One No One Hundred Thousand, “Let’s sing together against gender violence”

“We did it,” he yells Fiorella Mannoia and then sings. “Anyone who doesn’t fight has already lost anyway.” Success is getting to this day. Don’t call it a concert, it’s much more than that. 7 change of stage, more than 50 artists, musicians, choristers: it is a one-night festival for nearly a hundred thousand people and it is the biggest musical event ever against gender violence.

A. None. One hundred thousand is the mega concert, postponed for two and a half years, of 7 great artists of Italian music: Fiorella Mannoia, Emma, ​​Alessandra Amoroso, Giorgia, Elisa, Gianna Nannini, Laura Pausini. A show that is not filmed and will not go on TV: a choice made to reward those who waited to be in Campovolo, the new RCF Arena in Reggio Emilia opened for the summer a week ago by Ligabue, and chosen to attend, waiting for hours in the heat, at a concert that has a noble purpose such as supporting the fight against violence.

On stage the artists are not alone as women victims of violence should never be. Surprisingly, each is accompanied by a colleague: Caparezza with Fiorella Mannoia, Brunori Sas with Emma, Diodato with Alessandra Amoroso, Undertone with Giorgia, Tommaso Paradiso with Elisa, Coez with Gianna Nannini, Eros Ramazzotti with Laura Pausini. Plus the stage left by Ligabue.

The total proceeds exceed 5 million euros. They will go to 7 anti-violence centers over 225 thousand euros for each one. Most of them in Southern Italy in areas where there is less aid. In all, two million euros given to charity, including 200 thousand each to the Reception Center for Battered Women, CADMI, and the Pangea Onlus Foundation for the Afghanistan Emergency project.

Fiorella Mannoia says this when presenting the concert: “It won’t be the last time with these, the godmothers, and other Italian singers.” And she sings from the stage Sally, What women do not say (“I can’t skip it”), General made with forays by Caparezza and Come to dance in Puglia with Fiorella taking the place of Albano. The tone of the evening understands from here, when the sun is still high. We will end up together, all of them on stage telling that we have a friend next to us when it is almost two in the morning.

They take turns on stage involving a man, a colleague, at each set. Because it is precisely men who have to become aware of the drama of gender-based violence. “We were all united and in agreement on this point, it was important that there were also men by our side, so that they would be the first to become aware of a problem that does not only concern women, but society as a whole”, explained Mannoia . Emma part with love me and then welcomes Brunori Sas and closes between “saints and whores” with It is like this every time also stopping to help someone from the audience (it will also happen in Giorgia’s set), for hours under a scorching sun. He ends by thanking his mother who made her the woman that belongs to her.

More women than men, even in the audience, someone points out. “The fact that there are 100 thousand people is already a step, more must be taken,” he says Alessandra Amoroso that excites singing Make Noise with Diodato and gets excited singing everything else. And then the Drops of memory of Giorgia going to Bob Marley, Turn your lights down low with Sottotono, a Of Sun and of blue passing through Mastroianni.

Leaves with the guest Elisa and the Arena goes crazy when it sings with Tommaso Paradiso Da Sola in the night and then Do not be afraid, which «takes on a new meaning in this context». Perhaps the key to reading the whole evening is just this: everything has a new meaning with a purpose such as the struggle for women’s rights. The songs change their significance. The summary is made by Gianna Nannini, “Music is better than medicine”, when she arrives in the press room before the concert with a t-shirt that quotes Simone de Beauvoir, “femininity, a trap”: “A no gender message that seems to me centered on these times, the division of roles is an old concept, now outdated ». Giorgia is with her: «Music makes you feel belonging and eliminates the sense of loneliness that we all have».

It is with this thought that he proposed the final choral piece You’ve got a friend. Immediately approved in the chat of the singers, Las Margaritas (The name, for the record, was given by Elisa). Before the finale it’s up to Gianna Nannini, forty years of repertoire, from Photoromance to Wonderful creaturebeautifully rock when it’s past midnight and the audience doesn’t want to let her go.

Laura Pausini begins that it is almost one o’clock and if there are obviously many small concerts, 8-10 songs each (and obviously there are repertoires of greater weight), hers is a show within the show to say “Enough with many final A” to violence: video of Bolle, reading of Argentero, his songs, The best thing with Eros Ramazzotti and a commitment that sums up that of all the others.

“If we manage to sensitize a woman to denounce, we have achieved our aim,” he says presenting the concert. “Everyone must know the gesture that signals violence, they must know it as they know that you have to fasten your seat belts. Many women have written to me to tell me about the violence, one of them called me, now she has managed to get out of it thanks to a center. This concert cannot solve the violence but it makes a lot of noise. You don’t see the end until you have someone by your side who listens to you ». She says the song: “You have a friend in me.” Italian women have seven great friends who are ready for a new big project.