She won first prize at the "Diano Marina-Jazz Festival", which was directed by Jazz composer Giorgio Gaslini. Around this time, she also attended a three-year course in singing at the Vienna Conservatory.
Between 1983 and 1987 she worked with artists such as saxophonist Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Sunnyland Slim and Champion Jack Dupree, both in the recording studio and in concerts. She attended singing seminars with artists such as Bobby McFerrin and Sheila Jordan during the same period.
Chance encounters with producers from the Pop music scene led to cooperations such the recording of the Paul McCartney song "Oh Darling", which Etta adapted with Italian lyrics. This song immediately shot to No. 1 in the Austrian charts.
In the 1990s she was busy in Hamburg where she, along with the musical Ensemble L'art pour l'Art (see also Palimpsest by H. J. Hespos), undertook experiments with contemporary music. She composed film scores – for example Come la pioggia for the film "Für immer und immer" (for ever and ever) by Hark Bohm and "I tuoi fiori" for the film "Bad Guy" by Korean director Kim Ki-Duk. Due to her musical tours and her albums Blu, Il bianco del tempo (Orbit Rec.) and Casa (Mongebel), she is one of the most popular Italian artists in Germany today.
Resident in Berlin und Sicily, she is currently devoting herself to composing and to exploring traditional music.
The success of her Canta Ro' symphonic concerts, which were performed as part of the Palermo summer Festival in July 2004 featuring Etta Scollo and the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, conducted by Angelo Faja, has confirmed the contemporary relevance of Sicily's traditional music, which until then was known only to a limited audience.
The live recording of this project was awarded the «deutschen Schallplatten KritikerPreis 2005» and together with Canta Ro' in Trio won the RUTH-Preis 2007.
Around the same time, she went on tour with Les Siciliens, a performance documenting the dreams and reality, history and myths of her native island. From this, a live album was produced. In addition, she gave a concert together with Franco Scaldati und Enrico Stassi, La mia vita vorrei scriverla cantando – omaggio a Ignazio Buttita.
For the "Festival delle Orestiadi" in Gibellina ,she composed Il fiore splendente (Edel Classic), a poetical-musical project drawn from an anthology of Arabian poets in Sicily, published by Francesca M. Corrao.
The resulting CD was released in September 2008.
The project has been enriched by the much appreciated contribution of several outstanding figures of the international music scene, including Maestro Franco Battiato, cellist and composer Giovanni Sollima, Nabil Salameh, singer and leader of the multicultural band Radiodervish, the composer and Trumpet player Markus Stockhausen, the soprano Cécile Kempenaers and the actor and singer-songwriter Alain Croubalian. Il fiore splendente is also published in Italy (Edel Italia) France (Integral Classic) and USA (Allegro).
Come La Pioggia
Etta Scollo Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Un velo sulla realtà,
E resta un sogno che ora tu
Racconti come verità,
O madre mia,
Sai chi sono e chi non sono, eppure...
O madre mia,
(quel che sento potrai mai capire?)
Come la pioggia parli tu:
Parole come lacrime
Ma
Nel sorriso tutto tu
Nascondi per non credere.
O madre mia,
Quante volte abbiam parlato, eppure...
O madre mia,
Quel che dico tu non vuoi sentire.
Come la pioggia andiamo via
Col nostro affetto fragile,
E lo innalziamo a poesia
Quando amare è difficile.
O madre mia
Più ti guardo e più ti vedo in me,
O madre mia,
Non lasciar cadere questo velo in me.
The song "Come La Pioggia" by Etta Scollo is a powerful and emotional ballad that explores the nature of truth and reality. The opening lines of the song, "Come la pioggia cade giù / Un velo sulla realtà," which translates to "Like the rain falls down / A veil over reality," set the tone for the song's contemplation of the blurred lines between what is real and what is perceived.
Throughout the song, Scollo addresses her mother, using the familiar Italian term "madre mia." She speaks of the difficulty of communicating the depth of her emotions and experiences, asking her mother, "Quel che sento potrai mai capire?" ("Could you ever understand what I feel?") She also touches on the idea of hiding one's true feelings behind a smile or a facade, singing "Nel sorriso tutto tu / Nascondi per non credere" ("In your smile, you hide everything / So as not to believe").
As the song progresses, it becomes clear that Scollo is grappling with the challenges of love and relationships. She sings of fragile emotions and the difficulty of expressing oneself when loving someone is hard, saying "Come la pioggia andiamo via / Col nostro affetto fragile / E lo innalziamo a poesia / Quando amare è difficile" ("Like the rain, we go away / With our fragile affection / And we elevate it to poetry / When love is hard").
Overall, "Come La Pioggia" is a poignant and thoughtful reflection on the complexities of human emotion and connection.
Line by Line Meaning
Come la pioggia cade giù
Like rain falling down
Un velo sulla realtà,
A veil on reality
E resta un sogno che ora tu
And it remains a dream that you
Racconti come verità,
Tell like it's truth
O madre mia,
Oh my mother
Sai chi sono e chi non sono, eppure...
You know who I am and who I'm not, yet...
O madre mia,
Oh my mother
(quel che sento potrai mai capire?)
(will you ever understand what I feel?)
Come la pioggia parli tu:
Like the rain, you speak
Parole come lacrime
Words like tears
Ma
But
Nel sorriso tutto tu
In your smile, you
Nascondi per non credere.
Hide to not believe.
O madre mia,
Oh my mother
Quante volte abbiam parlato, eppure...
How many times we've talked, yet...
O madre mia,
Oh my mother
Quel che dico tu non vuoi sentire.
You don't want to hear what I say.
Come la pioggia andiamo via
Like the rain, we go away
Col nostro affetto fragile,
With our fragile love
E lo innalziamo a poesia
And we raise it to poetry
Quando amare è difficile.
When loving is difficult.
O madre mia
Oh my mother
Più ti guardo e più ti vedo in me,
The more I look at you, the more I see myself in you
O madre mia,
Oh my mother
Non lasciar cadere questo velo in me.
Don't let this veil fall on me.
Contributed by Parker S. Suggest a correction in the comments below.