NoIt’s not the first time Russell Crowe appears on the Sanremo stage. It was 2001 when the Oscar-winning actor, fresh from the success of Gladiatorperformed with the band Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts at Ariston. Someone will remember him with the black studded jacket, the jeans, the dark glasses, the guitar slung over his shoulder and with the hoarse voice on the notes of Sail Those Same Oceans. That year Raffaella Carrà presented the festival and was the winner Light by Elisa.
More than twenty years have passed, and tonight on Rai 1 Gladiator” returns to Sanremo with the band The Gentlemen Barbers. Many things have changed: Russell Crowe he has acted in many other films, he is no longer a sex symbol and at the moment Ridley Scott finished a few months ago The gladiator 2sequel to the blockbuster in which, however, the actor does not act.
«What I remember from Sanremo back then», says Russell in the press conference, «it’s chaos, everything was quite crazy. I was very tired because I came from Milan where I had done something for Giorgio Armani, I was in the midst of the fame of the gladiator, and I arrived here, where they put a pair of Bono Vox-style sunglasses on me.”
Russell Crowe at Sanremo 2024. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)
Sanremo 2024: Russell Crowe sings a song
Crowe he shouldn’t end up like an actor pulp Fictioninvolved in a species Travoltagate after the unlikely dance of qua qua qua with Ama and Fiorello outside the Ariston. The “gladiator” will perform live with his band The Gentlemen Barbers.
For the Oscar-winning actor everything was born thanks to music. «My journey into cinema begins with playing, touring and releasing records – he has declared. This work led me to make musicals (Grease, Rocky Horror Show, Blood Brothers ed) and, miraculously, a director noticed me.” His first album came out when he was 17 years old, today he has been a performer for over 42 years.
From that moment his career began which led him to act in cult films such as Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, Insider – Behind the truth, Cinderella Man, State of Playetc.
With his band, tonight Russell will sing only one song in Sanremo: Let you light shine – current single that can be listened to on all platforms.
Russell Crowe’s Italian origins
Since he acted in it Gladiator Russell Crowe has a particular bond with Italy, and above all with Rome, where in 2022 he received an honor from Mayor Gualtieri for having done Ambassador of Rome to the world. The character of Maximus Decimus Meridio It marked his career forever and entered the hearts of audiences around the world. After more than twenty years Ridley Scott finally it was decided to shoot the sequel to that success.
Crowe also discovered that he is of Italian descent and precisely about Ascoli Piceno. Recently in a post on social media you wrote: «For some time now I have been searching for my Italian ancestors. But folkloristic family tales and writing errors sent me on the wrong trail. In the end, however, it turned out that the my great-great-great grandfather, on my maternal side, who arrived in New Zealand in 1864, was Luigi Ghezzi, born in 1829 in Ascoli Piceno, son of Agostino and Annunziata, born in Parma. Louis had gone to work in Argentina, sailed to India, was shipwrecked and ended up in Cape Town where he met and married Mary Ann Curtain. They emigrated to New Zealand.”
The discovery of my origins was a surprise. I have always had a great attraction with the country. Then when I grew up, when I came back, I explored every corner of it. It’s something huge. Also because, think about the contribution that this country has given to the world, culture in all its forms. Thinking about my childhood in New Zealand I would never have imagined having a connection with Italy.”
Would you live in Italy? Just today, he says that received honorary citizenship of Ascoli Piceno. «I asked the mayor how many castles receiving honorary citizenship entails. He told me 10, not a bad number.”
Russell Crowe’s summer tour in Italy
This summer Russel Crowe and his band will also perform in Italy. Here are the dates: Rome (June 23, Colosseum Archaeological Park, Temple of Venus), Pompeii (9 July, Amphitheater of the excavations), Ascoli Piceno (11 July), Piacenza (13 July, Palazzo Farnese), Varese (July 14, Estensi Gardens) e Bologna (July 16, Teatro Comunale Nouveau).
Crowe and The Gentlemen Barbers revisit some successes from the history of music through new arrangements. Relationships with the band date back 30 years.
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