"Ciao Michele" united the impossible: sixty years and four generations
Data di pubblicazione 22/06/2023
Bologna, 21st June 2023
Miraloop is going to release the second single of Mediterraneo project, his name is Ciao Michele and the story of this song is incredible. Mediterraneo was born as a mainly authorial project, it means a musical project that starts from the lyrics of the songs, where the performer can vary from time to time, and debuted in Miraloop with Vento, played by Roberta Giallo and Malavoglia. A song that climbed the charts of independent radio programming without anyone ever seeing "Mediterraneo", or Paolo, in the face. In this case the story, or maybe the luck, wanted Paolo was not even the author of the song. Because the author is Omar Di Maria.
We wish you good reading and we hope to tell you about the birth and the occasions that led to the realization of Ciao Michele, the second single of Mediterraneo with Miraloop.
Rome, 1963.
Michele Armetta
The main feature of Ciao Michele is to have united, through many sliding doors, characters that apparently have nothing to do with each other and that span four generations. A union that becomes music, a labyrinth that ends in notes, with a powerful melody, summer and melancholy.
Michele Armetta is the first of these characters, and is a prestigious lyricist from Palermo, founder of Mia Records in Rome. It was in 1963 that Michele’s journey crossed with Omar di Maria, a fifteen year old from Pesaro passionate about singing and musical writing.
The Michele of the song is an old lyricist, almost ninety years old who lives in a home for the elderly in the province of Rome. He’s from Palermo and we met in Rome in 1963.
The first meeting between the two takes place right at Michele’s home in Rome, and a great friendship between the two is born that then widens with the arrival of another well known character, Franco Califano.
Franco, Omar and Michele become a trio of visitors to the Roman nights of the sixties. The Vespa and the wine glasses, the first short skirts, the postcard ones. But Omar will then change direction.
I was 15, I wanted to sing and write songs. A friend sends me to his house. I made him read the texts written by me and he said: "You have to take the lyricist exams at the Siae! You’re good! I’ll help you'! If you can make it back to Rome look for me I’ll wait for you. I go back to my home in Pesaro and immediately I plan to escape from my family. In February 1966 I am back in Rome and in 1967 I am already a member of the Siae. I met Franco Callifano, Bruno Martino, Carlo Rossi and many others but I did not break through in the end I succumbed to the flattery of life, I got a degree in sociology and went first to the Police and then to the Presidency of the Council. I made a mistake. Franco Califano, seeing me again said:"You were wrong to leave us".
But Omar over the years, you don’t give up. He gives up the Roman revolution, gives up the music, but in his mind he is still a lyricist, he still has in mind Michele who makes him enroll in the Siae.
Rome, 2008.
Omar Di Maria
A little 'for the opportunities thanks to his temperament, a little 'because you know, the world in music is uncertain and sometimes difficult, at some point in his life Omar radically changes gear. He has a career in police and then in the presidency of the Council. But in a strong moment of his life, those moments that happen every now and then and that we should always thank, Omar remembers his friendship with Michele and so the idea of dedicating a song to him is born. A thank you, a tribute, let’s call it what we want. It starts like this:
"Ciao Michele, da quanto tempo non ci vediamo..."
Omar closes the song in a few nights and then needs a composer, a musical production. He begins to tell everyone his story and the story of the song. Until, years later, the meeting that will lead Omar one day of the future, to publish Ciao Michele with the Miraloop. We are in Bologna, in a wine bar of the city, and between a glass and the other we talk about music. Paolo is a composer, also with many dreams in the drawer: it’s time to introduce you to him.
Rome, 2013.
Paolo Bonazza
A chance encounter, fun, exciting, between a glass of champagne and the other. Omar finds in Paolo the composer who can give shape to his words. Paolo elaborates a melody and presents it to him shortly after, Omar likes it. But if the song is born with a strong creative impetus, it won’t be so easy to make it "reality". Years will pass. Paolo creates a demo guitar piano and voice that will make a decent tour of producers and labels, but without receiving immediate interest, also because the discography is not yet ready for a song that, in fact, does not have a performer behind. Paolo is actually looking for a label willing to give up a performer to sing the song and produce it, and that’s not easy. " Ciao Michele", and this is a curiosity no less bizarre than the whole story, does not receive the interest of the same Mia Records, founded by Armetta and run by his son.
Paolo, however, is a man of a thousand resources and in 2022 he founds the Mediterraneo project in which he explicitly decides to reveal that he is not the singer: this will be the key that will lead him to propose his songs, regardless of who puts them on his shoulders. After a first single, Paolo arrives in the Miraloop studios, where he will meet Gerolamo, who is struck by the melodic vein of Paolo.
Bologna, 2022.
Gerolamo Sacco
Paolo Bonazza listens on Youtube Casa Mia by Gerolamo Sacco and is impressed. Gerolamo and Paolo met in the summer of 2022 and their first collaboration is the lucky Vento, which is approved by the Bolognese Roberta Giallo and Pavese Malavoglia. This is how Mediterraneo made its debut in Miraloop. The collaboration receives excellent feedback, both from the public and from professionals, and so you decide to continue together. When there is to choose the second single Paolo takes out again "Ciao Michele", in a drawer for too long: he fears yet another rejection... but this time it does not arrive.
There is no rejection from Miraloop because when Gerolamo listens to "Ciao Michele" he is struck by the melody and the words and proposes to Paolo to do it completely from scratch; off the acoustic guitars, on the bpm, and above all make him sing by a young girl: It’s Valentina she’s up to.
Bologna, 2023.
Vale CMQ
"Maybe I’ve become commercial, but you’re much more commercial than me."
Vale CMQ is one of the new proposals of Miraloop this year. The sixteen year old Bolognese is produced by Miraloop for the first time with the upcoming album "E Comunque" and is thus hired for Ciao Michele.
A mature voice and at the same time a child, a delicate soul but punk, in short, to quote a famous film whose poster stands in the executive offices of Miraloop ".. She is the girl".
The first demo of Ciao Michele produced by Sacco featuring Vale CMQ is presented to Bonazza, who approves, and later to Omar, who is moved. The single will be released on June 23, 2023 under Hearts, the pop publishing series by Miraloop records.
Now we just have to make you listen. We greet you with the words of Omar.
Ten years ago in the wine shop, between a glass of champagne and the other I know Paolo Bonazza, who knowing that in addition to writing and publishing novels I had some songs in the drawer, asked me to read some. Struck by the sincerity` and the melancholy of the song chooses to set to music Ciao Michele and so we decide to publish it with the Miraloop and the brilliant idea of Gerolamo Sacco.
This song is a real poem that I dedicate to all lovers. I do not hide that in this text there is much of what I learned from Franco Califano, whom I met in the 70’s and of whom I became a friend. In tune with the words that the teacher wrote, loneliness and melancholy, are the true loves that arise from the suggestion of my life".
Are you curious? If so....
