Cani e gatti

Laura Pausini recorded Cani e gatti in 1994, but not as just another track on her second album. That year, the song reached the final of the *Sanremo Festival* in the *Giovani* category, where the audience received it with such enthusiasm that it ended up third in the final ranking. What’s curious is that while the specialized press criticized Laura for sounding "too conservative" for her age, the song ended up being one of the few that wasn’t translated into Spanish for the album. At five minutes and five seconds long, it’s one of the longest tracks on an album that, in total, sold three million copies worldwide.

The song was born at a pivotal moment for Pausini: right when her career was taking off after winning the year before in the *Nuove proposte* category of the same festival. Although Cani e gatti wasn’t the lead single—that spot was taken by Gente—its inclusion on the album reflects how Laura was exploring sounds that, years later, would lead her to cross borders with versions in other languages. The track, with its slow rhythm and lyrics that play with everyday metaphors, is an early example of the style that would define her: ballads with touches of intimacy, yet without losing the melodic essence that would later earn her awards like the *Latin Grammy* in 2005.