Unmistakable voice of Italian music, Fausto Leali was among the guests of Filming Italy Los Angeles, the festival directed and organized by Tiziana Rocca, where he received a career award for the artistic contribution and dissemination of Italian music in the world. A recognition that celebrates over sixty years of success, from the beginnings influenced by the international soul to the great classics that marked the history of the Italian song.
Welcome to Los Angeles. How are these early hours going and what is your relationship with this city today?
I had been there a long time ago, so I find it very different. I’ve been shooting a lot these days and I’m rediscovering it.
Get here an important career award. What does that mean to you?
I’m very proud. I’m glad Tiziana involved me this time in such a wonderful situation. I was already his guest in Sardinia, in a wonderful evening of which I preserve a beautiful memory, and I hope that even here we repeat something equally special.
Let’s take a step back to the beginning: your band playing the Beatles, until they get to open their concerts. What do you remember?
It all happened very quickly. We shared three dates – Milan, Genoa and Rome – and then, after the evening of Genoa, we all started together with a night charter flight to Rome. I could have taken advantage of it to take pictures with them, but I was a shy boy and I didn’t move. But a photo with the Beatles I have, and it is a precious memory.
You have always looked at international music, especially soul and rhythm & blues.
Yes, since very young. The first songs I sang were Ray Charles and James Brown, I was seventeen or eighteen years old. Those influences have formed me deeply.
Among your great achievements, To whom has marked a decisive turning point.
Absolutely. It’s the song that opened the most important door. When we recorded it with my band, the Novelty, along with other songs, did not imagine what would happen. Then the audience reacted tremendously and I realized it was becoming a great success, an evergreen.
And then the triumph in Sanremo with Anna Oxa.
Another beautiful moment. At that time we were in the same record company and we shared the same manager, so we often saw each other and a great friendship was born. Anna also gave my son Francis a baptism: a human bond that I remember with great affection.
Future projects?
He smiles a bit about projects at eighty years, but I actually keep doing it. I like to work, go around, do concerts with my group. As long as I have the strength to do so, I will gladly continue: I do not like to stand still without doing anything.
L’articolo Fausto Leali a Filming Italy Los Angeles: “Music is my strength, as long as I can continue to sing” comes from IlNewyorkese.
