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To Be Number One 1990
Album · by Gianna Nannini ↗ View artist

To Be Number One

In Gianna Nannini there is a sound that pulses with the energy of someone who refuses to conform to the established. Recorded in 1976 under the Ricordi label, this debut album bears the mark of a producer like Claudio Fabi, who accompanies her on a path where rebellion and melody intertwine without concessions. It is no coincidence that, after rejecting a contract with Ariston —which sought to pigeonhole her into a more conventional style— she ended up signing with Numero Uno, a label that, in those years, moved between Italian rock and avant-garde movements. The album breathes this blend: guitars that cut through the air, lyrics that ask for no permission, and a voice that already announces what was to come.

Year
1990
Songs
1
Duration
4 min 12 seg
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About the album

To Be Number One, according to DoReSol

The most striking aspect of the album is not just its sonic proposal, but how Nannini navigates between the personal and the collective. For example, the B-side of the single Congresso di filosofia —Stereotipati noi— was recorded with the group Flora Fauna Cemento, where she shared the stage with Mario Lavezzi. But where her own voice truly stands out is in tracks like Durante, where the piano and guitar converse without mediation. This balance between raw and refined is what makes the album still sound fresh decades later: not as a document of an era, but as a gesture of artistic independence.

What is most surprising is how, in the midst of the Italian rock boom, Nannini was already charting her own course. The accident that cost her two phalanges of her left hand —which occurred in her family’s pastry shop in Siena— did not stop her; instead, it shaped her way of playing. There are no forced corrections or empty virtuosity here: there is an urgency that translates into every note. And although the album was not a massive success at the time, it laid the groundwork for what was to come, as if each chord were a step toward something greater.