Tiziano Ferro!

Yes, I am excited!

A few weeks after I arrived in Firenze, my friend John D sent me a Youtube video of an Italian singer named Tiziano Ferro. The video is below.

At that point in time, I knew nothing about popular music in Italy, save for the names of some pop stars who were popular several years ago. I'm not sure I even had a radio back then.  John said Tiziano was 1) Italian mega-star, 2) cute as a button, and 3) an out gay man (a novel thing over here, especially for a pop star.)  So, I played the video, fell in love with his music, downloaded two of his CD's, and have been a Tiziano FAN ever since.

Lucy, Me, and Marie

So, when his concert tour was announced in early January, I bought three tickets online and then patiently waited for 3.5 months to see Tiziano in concert.  Finally April 26th arrived, and my friends Lucy and Marie (from Ottawa) and I made our way to the Nelson Mandela Forum for a 21:00hrs show. We were not disappointed.



Oh what a lovely fantasy......but really, he's too young for me!

The Forum looked as if it was sold out, and the audience was predictably 50% young women, and 50% the rest of the world (older, straight, gay, men and women).

We had great unobstructed seats and I'm pretty sure we were probably the only Canadian's there that night.  The guy sitting next to me politely asked where we were from. I told him and he was astonished that we even knew who Tiziano was, let alone be attending his concert.

Marie & Lucy

Mr. Ferro put on an amazing 2 hour show with no warm up band, and surprisingly, it starting right on time.  He sang songs from his current best-selling album, and a bunch from his older albums which I had not heard before.  Since audience participation seemed obligatory, I sang along to all my favourite songs like everyone else and it didn't seem one bit out of place.

Tiziano Ferro, in concert, April 26, 2012, Firenze.

It was a fantastic evening watching a truly talented artist (from the top of the pop charts) perform.  Best of all, Lucy and Marie also enjoyed themselves even though they didn't understand a word Tiziano was singing.  Thank you John D for opening my eyes (and ears) to Mr. Ferro's talent.

Tiziano, on stage, at the Nelson Mandela Forum, Firenze.