Nino D’Angelo, one of the most popular Neapolitan artists, was interviewed by Silvia Toffanin at Verissimo’s studios. Great emotions for his story.
Guest at the Verissimo workshops (Canale 5), Nino D’Angeloa great Neapolitan artist, told with an open heart about his career and also about some painful moments of his life, not only in art: “My Italian teacher, middle school, told me that I was a poet who couldn’t speak. The reason is simple: I wrote bigger things than I did, but I didn’t realize it. But – he says – I made a lot of mistakes. And so he said those words to me, adding that I still touched people’s hearts. Life was hard as a kid. I respected everything they said to me and tried to learn from everyone. Wealth was learning. I had no right to education, my father wanted me to go to work when I was 14 because we were six children and I served because “.
Then he added: “I was rich in poverty. Being poor is a wealth, it gives you hope, patience with what may come. Family is true wealth, there is nothing greater. She is home, fortress, you can ask and you know she will never betray you My mother was my first admirer She encouraged me She was the star of the house the artist It was the greatest pain of my life Who lost his mother know He never dies and is beside me now.”
About his wife: “I met Annamaria when I was 12, her father heard me singing at a party in the square and he took me home and said I was talented. I cheated on him because I got engaged to his daughter (laughs, editor’s note). Then my wife got pregnant at 15 and we did “Fuitina”. I organized the wedding with friends. I went on tour with friends and relatives to pay for the wedding expenses with the famous envelopes. Was that a scandal? No, there were a lot of fuitines. It was the most beautiful fuitina of my life that I would do again, with the love of life. I ran away from so many bad things, this time I’m for the best reason ran away. When I… wrote “nu jean e na shirt”, when I looked at it I said that she had married a rich man. And she said to me: “nu tien ‘na lira, nun can magnà”. I said, “You don’t understand, I wrote the song of my life that will make us rich.” Always in my repertoire, everything was changing. I was a wedding singer then. I sold ice cream and coffee on trains like Nino Man Fredi at Café Express. And then I sold the shoes. Then I was lucky that my father-in-law brought me to his house”.
“Being rich among the poor is very difficult. But I have never changed – he recalls – thanks to my mother. My mother told me that the same pain of childbirth was the same for me as for all other brothers. Loving family is a commandment. : Whoever is better off helps others. I had a family that didn’t take advantage of that. Parents are always there, watching us from above”.
“Leaving Naples hurt me – he’s moved – coming out of nowhere and from the people, I didn’t expect to have to deal with the bad people that are a small part. Naples is a city full of love, that was the ugliest of all my life. I went to Rome, but I have a house in Naples, in Casoria, where I go three times a week. My children grew up in Rome. Was I afraid? More than afraid, offended. I had nothing taken by anyone, i was lucky with talent. It’s disgusting, it can’t be explained well. When someone asks you for something that’s not right, you don’t live it well, they’re not human. It scares you. For me There is forgiveness, I’m a Catholic but they hurt me too much, me like a lot of Neapolitans, they shot in my house about 35-40 years ago, they were blackmail, they knew I came out of nowhere, but i have always helped the those who asked me for help for those who had as little as I did. There was so much fear for my family, and my Mog Lie wanted to leave, putting me at a crossroads: I chose them, my family. My greatest success is my children. One is a journalist and the other a director”.
Then he surrenders to the emotions of his son Vincenzo’s words and bursts into tears: “Children are hearts that go elsewhere. Son, it’s nice to be and to have her. We are all children, that’s the most beautiful word that exists, more than happiness. They are your life and your breath. And then the grandchildren… Maya, Edoardo, Leonardo and Gaetano, who, like me, is called “D’Angelo Gaetano di Antonio”.