Some news on the Music Village Blues Night in Modena on July 22: Zucchero will be performing with "his" Lisa Hunt and Polo Jones and on top of that Macy Gray will also appear. Other artists should be added soon.
Solomon Burke & Van Morrison/ ZU & Co June 25, 2004
Zucchero's official site claims that Zucchero will not only perfrom with Solomon Burke in Montreux (playing Diavolo in me) but will also perform a tribute to recently deceased jazz/blues/soul-legend Ray Charles with Van Morrison (who is also performing during the evening). Tickets are available through this website.
And some Zu & Co news: Zucch's duet album will be released in Japan on july 21st, it looks like the album will just have the normal (International) tracklist so no extra bonustracks, but if you're interested this website. The release of the Australian version has been delayed untill july 19 (thanks Mark!) and will include "Ahum" with Tina Arena (instead of Cosi Celeste with Cheb Mami). Right now it's not clear when the album will be released in the US, so for you Americans out there; import :).
Solomon Burke/Zucchero in the charts / Vacation June 23, 2004
Zucchero will perform together with Solomon Burke at the Montreux Jazz Festival this year. The king of soul mentioned this in an interview with Swiss newspaper Le Matin. Zucchero (crowned "The prince of soul" by Burke)and Burke will perform Zucchero's "Diavolo in me" together during a july 9 show in Montreaux's Stravinsky auditorium. Van Morrison and Patti Labelle will also perform during the same concert. Tickets are still availble (but seem to be selling out fast) on this website.
Meanwhile, Zu & Co is still going strong throughout Europe; with a pretty impressive 4th place in Germany, two 2nd's in Switzerland and Austria and nr. 1 in Italy. Here are the chart positions throughout Europe:
We're still waiting for this weeks chart info on France and Greece.
And since our vacation is starting around now, probably not too many updates in the next few weeks (that is unless really interesting things start happening, ya never know!).
46664 Latino/German TV show/ Updated Zucchero in the charts June 16, 2004
After the success of the first 46664 concert in Cape Town, South Africa last year (with performances by, among others, Beyonce, Anastacia, Bono and the Edge, Peter Gabriel, Queen, the Eurythmics and of course Zucchero) now a Latin version will take place in Spain this summer and Zucchero is one of the artists performing! Other artists confirmed so far include Queen, Dave Stewart, Montserrat Caball$B!&(B Chayanne, Joaquin Cortes and loads of other Spanish or South American artists. Proceeds will go, as with the first show, to the Nelson Mandela foundation and will be used to fight AIDS. The show will take place on august 21st in the Les Foietes Stadium in Benidorm, Spain. No information is in yet on where to get tickets but as soon as we hear about it, we'll post it here.
Zucchero's official site reports that Zucchero has just returned from recording a part for the German tv show Deutschland's Champions where he played Il Volo (The Flight) together with Ronan Keating. According to Polydor.de the show will be shown on German tv channel ZDF on august 7th at 20:15 CET.
And here's the updated version of this weeks Zucchero in the charts:
Italy: 1 (last week 2)
Switzerland: 2 (last week 1)
Austria: 1 (last week 2)
Germany: 10 (last week 9)
Belgium: 26 (last week 29)
Greece: 37 (last week 45)
Netherlands: 39 (last week 49)
Spain: 44 (last week 42)
France: 48 (last week 98)
Media update / Ray Charles June 11, 2004
Quick media update: don't forget to watch the 2nd part of the Ritratti D'Autore special about Zucchero this saturday on RAI 1. Last weeks episode was about the making of Zu & Co, this weeks episode is all about the RAH show with some backstage material too! The show starts at 15:55 CET (so not 16:30 like last week).
Also tomorrow RAI 2 radio will broadcast part 1 of the RAH concert (part 2 following next week on the 19th). The show, Hit Parade Live Show..., will start at 17:00 CET and will last for one hour. You can listen online on this website (click on Ascolta Radio 2 in the top of your screen).
The section Musica of Italian newspaper La Repubblica is all about Zucchero and his friends with a cover made up of images taken from the cartoon videoclip to Il Grande Baboomba.
Our friends from Cranberries fansite Zombieguide have uploaded a few Italian music mag articles about Zu & Co and the Royal Albert Hall concert (check them out here and here ) as well as a short interview with Dolores O Riordan before the Festivalbar performance ( check it out here )
And finally some sad news: legendary blues pianist and singer Ray Charles died at his Los Angeles home last night. Zucchero and Ray Charles worked together live several times, among other performing "Come il sole all'improvviso" together and a sample of the Charles classic "What I'd Say" has been used in the Shake song "Porca L'Oca". Zucchero said about Charles in La Repubblica this morning; "Ray has been fundamental to all those that have come after him, from Joe Cocker to Eric Clapton. Without him I wouldn't have been here".
Zucchero in the charts/ Media update June 09, 2004
Zu & Co is still doing fine throughout Europe! These are the chartpositions we know of so far with behind them the listings for the week(s) before:
Some cool media updates: you can listen to the live version of Ahum with Tina Arena during the RAH concert here (right click and press Save Target) (Thanks to Karen!!). The Zombieguide people put the Festivalbar performance of Zucchero and Dolores O'Riordan online and you can watch it here
French/Italian/German tv and radio / Zucchero in the charts/ Aloha article/ Tour dates May 29, 2004
A few quick updates on Zucchero's appeareances on TV shows for the coming week(s): on June 5 and 12 a 2 part documentary will be shown on RAI 1 about Zucchero and his duets, on both dates the tv show (called Ritratti D'Autore) starts at 4.30 in the afternoon (CET). On Saturday june 5th Zucchero will be part of a tv show memorating D-Day in France. The show will be shown on France 2 and starts at 8:50 in the evening (CET) and Zucchero will most likely perform Il Volo or Wonderful World (Thanks to Karine for the news!).
On monday may 31 and monday june 28 German radiostation NDR 2 will broadcast the Royal Albert Hall concert. This monday they will play, amongst others, Dune Mosse, Everybody's got to learn sometime (with Jenny Bae), Like the sun (with Irene Fornaciari), Miserere (with Pavarotti), I'm in trouble (with Tina Arena), Baila (with Fher) and Senza una Donna (with Paul Young). It's possible to listen online by clicking on Live H$B‹S(Ben on this site. On both days broadcasting starts at 9:00 in the evening (CET).
During this years Festivalbar Zucchero can be seen on June 1, 8, 23, 29, July 6, 13, 20, 27, and September 21 and 22. The first two sessions are being recorded tonight in Milan and Zucchero will perform both Il Grande Baboomba (nr. 9 in the singles chart) but also Pure Love together with Dolores O'Riordan. Festivalbar is shown on ITALIA 2.
And here is the updated chart info for Zu & Co so far:
Italy: nr. 1
Switzerland: nr. 1
Austria: nr. 2
Germany: nr. 9
Spain: nr. 31
the Netherlands: nr.76
Since Zu & Co will go on sale in France this week (in a different version including duets with Johnny Hallyday and Tina Arena) we expect some chart info from there next week.
Dutch music mag Aloha has a big article on Zucchero in it's latest issue; 4 pages including an interview with Zucch, a report on the RAH concert and loads of pictures. We'll put the article online in English within a few weeks.
And finally: some changes in the tourdates; the Spanish dates have been switched around, a date in Slovenia and another date in Austria has been added, Zucchero has pulled out of the Aix En Provence Festival and the Voix Du Gaou Festival, both in France. For the entire schedule see the Tour section.
Rockdoc on RAi uno/ Festivalbar with Dolores O'Riordan May 27, 2004
On june 5th and 12th the two parts of a documentary on Zucchero's carreer and his duets with a bunch of famous people (including people on Zu & Co of course) and behind the scenes images will be broadcast on RAI 1 in the Ritratti D'Autore show (at 4.30 in the afternoon local time). Don't miss it!
Zucchero will be performing during the yearly Festivalbar tv shows; Il grande baboomba has been selected as the theme song of this year and he will be performing during a lot of the shows (for the entire list see Zucch's official site). On june 1st he will perform in Milan Il grande baboomba and Puro Amore with Dolores O Riordan!
ZU & Co hits Europe May 25, 2004
Throughout Europe the first album charts are coming in since the release of Zucchero's new album Zu & Co and the results are pretty impressive:
Italy: nr. 1 (out of nowhere)
Switzerland: nr. 1 (out of nowhere)
Germany: nr. 9
Netherlands: nr. 76 (which is impressive considering the fact Universal Music the Netherlands is doing everything it can to not make this album sell)
More charts from countries Zu & Co is expected to chart (Spain, Austria, Belgium) should come in within a few days.
ZU & Co enters Italian charts on nr. 1!/ RAH concert on radio May 24, 2004
Zucchero's brand new duetalbum entered the Italian album charts this week on nr. 1! So far no other charts are in yet but if the German Amazon site should be any indication Zu & Co should come up pretty high in Germany too; it's been in the top 10 since last friday.
And the RAH show of Zucchero and friends will be broadcast on German radiostation NDR2 in two sessions; on monday may 31st and monday june 28th, both starting at 21:00 local time (15:00 NYC time). You can listen online on this website (click on Live H$B‹S(Ben).
Zucchero goes bluesnight in Modena/ No other Italian tour dates this year May 21, 2004
Zucchero's official website has released the news that Zucchero will be performing during the Music Village festival in Modena on july 29. It will, however, not be a normal concert but a "Special blues night" with other (blues) artists. Besides that Zucchero will not perform in Italy this year, only Europe and the rest of the world.
We are the future/ BBC goes wild May 19, 2004
Here's a picture of Zucchero and Man$B!&(Bleadsinger Fher during the We Are The Future concert in Rome this sunday. Zucchero and Fher sang Baila together while Zucchero sang Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime and Wonderful World alone with band, you can check out the video online (see below).
And the BBC has gone a bit wild talking about an imaginary Olympics candidate. According to them the Olympics super team (including Louis XIV, Machiavelli and Nelson Mandela) also includes Zucchero;
"Barcelona had Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballe wailing like demented banshees; we have David Hasselhoff, Sting and Zucchero."
David Hasselhoff? For the entire article go to this website.
We are the future/ the violin saga continues May 17, 2004
Zucchero was one of the artists participating in sundays We Are The Future concert in Rome. He performed Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime, Wonderful World and Baila Morena with Maná's leadsinger Fher. Other performing artists included Santana, Herbie Hancock, Andrea Bocelli, Noa and of course the organiser of the event Quincy Jones. You can rewatch the entire concert online on Launch, Zucchero's performance is in hour 4 and starts aprox. 16 minutes into the video (right after the Norah Jones video).
And the violin-lady-saga continues! According to someone who sent us an e-mail it's clearly not Vanessa Mae and we should place a retraction, so here ya go! Latest I heard the girl playing violin during Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime at the Royal Albert Hall now might be a certain Jenny Bae but God only knows at this point.
ZU & Co out NOW! / We are the world May 15, 2004
Zucchero's long awaited duet album Zu & Co is out now!... that is in most countries; all the European countries where the album isn't going on sale this weekend will have to wait till monday and France and Australia will have to wait till june 1st. I've been able to pick a copy up yesterday and, although it took me some time to get used to the new versions, it rocks! My personal favourites so far include Dunne Mosse with Miles Davis, Muoio Per Te with Sting, Like the sun with Macy Gray and Jeff Beck, Pure Love with Dolores O Riordan, Wonderful World with Eric Clapton and Il Mare with Brian May. But ask me again tomorrow :). A special edition with dvd (including a making of and videos of Dunne Mosse with Miles Davis and Madre Dolcissima with Stevie Ray Vaughn) has been released too. Chart wise things are going pretty good too: in the UK Zu & Co is on the Future Chart which should indicate, for what it's worth, that public interest is big enough to get in the axtual charts.
In other news: Zucchero WILL perform during the We are the future concert tomorrow evening in Rome. He will play Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime with Quincy Jones, Baila with Mana's Fher and Wonderful World. The show will be on MTV Italia live and on the internet (www.wearethefuture.com)!
ZUCCHERO ROCKS THE HALL pt 5 May 12, 2004
And another load of pictures of Zucchero's show in the Royal Albert Hall last week. This time they're from the Sorrisi E Canzoni website and thanks to Blu on the forum for talking about the site!
Zucchero and Mousse T
Zucchero with Mousse T and Zucchero with Irene Fornaciari
Zucchero with Tina Arena
Zucchero with Fher
Zucchero with Paul Young
Zucchero with Dolores O'Riordan
Zucchero with Solomon Burke (left) and Ronan Keating (right)
Zucchero with Ronan Keating and Zucchero with Cheb Mami
Zucchero with Brian May and Zucchero with Eric Clapton
Zucchero with Eric Clapton and Mousse T backstage
Zucchero backstage and Zucchero and Mino Vergniaghi backstage
Zucchero with Solomon Burke
Zucchero backstage and Polo Jones and Dolores O'Riordan backstage
Zucchero and Tina Arena backstage
Zucchero and Paul Young backstage
Zucchero and Mousse T backstage and Fher and Elaine Jackson backstage
Zucchero and Fher backstage and rehearsals with Pavarotti
ZUCCHERO ROCKS THE HALL pt 4/ Everybody's got to learn/ We are the future May 11, 2004
Our friend Horst found us some more great pictures of the concert plus a small article in German on this website:
Zucchero and Brian May
Zucchero and Brian May
Zucchero during the first two songs (left) and Zucchero with Jenny Bae.
during "Everybody's got to learn sometime" (right)
Zucchero with Eric Clapton (left) and Zucchero with Paul Young (right)
Zucchero with Mousse T.
Thanks Horst! Some pictures of the rehearsals and the show can be found in the Zu & Co section on the official Zucchero site (www.zucchero.it, click in the pop up thing). Again, if any of you guys have some pics (or find them online), let us know!
Dutch radiostation Radio 2 has selected Zucchero's new single for the Netherlands Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime as this weeks "Radio 2 paradeplaat" meaning it will be played about once every two hours for the entire week. Radio 2 is the biggest radiostation in the Netherlands, you can listen to it live on their website www.radio2.nl.
And rumour is Zucchero will be one of the artists performing during the We Are The Future concert this sunday in Rome, although he is not (yet) mentioned on the website www.wearethefuture.com. The show will be shown on MTV Italia live and a compilation of the thing (so basically without Zucchero) will be shown on all the other mtv's later on but you can also watch it online on the website.
ZUCCHERO ROCKS THE HALL pt 3 May 09, 2004
We got two more pictures! These came from Loek and Dimmy Zopfi:
Thanks guys!
ZUCCHERO ROCKS THE HALL pt 2 May 08, 2004
Today is still very much the day after the day after the night before here! The first pictures of the night are floating around on the net, if you have some please feel free to send us an e-mail on askboris@unpodizucchero.net!
mentioning that more pics and perhaps some personal comments on the show (so far he says he's not too happy with his own performance, WAS HE THERE? HE ROCKED!) are to follow!
And finally Zucchero's official website has posted a few pics too and will post a lot more on monday!
And on the audio and video part: the Cranberries website Zombieguide a video has been put up of Zucchero and Dolores O'Riordan doing Puro Amore.
And some mistakes in my review (see below): Luciano Luisi was not in the band (couldn't see the second piano player), the piano-keyboards guys were David Scanscious and Matteo Saggese. And in the smaller news section: 886.000 Italians tuned in on thursday night to see Zucchero's performance on RAI 2!
Again, if you have any pictures or comments on the show feel free to mail them to us!
ZUCCHERO ROCKS THE HALL! May 06, 2004
Yesterday night was one big triumph for Zucchero and his band, blowing the RAH away with 25 songs, 3 encores and some of the biggest names in pop and rock music as guests. The show started with Dunne Mosse with Miles Davis$B!&(Btrumpet playing along while on two big screens pictures were shown of Zucchero and Davis recording the song. After that Zucchero and his band, including David Sanscious, Polo Jones, Mario Schiliro, Lisa Hunt, Elaine Jackson, Adriano Molanari, and (I believe) Luciano Luisi, played Dindondio and Rossa mela della sera before introducing the first guest of the evening. German dj Mousse T joined Zucch on stage, sitting behind a keyboard, to play Il grande baboomba, one of the two new songs on the album.
After that Zucchero$BCT(B youngest daughter Irene Fornaciari came on stage to perform Like the sun together with her father and Zucchero and band (and a violin woman whose name I didn$BCU(B catch) then performed the other new song Everybody$BCT(B got to learn sometime. The first standing ovation of the evening was for Luciano Pavarotti who joined Zucch (who was playing piano) for a beautiful version of Miserere. Australian singer Tina Arena, who was obviously enjoying herself, joined Zucchero on stage for Ahum (I$BCN(B in trouble) after which Man$Bar(Bs Fher played Baila Morena with Zucch and the band.
Ali D$BC0(Bro was next with John Lee Hooker$BCT(B fantastic voice played along. Paul Young got a great reception from the crowd, after he was introduced by Zucchero as a friend from the heart, and the two did a great Senza una Donna. Cranberries singer Dolores O Riordan was very impressive singing a brilliant new version of the Bluesugar song Puro Amore with Zucch.
The man who really got the house rocking was up next: $BE5(Bhe King of Soul$B!&(BSolomon Burke was introduced by Zucchero several times, showing that he was (understandably) proud to have him there tonight. (Bishop) Burke and Zucchero did a fantastic version of Diavolo in me with Polo Jones doing the reverend intro and everybody in the hall on their feet and dancing. Ronan Keating was up next doing an impressive Il Volo and winning the crowd over by trying to sing some Italian.
Algerian star Cheb Mami joined Zucchero on stage for a new version of Cosi Celeste; although slightly weird at first Zucchero$BCT(B bluespop and Mami$BCT(B rai mixed and at the end of the song there$BCT(B no doubt about it: this is better than the original.
After that Zucchero was joined on stage by two of the greatest guitar players in music history; Brian May joined Zucchero on stage for Madre Dolcissima (dedicated to Stevie Ray Vaughn) and for a roaring Il Mare. Eric Clapton joined Zucchero on stage for Hey Man and the new version of Wonderful World. Both men received standing ovations when they came on stage, after almost every guitar lick they played and when they left the stage (and rightfully so).
After that Zucch and his band played Solo una sana... and Shake with the entire hall jumping, dancing and shouting along. The first encore, which followed after minutes of applause and shouting for more from the crowd, existed of a beautiful version of Diamante and a brilliant version of X colpa di chi which got everyone singing along $BE*(B wanna dance all night$B!&(B Zucchero however still wasn$BCU(B getting away just yet and returned for a beautiful rendition of Hai scelto me. And again Zucchero wasn$BCU(B going to be allowed to leave just yet and he brought his band AND Brian May back on stage to perform Il Mare one more time.
Yesterday$BCT(B concert was an example of Zucchero in his finest form. Some good news for those who couldn;t be there last night: a dvd will be released in december!
We$BCM(Bl be trying to upload as much info about this show as possible so if you were there during the show and you have pictures or want to share you$BCS(Be thoughts about this unique show, feel free to contact us on askboris@unpodizucchero.net!
Royal Albert Hall countdown / Zucchero goes animated/ Kazaa May 05, 2004
One day left: tomorrow Zucchero and his guests will perform for a sold out Royal Albert Hall. Zucch himself is doing some rehearsals with his band and guests (monday: Tina Arena, Paul Young and Man$B!&(Bs Fher).
On Zucchero's official site you can watch the entire Il Grande Baboomba video. In the cartoon it all seems to be about Zucchero, Mousse T, some weird guy, a woman and a pink elephant..... yes. (Notice the neon lights in the opening shots of the video btw).
And finally: on Kazaa you can download all of the Zu & Co songs BUT they are not complete, the files consist of the same part of the song being played over and over again but at least you can listen to how the songs are gonna sound.
Royal Albert Hall countdown / Il grande baboomba video/ Beautiful Night May 04, 2004
The Royal Albert Hall concert countdown has officially started: 2 days to go! Artists that are officially coming so far include Eric Clapton, Ronan Keating, Brian May, Solomon Burke, Dolores O'Riordan, Cheb Mami. Paul Young and Tina Arena. Fher, the leadsinger of Mana is the latest artist added to the line-up but there are most likely also some surprises coming up. The show will be broadcast on Italian RAI 2 starting at 22:30.
The videoclip for Il grande baboomba (with Mousse T.) is a cartoon! You can look at 30 seconds of the thing on this website: http://www.studioaperto.it/schede/scheda_218.shtml. (www.funkygallo.it)
Zucch performed "Everybody's got to learn sometime" during the Beautiful Night Concert in Belfast last saturday (and doing a fine job at it) but Elaine Jackson got most attention from host Patrick Kielty who asked Zucch for her phone number and later said he wanted to, and I quote, "snog" her.
Zu & Co/ Beautiful Night/ RAH May 01, 2004
The official site has released the tracklists of the different international versions (we already figured out the ones for the Italian and UK version); in total there will be 5 versions; an Italian one, an English one, a French one (with Mama with Johnny Hallyday and I'm in trouble with Tina Arena) and a Spanish and a Latin version with the same tracklist. For the entire tracklists check our Zu & Co page (opening page or discography).
Tonight Zucchero will be one of the artists performing during the Beautiful Night concert in Belfast and it looks like he'll be performing Everybody's Got to learn Sometime (so no duets with Dolores O Riordan or Ronan Keating who are also present). The BBC is broadcasting the show live tonight at 22:00 - 0:00 (UK time, Central European Time 23:00 - 01:00) on BBC 1.
Bad news for the official fanclub members going to the RAH concert next week; there will be no soundcheck open for the public.
