Lucio Corsi returns to the scene with “I wanted to be a tough”, an album that, between memories and transformations, explores childhood, friendship and love.
With his unique style, the Tuscan singer-songwriter promises to surprise his fans once again, both with a sold-out tour in clubs, and with the imminent journey through the main Italian festivals of 2025.
In this fourth chapter of his career, Lucio accompanies us through change, looking for new horizons, to tell stories of true and false characters, between dreams and reality.
But what's behind the genesis of this album? The artist tells us, with his usual irony and depth, as I wanted to be a tough he was born, between shown clothes and memories not his, but also by a search for authenticity and innovation.
The interview
After telling stories through dreamlike images and symbolic landscapes, in this album you chose a more direct approach. Why this turning point?
I have always written of entities such as the wind, the darkness, the night, the dream and the animals, but this time I wanted to change perspective. I wanted to tell people more directly, as if I put a camera on a tripod instead of shooting everything from above with a drone. I felt the need to learn to do it, to practice in this form of writing that many artists I admire masterfully master. But without giving up the dream and imagination, because these components are already within the stories, even the smallest and daily ones.
After about two years I found nine different songs and I convinced them to go to live in the same building. So the album was born.
Let's talk about “Francis Delacroix”, a character who seems to escape any attempt to fix him in a definitive narrative.
This song initially didn't even want to record it. Every time I sang it, I added new adventures and details. In the end I decided to fix a version, but I think others will exist in the future. Francis is a continuous movement character: one night he is in Dortmund, the next day in Paris, a week after Mara Venier. Live absurd adventures and I enjoy letting it free to move between eras and places.
In “Let There Be Rocko” a strong rock and blues influence emerges. How did you work on this passage?
I wanted to do an exercise in style, to study the rock'n'roll, the blues, the T-Rex sound, the blues brothers and certainly Vasco Rossi. The piece speaks of school, and I imagined it as a rock lesson. In the middle school I tell there is this charismatic figure, a rebel that embodies the spirit of rock in its purest form.
Instead “in the middle of the night” had a particular path before entering the album.
I had left her aside for a while. I didn't want to listen to it for a period, I wanted to understand what effect would have done me later, close to the other tracks. In the end he found his place. I think of the songs as in tenants of a building: they have to get along, otherwise they make noise and disturb the neighbors. This has found his apartment and is fine there.
How important is the visual art in your music? Your mother made the covers of your albums.
Visual art is fundamental, influences my way of writing. I love artists like Ligabue, who brought his paintings around the countries to show them. My mother has always painted and her works have naturally entered my covers. I like the idea of a visual common thread that accompanies the records, something that binds each album to the next.
Eurovision: What did you feel when you learned about participation?
We were ready for any scenario, but once we have received the confirmation we said: let's go, we continue to dance. We will do it without frills, without too many special effects, focusing on music and instruments. It will be an essential, direct live. It will be a journey, like everything I do.
The tour will start in April and will continue throughout the summer. How will this new live experience be and what does live mean for you?
I can't wait to leave. I will always play with my band, the basic formation with which I play for a lifetime. We will be seven on stage, with a lot of guitars: I will alternate between electric, acoustic, piano, harmonious. There will be two keyboards, organ, piano, drums, choirs … in short, a full sound, alive.
For me, live is a totally different experience from the disc. I hate the in-ear monitor because they are isolated, put every musician in his bubble. Live instead must breathe, it must be air, vibration. Fortunately, my band and I still play with the spies on stage, we hear the sound turn, and this is what makes the concert a unique event. If a spy whistles, is part of the moment. Indeed, it is an opportunity to improvise, to transform the unexpected into entertainment.
The concerts I love are the ones who detach themselves from the disc, that offer something different than what you can listen to at home. This is the type of experience that I want to bring on tour: a lot of music played, real instruments, interaction, dynamic. I hope to be able to continue even after the summer, because this is the way I want to live music.
The disc
The fourth studio album consists of nine tracks, all written and made up of Lucio Corsi and Tommaso Ottomano, who also took care of it together with Antonio “Cuper” Cupertino. To populate them, many characters such as “Francis Delacroix”, a photographer friend, Rocco companion of the middle school in “Let There Be Rocko”, and “The King of the Rave”, romantic and ramshackle shape.
To open and close the musical narrative of the album, the songs already published “You are the Mattino” -which tells us about how the weather flows inexorable, like the current of a river that always and only on one side -and “in the heart of the night” -a song on friendship, a long piano queue on the highway of the moon, presented surprisingly last Christmas Eve with a live session -as well as “I wanted to be a hard session”. Independent song more listened to on the radio and recently certified Golden Disco), competing at the 75th edition of the Sanremo Festival, where Lucio – at his debut on the Ariston stage – ranked second and was awarded the critics' prize “Mia Martini”, entering the heart of the public.
You are the morning
Cigarettes
I wanted to be a tough
Francis Delacroix
Let there be rocko
The king of the rave
Complicated situation
This life
In the middle of the night
The tour
April 10, 2025 – Perugia – Afterlife (zero date) (sold out)
April 13, 2025 – Bologna – Estragon (sold out)
April 15, 2025 – Venaria Reale (TO) – Theater Concordia (sold out)
April 16, 2025 – Florence – Teatro Cartiere Carrara (sold out)
April 18, 2025 – Rome – Atlantic (sold out)
April 23, 2025 – Naples – Music House (sold out)
April 28, 2025 – Padua – Hall (sold out)
April 29, 2025 – Milan – Alcatraz (sold out)
May 4, 2025 – Milan – Alcatraz (sold out)
Summer 2025 & Hippodromi 2025
12 June 2025 – Mestre (VE) – Bissuola Park
June 14, 2025 – Saint Nicolas (AO) – Musicastelle
June 17, 2025 – Cagliari – Arena in the fair
June 21, 2025 – Rome – Rock in Rome, Hippodrome of the Capannelle
June 25, 2025 – Bologna – Sequoie Music Park
June 27, 2025 – Trento – Trento Live Fest
June 28, 2025 – Genoa – Altraonda Festival – Arena del Mare
June 29, 2025 – Lido di Camaiore (LU) – The first summer – Bussoladoman Park
6 July 2025 – Perugia – Umbria that breaks
July 8, 2025 – Collegno (TO) – Flowers Festival
10 July 2025 – Arezzo – Mengo Festival
July 13, 2025 – Caserta – A summer to be Belvedere – Belvedere di San Leucio
July 18, 2025 – Sassari – Abbabula Festival
July 19, 2025 – Lanusei (Nu) – Rocce Rosse & Blues
23 July 2025 – Termoli (CB) – Termoli Summer Festival
July 24, 2025 – Montecosaro (MC) – Mind Festival
July 27, 2025 – Laghi di Fusine (UD) – No Borders Music Festival
August 2 – Locarno – La Rotonda by La Mobiliare (Locarno Film Festival)
August 6, 2025 – Catania – Under the Vulcano Fest – Villa Bellini
August 7, 2025 – Castelbuono (PA) – Ypsigrock
10 August 2025 – Locorotondo (BA) – Locus Festival
11 August 2025 – Lecce – Cave del Duca
12 August 2025 – Lamezia Terme (CZ) – Color Fest
August 17, 2025 – Gavorrano (GR) – Teatro delle Rocce
August 30, 2025 – San Mauro Pascoli (FC) – AcieloAperto Festival – Villa Torlonia
August 31, 2025 – Mantua – Mantua Summer Festival – Palazzo Te
September 7, 2025 – Milan – Milan Summer Festival, Hippodrome Snai San Siro
Web & Social
https://www.instagram.com/lucio_corsi
