Righeira

Stefano Rota and Stefano Righi first met each other as schoolmates of the Albert Einstein Scientific High School located in the Barriera di Milano district in Turin.[3] At the beginning of their careers, the two had grown tired of their "banal friendship" and eventually became "musical brothers".[4] When they started performing, both Righi and Rota acquired new artist names and made themselves known as Johnson and Michael, while adopting the surname "Righeira". The name "Righeira" originates from when Righi gave his own surname a Brazilian-Portuguese pronunciation while playing football with his friends during the hours of physical education in school. When Righi later described a young version of himself, he said: "Maybe I liked the idea of being a native ... all of this became a character in the end."[5]

In 1980, Stefano Righi started his career when he released his debut single "Bianca Surf" as a solo songer, with the help of producers Giulio Tedeschi and Oderso Rubini. The singer from the punk band Skiantos, Roberto "Freak" Antoni, with roots in the city of Bologna, later recorded a cover version of the song together with Stefano Righi. In 2006, a CD was released in Italy entitled Ex Punk, Ora Venduto, which contained many of Righi's early musical works from his career start in the early 1980s.

Stefano Righi had come up with the first version of "Vamos a la playa" in early 1981. The idea arose when he and some acquaintances visited a mutual friend's music studio in Florence during New Year's Eve. Righi created the melody for the song by playing simple notes on a keyboard to create a futuristic sound. According to him, the chorus "Vamos a la playa, oh oh oh oh oh oh" popped into his head while he was playing on the keyboard.[6] The melodies in the song were later recorded via an old analog synth.[7] The song was inspired by the 1960s and was intended to come out as a post-atomic beach song with electric elements. The major project began in early 1981 and was completed before Righi and Rota left for military service, only to be edited and released later in the spring. With the song gaining its popularity in public, both were allowed by the command to leave the barracks in order to appear on television performances under several occasions.[8] That same year, when Stefano Rota auditioned, he sang both "Vamos a la playa" and an Italian version of the West German electropunk band Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft's song "Der Mussolini", called "Balla Marinetti", while he was partially known under the pseudonym of "Italo Monitor". The Italian title "Balla Marinetti" is a reference to the author and founder of the Futurism movement, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.

Neither Righi nor Rota had any classical education when they decided to start their careers. Both singers were more interested in the sound and melodies of their songs than in actually making them. Their knowledge and interests in graphic design and the film industry helped them become aware of what a modern Italian musician would look like. When the recordings started in 1983, they still lacked the knowledge to produce and release music on their own. They received help from the successful Italian La Bionda brothers, Carmelo and Michelangelo, from Milan. They had met the brothers for the first time in 1982 and signed contracts that would be valid until 1987.[9][10]

Righeira was introduced to the La Bionda brothers as singers, who wanted them to be hosts for a show they were planning because of their look and attitude. The duo denied since they were pressing to do some of their recordings.[11] While Righeira was signed under the name of Carmelo and Michelangelo, they had the opportunity to experiment with their own sound. The duo's debut album, Righeira, released in 1983, featured a futuristic and modern sound with lyrics about nuclear annihilation.[12] This differentiated the duo from their producers, who in the 1970s had achieved success, both in Italy and internationally, within the disco genre for their romantic songs.

Released in early 1983, "Tanzen Mit Righeira" became Righeira's debut single. Between August and September 1983, Righeira recorded eight songs for their debut album, Righeira, at Weryton Studios' premises in Munich, West Germany.[13] After the moderate success of "Tanzen Mit Righeira", the single "Vamos a la playa" was released in May 1983, several months ahead of the album. It reached number one in Italy and held the top spot for seven weeks, while gaining commercial success abroad, selling over three million copies. The success brought increased media exposure and "Vamos a la playa" became a popular catchphrase during the summer, making Righi and Rota well-known faces in Italy.

The duo's third single, "No Tengo Dinero", came out during the autumn and became another international hit. Producer Carmelo La Bionda recalled: "There were producers in Spain who got the inspiration from these hits to start making similar music."[14] The song was written in Spanish because it was considered an unusual combination with electronic pop music.[15] "No Tengo Dinero" was later released in other countries, including the UK and the US, via the A&M label. Short promotional films were made for both songs; they aired on Top of the Pops in September. As their popularity spread, the duo was at first prevented from capitalizing on their successes as they were recalled into fulfilling their military service.

The promotional music video for "No Tengo Dinero" was an animated video, something that was considered an unusual technique to use to make music videos at the time. Because the duo could not record music videos on their own, storyboards were sent to a director to make animated videos. With this method, the duo was able to popularize their new postmodern-futuristic look and even market their music.

The song "Luciano Serra Pilota", which was included on the A-side of the Righeira album, was not released as a single but still achieved good success in Italy. When Stefano Righi wrote the song, he drew inspiration from the Italian war drama film Luciano Serra, Pilot, released in 1938 starring Amedeo Nazzari as Luciano Serra in the leading role. In the animated music video, Righi and Rota are seen dancing and singing, while they stand and sit on a biplane, dressed in pilot uniforms.[16] The music video has been described by German Rolling Stone writer Eric Pfeil as a "parody of fascist heroes".[17]

"Hey Mama", a song recorded in both Italian and Spanish during the summer of 1984, did not peak high on the music charts, and was nevertheless a good success like songs from their debut album Righeira. The song "Hey Mama" was at heavily criticized like many other songs, at first hand seen as a bit too delusional, and not strong enough to make it out on the musical market as a single. When Righi and Rota presented the song lyrics to the La Bionda brothers, they were perplexed and had it re-written. "Hey Mama" was heavily influenced by the hip hop culture which was emerging around the world at that time. In an interview, Righi stated: "The song (Hey Mama) was the fruit of a vision we had at the time. Hip hop culture was emerging almost everywhere. You had for example Afrika Bambaata, the Universal Zulu Nation ... and us, always in our almost psychedelic perspective of things, at a certain point were out to do the promotion around Europe, and we began to have these visions of animalism ... Back to the roots, to the essentials ... let's see this thing about the horns. At that time we saw horns everywhere." He went on to say, "You walked into a nightclub and there was a video and something to do with horns. Then we bought some croissants, Neapolitan ones, with the hunchback. The horns have become a representation of hip hop culture to us ... in reality, I'm now explaining it rationally, but at the time it was all absolutely instinctive."

The song "L'estate sta finendo" was released in May 1985 and quickly reached the charts. The single ended up at number 1 in Italy and stayed there for two weeks.[18] In recent years, the song has become popular in the football world as a reworked football chant and has been played in several clubs throughout the world, including Liverpool F.C. where it is known as "Allez Allez Allez".[19] With the same song, Righeira participated in the Un disco per l'estate summer festival and also managed to win the Festivalbar singing competition the same year. The song, despite its title that the summer is ending, was released when the summer period was about to begin. After the Festivalbar victory, the song became even more popular and finally managed to become the most played song on jukebox during the summer of 1985 in Italy.[20][21] "L'estate sta finendo" was co-written by Righi, Rota and Carmelo La Bionda, although Righi came up with the song himself, while "Crossing the bridge over the Dora aboard tram number 3".[22]

In 1985, Stefano Rota starred in the Italian television variety show Drive In, which aired on the Italia 1 channel, where he performed a sketch together with actor and comedian Enrico Beruschi.

The duo made an appearance at the 36th anniversary of the Sanremo Music Festival in 1986 with the song "Innamoratissimo". The song was quickly noticed by critics, and made them finish in fifteenth place out of twenty-two participating contestants after the final voting.[23] Apart from the duo's lack of knowledge in stage performances and their participation in the first live version of the Sanremo festival, they were praised and met with positive criticism from the critics after their performance. This song was also centered on electronic arrangements that continued the musical discourse undertaken by their producers and arrangers, La Bionda, who had already marked musical trends with disco music in the previous decade. Righi later described their performance at Sanremo as a "turning point" in their career.

In 1986, Righeira's second studio album, Bambini Forever, was released, featuring the single "Italians a Go-Go", which was released in late May. The song had no major success among the Italian people. However, the single "Oasi in città", which was also included on the album, became a hit when it was released the following year.

Among the many musicians who collaborated with Righeira during the 1980s, there is for example Steve Piccolo of The Lounge Lizards, Curt Cress of Alphaville and also Rocco Tanica of Elio e le Storie Tese who was a co-author of the song "Innamoratissimo". Swedish musician Mats Björklund played the guitar on "Gli parlerò di te", who was famous for earlier playing together with Donna Summer.

Righeira released the single "Rimini Splash Down" in 1987. It was co-written together with La Bionda and the singer Raffaella Riva from the Italian Italo disco band Gruppo Italiano. The song eventually became the theme song for the Rimini Rimini anthology comedy film, directed by Sergio Corbucci and released in the spring of the same year. Gruppo Italiano made several collaborations with Righeira during their career and also recorded their own version of the duo's hit from 1985, "L'estate sta finendo", on their cover album Surf in Italy.

Later the same year, they were invited to the 30th anniversary of the Zecchino d'Oro singing competition and made a performance with the song "Annibale".[24][25]

On 4 September 1988, Righeira made a live performance at the Canada's Wonderland theme park in Vaughan, Canada. The performance included songs from the Righeira and Bambini Forever albums as well as the duo's 1988 single "Compañero" and a cover of Patrick Hernandez's song "Born to Be Alive".[26]

"Ferragosto" was released in 1990, a dance single that would be reminiscent of some of the early singles, with new Italo house sounds that were popular for the music of the specific time period. In 1990, Righeira performed "Vamos a la playa" in the musical television program C'era una volta il festival, a competition between famous celebrities that were popular and had a successful musical career during the 1980s or earlier.[27][28]

In 1992, the duo collaborated on the album Uno, Zero, Centomila, which contained songs such as "Vivo al 139" with inspiration from the house genre. Shortly after the album's release, Righi and Rota went their separate ways and the duo disbanded for the first time.

On November 19, 1993, Stefano Righi was arrested in Padua along with 38 others for drug trafficking and possession of drugs.[29] He was imprisoned for five months before being acquitted at the end of the trial.[30]

In the mid-1990s, Stefano Rota gave life to a new project called Gloria Mundi together with songwriters and musicians Franco Battiato and Giusto Pio, which would last until Righeira released their fourth studio album. At the same time, Righi recorded the song "Papalla" with the Italian duo Montefiori Cocktail, which became a manifesto for the newborn Italian lounge scene. In 1999, after a seven-year hiatus, the duo reunited and Righi and Rota began producing music together again.

In 2002, Righeira released an EP, simply entitled EP 2002, with different versions of their classic hit "Vamos a la playa".

In 2006, the fourth studio album Mondovisione was recorded, which was later released on 2 February 2007 in Italy. The album contained the single "La Musica Electronica" which they achieved a moderate success with, with its nostalgic and electronic style. In August 2007, Righeira participated in the launch of the radio program L'estate sta finendo on the R101 radio station. During the same period, Stefano Righi participated in various short films and experiments in metropolitan cinema, including the film Pink Forever, directed by Davide Scovazzo.[31]

A documentary was released in 2008 with the title "Tanzen Mit Righeira", taken from the title of the duo's debut single which was included on the debut album Righeira in 1983. It was produced by Endeniu and made by Alessandro Castelletto. The documentary follows the artistic and human story of the two "brothers".

On 13 June 2011, the Italian rock Subsonica released the single "La funzione", in which Righeira was credited after collaborating with the band.

The duo's second separation came in 2016, seventeen years after the reunification, when Stefano Righi announced his separation, while Stefano Rota announced his plans on moving to the town of Thiene, located in the province of Vicenza in northern Italy.[32]

Since their second separation in 2016, the relationship between Righi and Rota has deteriorated. When asked if Rota would turn up in an interview in August 2020, Righi answered, "I don't think he'll want to, but if he does, I won't send anyone away."[33]

In 2020, Stefano Righi founded his own record label, Kottolengo Recordings. Its headquarters are in Canavese, Italy.[34]

Stefano Righi re-released "Vamos a la playa" in a brand new electro-kraut rock version remixed by musician and record producer Gaudi on 23 July 2021, marking the 40th anniversary of its release.[35][36]

Gipo Farassino and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti were some of the duo's earliest influences.[38]