A cd with highlights of the Royal Albert Hall concert of may 6th this year has been released. The cd is only available through Zucchero's official website and has the following tracklist:
Dunne Mosse
Everybody's gotta learn sometime (with Jenny Bae)
Baila Morena (with Fher)
Pure Love (with Dolores O'Riordan)
Cosi Celeste (with Cheb Mami)
Il mare... (with Brian May)
Hey Man (with Eric Clapton)
Diavolo in me (with Solomon Burke)
You can buy the cd for E 10 (8,50 for fanclub members) through store.zucchero.it
Zucch goes Ukrainian politics December 08, 2004
Thanks to our good friend Alex from the Cranberries website Zombieguide (www.zombieguide.com, visit it, they rock :) ) we can show you the commercial Zucchero has done to support Ukrainian opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko and the people protesting the fraudulent elections of last week. Other artists that are appearing on adds like this include Dolores O'Riordan, Sting and Joe Cocker. Enjoy!
RAH concert on cd / all albums rerealesed as SACD December 03, 2004
Zucchero's official website reported yesterday that starting december 13th they will sell a cd version of the ZU & Co concert in the Royal Albert Hall of last may. During that show Zucchero performed with a bunch of friends including Eric Clapton, Brian May, Dolores O'Riordan, Solomon Burke and Ronan Keating. The dvd version of the concert is already in sale in most countries (Canada will follow on january 11th). The cd will not contain all the songs of the show but the highlights. For more info check www.zucchero.it or store.zucchero.it.
All Zucchero albums (excluding the best of and Zu & co) have been re-released in a SACD format in Italy. SACD means that the albums should have a much better sound quality (more or less how everything actually sounded in the studio), for the best effect the cd's should be played on special SACD cd-players but they should have the same effect in normal players. Zucchero albums now available in SACD format are Shake, Bluesugar, Spirito DiVino, Miserere, Zucchero, Oro incenso e birra, Blue's, Rispetto, Zucchero & the Randy Jackson band and Un po' di Zucchero. You can order all of these from Nannucci(for pretty decent prices; E14 per cd).
Zucchero against Ukrainian election fraud/ 46664 book / Cosi Celeste radio single/ Zucchero store December 01, 2004
This is probably by far the weirdest Zucchero news this year but here we go: Zucchero is among a bunch of stars (including Dolores O'Riordan, Sting, Joe Cocker, The Cure's Robert Smith, Boris Becker) appearing in tv spots in the Ukraine to support the people demonstrating against the (alleged) voter fraud there. The campaign has been set up by a bunch of famous boxers and have been running since yesterday. No images are available yet so if you happen to be in the Ukraine and if you happen to see and tape the add... well, mail us :) (Thanks Alex! - Zombieguide.com).
It's been a little over a year since some of the worlds most famous rock and pop singers got together in Capetown South Africa to do a big anti AIDS benefit, organised by Nelson Mandela. To remember the concert (which is still available on dvd and cd) now a special book has been released with pictures of the event. Zucchero performed two songs during the concert: "Everybody's got to learn sometime" backed by Queen's Brian May and Roger Taylor and Sharon Corrs of The Corrs and he did "I want it all" during the Queen medley. The book is avaialable on Amazon.co.uk and in decent bookstores in the UK and Europe.
Cosi Celeste, the Cheb Mami duet on ZU & Co, has been picked as the new 'radio single' in Italy. The song won't be in the stores but Italian radio stations will start playing it. Pure Love, the Dolores O'Riordan duet, might be the next European (radio) single but we have no extra news on that.
In the Zucchero store you can now also buy the cd ZU & Co and the dvd ZU & Co live in the royal albert hall. New items might be added since Christmas is coming up but we're not quite sure. Official Fanclub members receive a discount for all purchases in the store.
Canadian dvd release date postponed/ ZU & Co in Japan/ Night of the Proms November 15, 2004
The release date for the ZU & Co live in the royal albert hall dvd has been postponed in Canada once again; the release was first scheduled for early november, then got pushed back to early december and now the Canadian Universal Music site has the release listed for january 11. The Canadian version of Amazon still has a dvd with the title 'Zucchero' scheduled for release on november 30th but I'm not a 100% sure that's actually the RAH dvd. There's no info on any possible dvd release in the US.
ZU & Co will be released in Japan on december 22nd. It doesn't look like the cd will contain any extra songs. A new version of ZU & Co has been released in France not too long ago that has both the English and the Italian version of Everybody's got to learn sometime and a Swedish version has been released that includes the Sinead O'Connor duet Va, Pensiero (excluding Mama get real/Il Grande Baboomba with Mousse T.).
Zucchero's presence at the French Night of the Proms tour this spring has now been confirmed, the dates can be found in our tour section. During the concert tour Zucchero and a bunch of other musicians will perform a few of their songs accompanied by an orchestra and a choir. Classical music will be played too. Last saturday Zucchero was the surprise guest at one of the Belgium concerts of the tour (with Joe Cocker and James Brown) and he performed Everybody's got to learn sometime, Baila and Let it be with the entire cast. One of the proms shows will be shown on Belgium tv at a certain point but it's not completely clear if it will be the one with Zucchero as a guest.
Pure Love next single (?) / Delay for Canadian dvd (?) / Zucchero to do French Night of the Proms (?) November 09, 2004
Pure Love, the song Zucchero recorded with Dolores O'Riordan on ZU & Co, might be released as a single! Universal Music apparently has started sending copies of the promo throughout Europe although an actual release date isn't in yet. Zucchero and Dolores have performed the song several times on TV shows since the release of ZU & Co in may and they're planning on doing it again on Taratata, december 11 at 23:30 on SAT1 (German station). (thanks of course to Alex from Zombieguide.com)
It looks like the release date for the ZU & Co live at the royal albert hall dvd will be delayed in Canada untill december 7th. (again, thanks Alex!)
According to the French Universal Music website Zucchero is confirmed to be performing during the French version of the Night of the Proms tour in march 2005. The Night of the Proms is a yearly phenomenon in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany in october/november/december and in France in march. The idea behind the concert tour is to have several big artists performing with a huge orchestra. In 1999 Zucchero also headlined the tour, with other artists like Status Quo and John Miles, performing Hai scelto me, Il Volo, Madre Dolcissima, X colpa di chi?, Senza una Donna and Miserere. The official Night of the Proms site doesn't have Zucchero listed officially yet but these are the dates:
March 2 - Rouen
March 3 - Lille
March 4 - Paris
March 5 - Amnéville
March 6 - Lyon
March 8 - Clermont - Ferrand
March 9 - Nice
March 10 - Marseille
March 11 - Toulon
March 12 - Toulouse
Zucchero to host anti-AIDS concert / DVD to be released in Canada! / New album rumours/ Fly Singapore airlines!/ Random tv news November 04, 2004
Zucchero will get a big anti-AIDS concert together somewhere in the near future in Florence, Italy. After appearing at the 46664 concert in South Africa in late 2003 Zucchero has been appointed one of the 46664 ambassadors by Nelson Mandela and this concert appears to be a follow-up to that decision. No hard facts are in yet but artists mentioned to appear include U2 (or perhaps only leadsinger Bono) and Peter Gabriel plus a bunch of Italian artists. The concert is to take place at the Palasport in Florence but no dates are in yet. We'll keep an eye on this of course but it could be another "oh yes! I'm hosting a concert in Cuba soon!"-thing.
Good news for all the American fans out there! ZU & Co - live at the royal albert hall, Zucchero's new live dvd recorded in may with a bunch of special guests will be released in Canada on november 23d. This means that you all will actually be able to see the dvd since in Europe it's released in PAL and a different region than you need in the US. Amazon.ca is already listing it. Also on november 23 the dvd will go on sale in France and Australia.
In a few interviews to support the release of the dvd Zucchero has hinted towards his new studio album. Apparently he already has quite a few songs ready but he still has no idea how the new album will sound and when it will come out. He did say that at a certain point in time he would like to make a back-to-basic album with just a drummer, a bass player, a guitarist and a hammond player (adding he might ask Clapton and Billy Preston for that).
Nice news from Brian May's official website: in Singapore airline airplanes you can now watch a 60 minute version of the RAH concert on their in flight entertainment sets. So if you have nothing to do in the next few months, take a couple of flights... :).
Zucchero is scheduled to appear in a few German tv shows: on saturday, november 23, Zucchero will sing Senza una Donna with Paul Young, and PERHAPS Pure Love with Dolores O Riordan during 50 Jahre Rock - Love songs on ZDF. And later on Zucchero will perform Il Volo with Ronan Keating and Pure Love with Dolores O'Riordan during Taratata on SAT1 either on december 11 or december 25 at 23:30. (thanks Alex! - www.zombieguide.com)
And ZU & Co live at the albert hall has entered the Dutch music dvd top 30 (yes! there is one!) at nr. 12.
