to rethink his way of being a public personality. Sotto il segno dei Pesci ("(Born) Under the Pisces astrological sign", 1978) contained more personal and intimate themes. The eponymous track scored a great success, but was largely misinterpreted as a song about a woman: it instead referred to Venditti's career itself; he was effectively born "under the Pisces sign".
Success was however marred by his divorce to his wife Simona Izzo. She won custody of Venditti's son, Francesco Saverio. The following LP, Buona Domenica (1979), was highly marked by this difficult period. It contained anyway several classics, like the title-track and the ballad "Modena", which featured Gato Barbieri saxophone and is considered one of his finest works.
In 1982 the bitter Sotto la pioggia marked Venditti's passage to his own label, Heinz Music, and the beginning of the long-lasting collaboration with producer Alessandro Colombini. The following year A.S. Roma, his city's football team, won its long-awaited second scudetto: Venditti was therefore called in the official celebration show, and the song that he composed for the occasion, "Grazie Roma" ("Thank You Roma"), turned into a great success, surprisingly not confined to Rome's boundaries. Venditti had already composed several songs about his favourite soccer team: some criticized them harshly, mostly because of the strong contrast with the political-social themes of his other songs.
In following years, and notably in the 1990s, Venditti inspiration seemed to become more mainstream and commercial. His LPs (Cuore, In questo mondo di ladri, Benvenuti in Paradiso, Prendilo tu questo frutto amaro) were very successful, but his former themes were absent, or generally less stressed. Pieces like "Notte prima degli esami" or "Ma che bella giornata di sole" (about the Italian Liberation Day of September 1943) were anyway praised by critics. Among the songs of this period, "Dolce Enrico" was dedicated to the former leader of Partito Comunista Italiano, Enrico Berlinguer, dead in 1984.
Antonello nel Paese delle Meraviglie ("Antonello in Wonderland") of 1997 featured his greatest hits accompanied by the Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra of Sofia, directed by Renato Serio. Goodbye Novecento (1999) gave increasing attention to social and historical themes, but had a sub par success for Venditti's standards. In 2001 A.S. Roma won again a scudetto, and Venditti played again in a free concert in the Circo Massimo for an immense audience of tifosi and lovers of his songs. His latest studio release is Che fantastica storia è la vita ("What a Fantastic Story Is Life", October 2003). Gato Barbieri played with Venditti in this release. After resolved the difficulties in his friendship with Venditti, told in the latter's 1979 song "Scusa Francesco", "Sorry Francesco", De Gregori is also present as singer in "Io e mio fratello" ("Me and My Brother"). The album also contains a satire of Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi ("Il Sosia").
Venditti released the soundtrack for the 1985 movie Troppo forte by his friend, the Roman director Carlo Verdone. Verdone also played occasionally drums in Venditti's concertos.
Discography
* Bomba o non Bomba
* Theorius Campus (1972), with Francesco De Gregori under the collective byname of Theorius Campus)
* L'orso bruno (1973)
* Le cose della vita (1973)
* Quando verrà Natale (1974)
* Lilly (1975)
* Ullalà (1976)
* Sotto il segno dei pesci (1978)
* Buona domenica (1979)
* Sotto la pioggia (1982)
* Circo Massimo (1983, live)
* Cuore (1984)
* Centocittà (1985, live)
* Venditti e Segreti (1986)
* In questo mondo di ladri (1988)
* Gli anni ’80 (1990, collection)
* Benvenuti in Paradiso (1991)
* Da Sansiro a Samarcanda – L’amore insegna agli uomini (1992, live)
* Prendilo tu questo frutto amaro (1995)
* Antonello nel Paese delle Meraviglie (1997, live)
* Goodbye Novecento (1999)
* Se l'amore è amore... (2000, collection)
* Circo Massimo 2001 (2001, live)
* Il coraggio e l’amore (2002, collection)
* Che fantastica storia è la vita (2003)
* Campus Live (2005, live)
Giulia
Antonello Venditti Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Parla di uomini e donne come solo lei sa
E la camera è bassa
E la mano piano piano che scende
Trova la tua tenerezza e la sua verità
Giulia ci sa fare
Giulia è intelligente
Giulia ti accarezza
Giulia lotta insieme
Giulia parla anche per te, oh
È Giulia che ti tocca
È Giulia che ti porta via da me
Dove il cammino è deserto
E il deserto è confine
Calda la luce degli occhi ti guiderà
Mentre io dovrei essere il tuo o il suo giustiziere
Scopro la dolce vittoria della sua crudeltà
Giulia ci sa fare
Giulia è intelligente
Giulia è qualcosa di più
Giulia ti accarezza
Accarezza la tua mente
Giulia lotta anche per te
È Giulia che ti tocca
È Giulia che ti porta via da me
Perché lei è solo la mia vita
Lei è solo tutto il mondo
Lei è solo una gran parte di me
Lei è solo una bambina
Lei è solo troppo bella
Lei è solo troppo anche per te
Lei è solo un po' confusa
E ti prego non portarla via da me
Giulia oh Giulia
Giulia oh Giulia
Giulia oh Giulia
Giulia oh Giulia
Giulia oh Giulia
Giulia oh Giulia
Giulia oh Giulia
Giulia oh Giulia
The song "Giulia" by Antonello Venditti is a love letter to a woman named Giulia. The lyrics describe her as a smart and capable woman who has a way with words and can talk about relationships like no one else. The mood of the song is melancholic and contemplative as the singer watches Giulia from afar as she talks to other men.
In the first verse, Giulia is described wearing glasses and speaking about men and women in a way that is unique to her. The room around them is low-lit, and the singer watches as her hand slowly descends towards his tenderness, finding her own truth in the process. The second verse talks about the metaphorical desert where the singer is lost, and how Giulia's warm gaze guides him towards the light. Even though he should be the one protecting her, he discovers the bittersweet victory of her cruelty towards him.
Overall, the lyrics of "Giulia" are a meditation on unrequited love and admiration for a woman who is out of reach. The use of Giulia as a symbol of hope and light in the darkness is poignant and powerful, making the song a classic of Italian music.
Line by Line Meaning
Giulia gli occhiali sul naso che sfiora la mente
Giulia wears glasses that touch the mind
Parla di uomini e donne come solo lei sa
She talks about men and women like only she knows
E la camera è bassa
And the room is low
E la mano piano piano che scende
And the hand slowly descending
Trova la tua tenerezza e la sua verità
Finds your tenderness and her truth
Giulia ci sa fare
Giulia knows how to do it
Giulia è intelligente
Giulia is intelligent
Giulia è qualcosa di più
Giulia is something more
Giulia ti accarezza
Giulia caresses you
Giulia lotta insieme
Giulia fights together
Giulia parla anche per te, oh
Giulia also speaks for you, oh
È Giulia che ti tocca
It's Giulia who touches you
È Giulia che ti porta via da me
It's Giulia who takes you away from me
Dove il cammino è deserto
Where the path is desert
E il deserto è confine
And the desert is the border
Calda la luce degli occhi ti guiderà
Warm light from her eyes will guide you
Mentre io dovrei essere il tuo o il suo giustiziere
While I should be your or her avenger
Scopro la dolce vittoria della sua crudeltà
I discover the sweet victory of her cruelty
Accarezza la tua mente
She caresses your mind
Perché lei è solo la mia vita
Because she is only my life
Lei è solo tutto il mondo
She is everything in the world
Lei è solo una gran parte di me
She is only a big part of me
Lei è solo una bambina
She is only a child
Lei è solo troppo bella
She is only too beautiful
Lei è solo troppo anche per te
She is simply too much for you
Lei è solo un po' confusa
She is only a little confused
E ti prego non portarla via da me
And I beg you, don't take her away from me
Giulia oh Giulia
Giulia, oh Giulia
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Antonello Venditti
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@stefanomonaco439
Questo venditti era inavvicinabile irraggiungibile. Poesia allo stato puro.
@enricopallottini5372
E p vero
@adrianarota2720
Pezzo unico, neppure lo stesso Venditti oggi, non saprebbe scriverne un altro come questo. Appunto UNICO! ❤
@serafinoricciardi5321
Giulia un nome che adoro, imposto alla mia povera bambina, volata in cielo dopo soli 2 giorni, oggi avrebbe 28 anni, ciao , amore mio, il tuo papà, grazie antonello x queste emozioni.
@SabrinaPietrangeliLifeCoach
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
@luigiformicola5443
Serafino ci hai fatti commuovere tutti
@Laziale100x100
😔
@gianniciocio954
❤️❤️❤️❤️
@MattoDiRabb
Un abbraccio sincero Serafino ❤
@famasoft
A mio avviso una delle più belle canzoni di Venditti. Anche dopo 50 anni, riascoltandola, mi procura ancora i brividi.