Franco Battiato, Udine January 24th, 2013

Franco Battiato, one of the “deans” of the Italian musical scene, put on a splendid 2 hour-plus show at the “Giovanni Da Udine” theater, Udine, Italy.

Franco Battiato’s illustrious musical career now spans 41 years, including a personal repertoire of well over 34 albums (and with a multitude of singles too).  The 68 year-old Sicilian born artist (who was named in November, 2012 Sicily’s new regional “Minister for Tourism and Culture”, and at no compensation either), is a very prolific singer-songwriter, composer, filmmaker and also painter.  

 

Battiato's songs contain philosophical, esoteric, religious and exotic cultural themes.  He is and has been for decades one of the most popular pop singer-songwriters in Italy. 

Many of his songs also contain lyrics in English and, most notably Arabic, a language that Battiato had started to study after a trip to Turkey.  He was joined on stage in Udine by an exquisite ten-piece orchestra.