The sad news reached us that Franco Battiato passed away. Battiato has been active in the Italian music scene for a very long time. In the 1960s he was initially a protest singer, but later switched to romantic repertoire. In the 1970s he looked more for experimental music. It was in 1984 that he took part in the Eurovision Song Contest, together with Alice. The ballad “I treni di tozeur” was a special composition: at the end some opera singers sang along. The song became an international hit. Battiato went on steadily and made a total of 44 albums. He cooperated with among others Angelo Branduardi in the song “Il sultano di Babilonia e la prostituta’. Battiato also had a short political career as a minister in the Sicily region. In 2019 he stopped singing. Battiato died after a long illness at the age of 76.
