The Zecchino d'Oro (Italian for "Gold Sequin") is an annual international children's song festival broadcast by Rai 1 since 1959 and started by Cino Tortorella, who eventually resigned in 2009. While the festival was initially held in Milan, it was moved to Bologna in 1961 after being taken up by the Antoniano Institute, a children's theater located there.
The tournament is made up by 12 to 14 songs (14 since 1993) sung by children, which are voted by a jury composed of children. The winning song is given the titular award, but the writers and composers of the songs are considered winners rather than the singer(s). Starting in 1976, the festival's composed of half Italian and half foreign songs, and sponsored by UNICEF.
Some of the singers have become celebrities after their participation (e.g. Valter Brugiolo, who has participated in various sketches of the Rai show Carosello, popular Alternative Italian Theme Song singer Cristina D'Avena note , voice actor Gabriele Patriarca, and even actress Emily Meade), and famous Italian musicians such as Edoardo Bennato and Bruno Lauzi have also been involved in the songs.
In 2000, Italian animation studio De Mas & Partners produced I Cartoni dello Zecchino d'Oro, a series of Animated Adaptations of the songs. The winner of the 1968 edition also inspired Rainbow S.r.l.'s Forty Four Cats cartoon.
The Zecchino d'Oro and its songs contain examples of:
- Agony of the Feet: The 1976 song "Gugù, Bambino dell'Età della Pietra" says that one day, while "writing" letters on his stone notebook, the titular caveman ended up limping for six days after the notebook fell on his foot.
- An Aesop: Certain songs have morals attached to them:
- The 1969 song "Volevo un Gatto Nero" talks about a child lamenting on how they wanted a black cat and have a hard time accepting the other animals they got, but end up accepting the cat.
- "Reading Is Cool" Aesop: The 2001 song "Il Topo con gli Occhiali" is mostly a love letter to literature, with a mouse learning about its wonders and inviting others to learn about them too.
- A Weighty Aesop: The 2002 song "La Gallina Brasiliana" ends with a hen learning that she should prevent toothaches by not eating too much cocoa, with one of the lyrics proclaiming that it's better to have it in moderation rather than deny it.
- Animate Inanimate Object: The 1973 song "La Sveglia Birichina" implies that the titular alarm clock is alive, what with saying that it gets the child it wakes up out of bed.
- Banana Peel: In "Non lo Faccio Più", one of the pranks the boy apologizes for is making his grandfather slip on one.
- Big Eater: In "Non lo Faccio Più", the boy eventually apologizes to his mother for eating all her bonbons, but still gets a tummy ache from all that candy.
- Bilingual Bonus: Most foreign songs have at least a verse sung in the singer's native language, and even the Italian portions might have a couple of words in the language here and there.
- Brutish Bulls: The 1968 song "Torero Camomillo" subverts this. The bull is initially portrayed as hostile, but eventually gets along with his bullfighter.
- Cock-a-Doodle Dawn: "La Sveglia Birichina" says that the alarm clock and rooster ring at the same time.
- Cordon Bleugh Chef: The 1971 song "Il Caffe della Peppina" states that Peppina gets too creative with her coffee, the ingredients mentioned being chocolate, jam, onions, candies, butterfly wings, rosemary, cheese, a chicken leg, a chick's feather, flour, salt, pepper, water mixed with petrol, lettuce, vinegar, oil and even some TNT.
- Cute Kitten: Various songs including "44 Gatti" and "Volevo un Gatto Nero" talks about cats, and the cover of the 1988 editions' vinyl and cassette shows three of them as well.
- Determinator: The 1967 song "Popoff" says that the titular character, even if exhausted, still carried on to go to the Don river. Eventually, he's the only Cossack who gets there (the others were lost in the snow).
- Disproportionate Retribution: The 1967 song "Per un Ditino nel Telefono" has a baby call random numbers in his father's phone, due to not knowing how it works. Eventually, his mother is put in a mental hospital and his father is arrested.
- Does Not Like Guns: The 1970 song "Il Lungo, Il Corto e il Pacioccone" says that the sheriff orders the titular cowboys not to use their guns.
- Eiffel Tower Effect: Some foreign songs are about popular aspects of the country's culture (like Japan's 1976 entry, "Teru terubozu", which revolves around the titular doll), and sometimes even monuments (France's 1993 entry, for instance, is about the Notre Dame Cathedral).
- Evil Poacher: The 1974 song "Cocco e Drilli" says that the latter crocodile was captured by one, who wanted to make handbags, wallets and beauty cases out of her, but ends up being defeated by Cocco and his fellow crocodiles.
- Fly Crazy: The 1968 song "Il Valzer del Moscerino" downplays this as the most of annoyance that the fly deals is that it tickles Beppone's nose and is chased by the cat, which ends up scratching his nose.
- Heavy Sleeper: The titular bullfighter in "Torero Camomillo" is said to sleep as soon as he has the chance.
- Historical Badass Upgrade: The 1987 song "Annibale" inverts this by making Hannibal a Butt-Monkey whose heroic acts were fabricated, is easily defeated when Scipio shoots him with a laser beam, and ends up being lost in the Alps.
- Inheritance Backlash: The 1965 song "Dagli una Spinta" starts off with the family's grandfather leaving his old car to them. Due to its antiquity, though, the family has a hard time getting it to start without pushing it.
- Insane Troll Logic: One of the verses of "Scuola Rap" implies that Julius Caesar's murder was plotted because apes can be found in more countries than lions.
- Jerkass Realization: The 1974 song "Ciribiricoccola" ends with the brother admitting that he's at fault for the rivalry between him and his sister, and saying that she has points to take revenge on him as well.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: The children in "44 Gatti" are implied to be this, as the cats seem to persuade them to give them a meal a day and let sleep on the armchairs quite easily.
- Long-Runners: Plays on Rai 1 ever since 1959.
- Misplaced Wildlife: The 1968 song "Coriolano, l'Allegro Caimano" talks about a caiman that lives in the Nile.
- Morning Routine: "La Sveglia Birichina" describes the child getting out of bed, putting on slippers, drinking coffee and hot milk, washing her hands and face and eating focaccia before she goes to school.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: Subverted in "Coriolano, l'Allegro Caimano", where the titular reptile is described as menacing and boundless, but eventually turns out to just want to drink the wine, and is only bad news for the wine merchants.
- New Media Are Evil: The 1996 song "È meglio Mario" is all about how playing outside is better than playing on a computer.
- Polar Bears and Penguins: The 1966 song "Il Pinguino Belisario" is about a polar bear trio trying to send a penguin to space as a missile.
- Regional Riff: Sometimes used in foreign songs.
- Shout-Out:
- One of the songs in the inaugural edition is called "Lettera a Pinocchio" ("Letter to Pinocchio").
- The 1968 song "Il Topo Zorro" revolves around a mouse version of the famous hero, complete with his cat archnemesis being named Gonzales.
- The 2004 song "Il Gatto Puzzolone" ("The Stinky Cat") compares the cat's black fur to Calimero.
- Sibling Rivalry: "Ciribiricoccola" is about two siblings in a vendetta against each other. They end up making amends at the end after one of them has a Jerkass Realization, however.
- Sticky Situation: In "Non lo Faccio Più", one of the pranks the boy apologizes for is pouring glue in his father's hat.
- Throwing Off the Disability: "Il Pulcino Ballerino" talks about a lame chick who eventually gets over his limping problem by dancing the hully gully.
- Toothy Bird: The hen from "La gallina brasiliana" gets tooth decay after eating too many sweets. Later lampshaded when the final verse admits that the entire story was a fabrication to teach the lesson at the kids at home and the hen was wearing fake teeth.
