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Jovanotti

Listen and practice!

This month we present a famous Italian singer and songwriter: Lorenzo Cherubini, best known as Jovanotti (often misspelt as Giovanotti). He was born in Rome on 27 September 1966.

"The name Jovanotti derives from the plural form of the Italian word "giovanotto" ("young man", plural "giovanotti"). Lorenzo Cherubini originally auditioned a band with the name "I Giovanotti", but the record producer was only interested in him. He then decided on the Italian-American name of Joe Vanotti before conjugating it to his famous moniker "Jovanotti". The spelling Jovanotti is anglicised, the letter j not being used in Italian per se. It was used instead of i and ii in some contexts, and not instead of gi, hence the Italian name for the letter: i lunga, or "long i". An occurrence of this is the Italian football club from Tourin: Juventus." (source wikipedia.org)

Jovanotti has been known for a long time as a rapper and a teenagers idol. However, in the latest years, his art became more socially involved; he had recently held a show where he directly accused mafia and honored -as heroes of our time- the judges Falcone and Borsellino, killed in 1992. Their memory will never die.

On a lighter note: it is hard to undestand a rap. However, you can practice your listening skills and catch a few words (like "una serenata rap, affacciati alla finestra amore mio, sono timido ma l'amore mi da coraggio, mi piace quel tuo gusto nel scegliere i vestiti, ...") in the following song:

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