That even being hated is a merit, at least for so long. First, because basically the artists very hated they are also very loved. Except that at a certain point they grow old and become venerated masters. It happened to Vasco Rossi, among the many giants. But not to Jovanotti: they hated him in the eighties, with Gimme Five and public opinion that considered it Evil; they hated him in the nineties, when he sang about the “great church that goes from Che Guevara to Mother Teresa”, with Third Worldist sermons and so on; they hated it recently, due to the environmental implications of the Jova Beach Party 2022, along with pieces (from I love you baby down) which seemed to exasperate the ecumenical model, all optimism, of the last years of his songbook. And yet, in all of this, he has never stopped being loved, riding the wave and staying within the frame, because to be hated you first need to keep your feet up over time. And we know how difficult it is.

On the crest of the wave

Perhaps the only real slip-up was with the last Jova Beach Party and various controversies, which weakened the original, brilliant formula, which arrived in 2019 after a live escalation that arrived from the stadiums in 2013, in one of the rare moments in which the criticism had faded, generally speaking. On the other hand, there had also been a couple of records, including Oh life! (2017), in which he partly seemed to have lost his bearings. Not now, now the new one is out Monte Cristopreview of another album which will be released on January 31st and seems to have put the church back in the center of the village: it is a strange piece, which never really starts, mystical in its imagination (there is Dumas’ novel obviously, but in the background also the “becoming oneself”, the accident, the continuous rebirths) and with an orchestral arrangement, but which then lets itself go to a reggaeton-style bass drum, unsettling yet balanced – and therefore, by hands low, one of the best reggaeton pieces ever made in Italy. As well as one that, from Jovanotti, we had never heard before.

Dardust, who produced it with him, defined Lorenzo as “a great explorer”. The truth is that his parable makes one think more of a pop Garibaldi, a hero of two worlds who cannot resist the call of adventure and who won in the market as it was before, that is, the one in which it was a novelty but then they tried to take him out, and wins today that the market has changed, rappers and urban dominate. But if a Dardust, who built the new pop and therefore from here onwards decided to sip his appearances, well, if someone like that decided to work on it together, there will be a reason. And the same goes for the results, for the ability to always get back up and renew itself (at least three times it was considered “finished”, and yet here we are), for the influence it manages to have on the new generations, as much as the stage of Jova Beach Party has been ridden by artists from all over the world, including the most alternative. And it is valid, finally, for the mere fact of still being detestedin the face of so much love.

In short, Jovanotti is not a venerated master, and who knows if he will become one. Eternal boy, they tell him, even now that he is 58 years old and has been making music for almost 40, for better or for worse, however you look at it, the music he makes is a constantly evolving material, alive, despite the years. In Monte Cristo there are echoes of All the love I have (2011), but also some of the most talked about pieces of Lorenzo 1994 (1994). It’s like a game of matryoshka dolls in which each one contains others, and vice versa, creating a sort of common thread that can be touched first-hand especially live, where the songs are often presented without a real solution of continuity. But there is no album of his that in any way replicates the previous ones except in small details, one in which, to put it à la Dardust, Jovanotti has pulled back from being an explorer. And it takes courage.

Eternal DJ

In this sense, the lifeline probably lies in having remained the DJ he was at the beginning: someone who looks around, who does a lot of research both in the underground (over time he has had concerts opened for him, among others , by names like Vasco Brondi and Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti) and abroad, collaborating with people like Ben Harper and indeed Rick Rubin; and then at a certain point, when it comes to singing, he sews everything together, always invents something new. He says he has the ability to find good everywhere. Those who love it can say that it succeeds, those who don’t can say that it evidently causes more damage than anything else. Not sure, though, that he won’t try. And he is the only one in Italy to do it, and to have done it for so long.