He was not just a singer-songwriter, but a narrator of souls, a poet always on the side of the less fortunate who with his music gave a voice to those who had none .
On the day he would have turned 85, the Chamber of Deputies paid homage to Fabrizio De Andrè with “… Ma tu rimani, buon compleanno Faber,” an event that brought together institutions, artists, and students to remember his indelible impact on Italian culture.
In the Sala della Regina, Faber's words and melodies resounded more alive than ever. The Honorable Anna Ascani opened the meeting with a personal memory: "Today here is the Vice President of the Chamber, but there is also a person who at 17 years old played in a Fabrizio De André cover band. Testifying that his words have not faded, but are more alive than ever, are also the young people who bring his songs to Sanremo".
Fabrizio De André was a singer of humanity, capable of transforming pain and injustice into poetry. "If we are here today," said the president of the Culture Commission, Federico Mollicone, "it is not only because he wrote masterpieces that are still listened to by everyone, but because he was an evocator of worlds, a teller of unique and universal stories."
The tribute to De André, however, did not stop at celebrating the artist, but also touched the most intimate and human side of the singer-songwriter. Dori Ghezzi, his lifelong companion and president of the Foundation dedicated to him, retraced important moments of their existence, such as the kidnapping in Sardinia in 1979.
"One of the kidnappers - Ghezzi said - said he preferred Guccini. Fabrizio replied: you could have taken him then" . And the kidnapping, instead of turning into anger, became an opportunity for reflection for the Genoese singer-songwriter, so much so that it led him to write, a few months later, "L'Indiano" and to see in his kidnappers not only executioners, but victims of a system that left no escape.
"After that album, the kidnappings never happened again. It served a purpose, they were a little ashamed," added Ghezzi. "But that episode taught us the value of the concept of freedom." And perhaps this is where De André's greatness lies: in his ability to transform pain into awareness, in the empathy that made his songs eternal.
Even today, anyone who listens to Hotel Supramonte can feel the weight of those days of imprisonment, but also the strength of those who have never stopped seeking the truth . And while Rome prepares to host a new edition of the De André Award, one thing is certain: his voice has not died. He continues to tell us about Italy, with its contradictions and its hopes . And we continue to listen to it, because, as he sang, "even if you think you are absolved, you are still involved."
(Unioneonline/Fr.Me.)