Turin, August 21 (LaPresse) – The Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani pays tribute to Rino Gaetano, the brilliant Italian singer-songwriter known for his paradoxical style and apparent nonsense in his lyrics. Born in Crotone in 1950 and artistically raised in the suburbs of Rome, Rino was a self-taught artist who combined musical experimentation with theatrical performance. His career took off in 1975 with the single Ma il cielo è sempre più blu, followed by hits like Mio fratello è figlio unico (1976) and the album Aida (1977), works that mocked institutional language and addressed social issues with irony and lightness.
Gaetano is remembered as the first "proletarian" singer-songwriter in the Pasolini sense of the term. His approach, akin to the paradoxes of Carmelo Bene, led some to underestimate him. For instance, Maurizio Costanzo introduced him to Susanna Agnelli as a writer of "ironic little songs", but he was later recognized by figures like Enzo Siciliano, who interviewed him in 1978, and Gino Paoli, who saw him as heir to nonsense and surrealism. Antonello Venditti was also very close to him.
On September 1, 1978, he released Nuntereggae più, the album that marked his definitive success, offering a sharp yet disenchanted view of Italy’s political and social scene. That same year, he took third place at the Sanremo Festival with Gianna. His career was cut short by a car accident in Rome on June 2, 1981.
After a period of relative obscurity, his popularity resurged in the 2000s, thanks to tribute concerts, exhibitions, unreleased material, and the attention of new generations. Today, Rino Gaetano is celebrated as a unique, free voice, capable of exposing Italy’s contradictions with wit, depth, and without rhetoric.