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Volare, the most famous Italian song in the world

Sung, played, whistled, danced, reinterpreted and remixed, it has reached the ears of the whole world and still today continues to thrill people when they watch and listen to the first historic interpretation of Nel blu dipinto di blu by Domenico Modugno with Johnny Dorelli at the 1958 Sanremo Festival. Because Nel blu dipinto di blu (“In the blue-painted blue [sky]”), is the real title of what is more popularly known as Volare (“To fly”), the most famous and most reinterpreted Italian song ever.

February 28, 2020

Its fame was born thanks to its victory at the 1958 Sanremo Festival, then grew with its third place at the Eurovision Song Contest of the same year and finally arrived overseas: for 5 weeks it was the best-selling single in the United States and in 1959 it won an award as song and record of the year at the Grammy Awards. Thus far, 22 million records have been sold of the song by Mister Volare.

The song was written in Rome in 1957 by Domenico Modugno and Franco Migliacci and is about a dream. The authors have told several versions of the song's origin, sometimes conflicting. It seems that Migliacci was inspired by Marc Chagall’s painting Le coq rouge dans la nuit and that the lyrics were inspired by one of his nightmares. It is also said that the famous volare oh oh came to Modugno’s mind after a gust of wind blew some papers into his house, and that during a walk one of the two authors said by chance di blu m’ero dipinto (“I was painted blue”).

What is certain is that the image of Modugno singing his song at the 1958 Festival is as unforgettable as that gesture in the chorus, when the performer raises his arms as if he was flying. It is in this gesture that the Apulian singer was immortalised in the bronze statue dedicated to him in Polignano a Mare, 3 metres high and created by the Argentine sculptor Hermann Mejer.

This song also marked a change in the history of Italian music, thanks to its innovative lyrics, its different style from the “screamers” typical of the period and the musical influence of American swing.

Great names in international music have paid homage to Nel blu dipinto di blu, reinterpreting it in their own style: Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Luciano Pavarotti, Paul McCartney. And there is no shortage of remix and dance versions either.

So, 61 years on, Nel blu dipinto di blu has become to all intents and purposes an immortal song, sung by all, that still makes us fly in that infinite sky...