Lthe most awaited guest of second evening of Sanremo 2024 was Giovanni Allevi. Pianist, composer and conductor affected by myeloma which has limited his activity for two years. This one from Sanremo was his first public release.
Sanremo 2024, Giovanni Allevi guest of the second evening
«It will be something special, which goes beyond music», Amadeus had said about the presence of athletes at the festival. «It touches the heartstrings of a person who I admire not only musically speaking but also humanly».
«With his piano he has fascinated millions of fans in theaters around the world. Then suddenly an insidious illness forced him to abandon the stage to face his toughest battle.” Giovanni Allevi, 55 years old next April, discovered in 2022 that he was suffering from multiple myeloma.
The illness forced him to temporarily withdraw from the scene, but not from social media, where he spoke about his health conditions and updated his followers from time to time. «The battle is not yet completely won», underlined Amadeus, «but his passion and willpower overcome the suffering». So Giovanni Allevi returns to the stage of the Ariston Theater to play live. The first time he was a guest at the Festival dates back to 2015when he was invited by Carlo Conti and played Loving Youcontained in the album Love.
Allevi in Sanremo with a new song: Tomorrow
«I am deeply grateful for this invitation to Sanremo», commented Allevi immediately after Amadeus’ announcement. “Maybe What a thrill it will be to play the piano in front of an audience again», he continued. Instead, she revealed something about the performance during today’s short press conference, four hours before the show. «I will play the piano in front of an audience again after almost 2 years, due to the therapies».
Will there be a monologue? Not really, rather a speech, a reflection «on the very delicate topic of the disease that affects many of us». The song he will perform is called Tomorrowwhich I wrote while hospitalized. A tomorrow (tomorrow), therefore, which he sees as an expanded present“let’s say so”.
Giovanni Allevi. (Getty images)
He added of the speech at the Ariston that he will demonstrate how the disease made him discover a new dimension of life and things. He also realized that the music composed in his head was free music, suffering transformed into notes. «How beautiful that music and art are an opportunity to transform human fragility into an enveloping force».
The disease and how it is today
Giovanni Allevi is fighting against a tumor which affects a specific type of cells located in the bone marrow, called plasma cells and which begin to multiply out of control. He himself communicated the news through a post published on Instagram.
«I won’t beat around the bush. I discovered I have a sweet-sounding neoplasm: myeloma, but no less insidious“, he wrote. «My greatest anguish is the thought of causing pain to my family and to all the people who follow me with affection. I have always fought my inner dragons in concert with you, thanks to music. This time, forgive me, I will have to do it away from the stage.”
Thus he also announced a temporary retirement from the scene. Today, as he himself said, the battle is not over yet. The tumor has not gone away yet and Giovanni Allevi is fighting. He has the strength, however, to go on stage and return to enchant fans with the notes that made him known throughout the world.
Giovanni Allevi at Sanremo 2024, career and private life
Born in Ascoli Picenohe dedicated himself to music from an early age. In 1990 he graduated in piano at the Perugia Conservatory and noL 2001 in Milan in composition. Furthermore, he graduated in Philosophy. He was introduced into the discography by his childhood friend Saturnino Celani, Jovanotti’s bassist, and in 1997 he released his first album, entitled 13 Fingers.
In 2003, the second work, Compositionsfollowed by No concept And Joy. With the latter it sold over 200,000 copies and went platinum.
To date Giovanni Allevi has published 12 albums: the latest, Ecstasyin 2021. In the same year Kagoshima Prefecture awarded him the title of ambassador of Japanese culture. He is the first non-Japanese to achieve the recognition.
Regarding private life, Allevi is married to Nada Bernardo, also a pianist. Today she works as his manager and they have two children: Leonardo and Giorgio.
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