History Music / Zucchero

Zucchero, whose real name is Adelno Fornaciari, is an Italian musician and songwriter born in Emilia-Romagna, specifically in a small village north of Italy called Regio-Emilia, on September 25th, 1955. One of the most renowned celebrities in the realm of European music, Zucchero got his stage name from an elementary teacher who nicknamed him as such (''zucchero'' means Sugar in Italian). His songs are classified within the blues, soft rock and soul genres, with an occasional gospel music flavor (though he has stated that he's an atheist).

* ThirteenIsUnlucky: Inverted with the song "13 Buoni Regioni" (13 Good Reasons). He frequently sings in the chorus that he can think of 13 good reasons (and sometimes he instead sings 13 ''holy'' reasons) to prefer drinking a beer and eating a salami sandwich over dating someone like the woman he's unflatteringly describing. The song's video shows the woman flirting with a stranger despite being accompanied by her boyfriend (who is ''not'' Zucchero himself, thus hinting that he used to be his former partner until a breakup), so it makes sense.

* TheCasanova: The song "13 Buoni Regioni" (13 Good Reasons) has Zucchero dedicate an unflattering song to a woman who is described indirectly as a maneater. In the song's video, the woman in question goes to a bar with her boyfriend, and when they reach the party hall she begins flirting very sensually with a stranger (a man of color); this upsets the boyfriend, who begins confronting the man despite his girlfriend being the one who ''began'' the problem. Near the end of the video (and song), the boyfriend takes the woman (while forcefully holding her hand) to the parking lot and, after a brief fight, the woman pushes him and shoots a weapon taken out of her purse... though it's actually a water gun [[{{Irony}} and the projectile is beer]] (it's ironic because, per the song's chorus, Zucchero says he would prefer to drink beer instead of being with her, thus hinting that he used to be a former partner of hers), so she simply intended to scare him. She then leaves him alone with a smirk, dumping him.

** ''Spirito [=DiVino=]'', thanks to the CamelCase, can be read as either ''Spirito Divino'' ("Holy Spirit") or ''Spirito di Vino'' ("Spirit of Wine").

* TheCasanova: The song "13 Buoni Regioni" (13 Good Reasons) has Zucchero dedicate an unflattering song to a woman who is described indirectly as a maneater. In the song's video, the woman in question goes to a bar with her boyfriend, and when they reach the party hall she begins flirting very sensually with a stranger (a man of color); this upsets the boyfriend, who begins confronting the man despite his girlfriend being the one who ''began'' the problem. Near the end of the video (and song), the boyfriend takes the woman (while forcefully holding her hand) to the parking lot and, after a brief fight, the woman pushes him and shoots a weapon taken out of her purse... though it's actually a water gon [[{{Irony}} and the projectile is beer]] (it's ironic because, per the song's chorus, Zucchero says he would prefer to drink beer instead of being with her, thus hinting that he used to be a former partner of hers), so she simply intended to scare him. She then leaves him alone with a smirk, dumping him.

Zucchero, whose real name is Adelno Fornaciari, is an Italian musician and songwriter born in Emilia-Romagna, specifically in a small village north of Italy called Regio-Emilia, on September 25th, 1955. One of the most renowned celebrities in the realm of European music, Zucchero got his stage name from an elementary teacher who nicknamed him as such (''zucchero'' means Sugar in Italian). His songs are classified within the blues, soft rock and blues genres, with an occasional gospel music flavor (though he has stated that he's an atheist).

** ''Oro, Incenso & Birra'' ("Gold, Frankincense & Beer") is a pun on ''Oro, Incenso and Mirra'' (''Mirra'' meaning "Myrrh").

* CoverVersion: In 2007, he made a cover of "Wonderful Life", originally conceived by Music/{{Black}} in 1987 for the album of the same name.

* SillyLoveSongs: Some of his songs portray romance with a noticeably flowery narrative, such as "Indaco Dagli Occhi Del Cielo" (Indigo Like the Eyes of the Sky), where he describes love as an influx of "kisses falling from the sky" and which are "light as apple blossoms" and look like "mercuty drops". The funny thing is that Zucchero himself claims that he wasn't always good at writing deeply romantic songs.

* DevotedToYou: The song "Cosi Celeste" (So Celestial) tells about a woman Zucchero is hopelessly devoted to, describing her as "his babe", likening her to "a planet that is moving around him", and the ensuing love to "floating over a flower" (later specifying it's a water lily).
* GriefSong: The song "Diamante" (Diamond) is dedicated to Zucchero's grandmother Diamante Arduini Fornaciari, who passed away before the song's album entered production. In fact, despite Zucchero being a songwriter, he didn't write this song at all, and it's ''because'' of how deeply emotional it was for him, so he asked fellow Italian musician Francesco de Gregori to write the lyrics for him.

* SillyLoveSongs: Some of his songs portray romance with a noticeably flowery narrative, such as "Indaco Dagli Occhi Del Cielo" (Indigo Like the Eyes of the Sky). The funny thing is that Zucchero himself claims that he wasn't always good at writing deeply romantic songs.

* CreatorBreakdown: The theme of "Miserere" (Miserable), and to an extent the album of the same name it hosted. It tells about Zucchero's profound sorrow following his worst moments in life, and how he tries to cope with it by celebrating life. The song and its album were recorded around the time the musician divorced from his first wife, and was a way to express his heartbreak. A factor that actually helped him overcome the depression was that the song was also made as a duet with Pavarotti, who himself faced many struggles in his life and thus could relate to Zucchero's own.