It was June 29, 2016. YouTube was still a favorite medium for reaching “other” audiences, the non-mainstream. Not that Spotify wasn’t there, but the music world was experiencing its most radical change. Trump was not yet president of the United States of America, artificial intelligence seemed like something for nerds, and we did not know what a pandemic was. Maybe the world was more beautiful, maybe it was just an illusion, maybe feelings felt like something we could feel on our skin. That’s probably one of the reasons why when Coez, stage name of Silvano Albanese, released “Lontana da me” it immediately caught the attention of the writer. One of the most beautiful love songs of the last two decades. It probably is. But going back to that June 29, 2016, the unplugged version was even more powerful. Not only because it was performed in a vocal and guitar version, but because the location chosen by Coez for that performance was quite evocative and poetic. A terrace, a rooftop, call it what you will. “From the rooftop,” indeed.
“The fact that we did a format that at first started with just my guitarist playing the loopstation on the rooftops was a way to give the songs a more intimate feel especially when maybe pushing so much with the album toward a more pop, more radio dimension. It was a way to make the songs heard in their most bare form, so sometimes more emotional. So it was born for that, I actually never explained it, it’s not really acoustic. In the sense, yes, maybe in some songs we decided to bring a string trio, there is piano on the roof, however we still play electric guitar, bass, synth bass, synthesizers. In the previous version we even had the 808 on the drums, so in short it is not the MTV Unplugged, because that one is really an acoustic. It’s a project that I’m very attached to, every year that we do it we somehow try to upgrade, in fact we are more and more on the roof,” Coez explains.
A title that immediately became iconic in the imagination not only of fans, but of all music fans in Italy, who from that day immediately associated that place, so close to heaven, with Coez. A sort of brand, a format, inextricably linked to his career that then from “They were not flowers” was able to take the there turning him into one of the most beautiful and established pens we have in Italy. Since 2016, now 10 years ago, water under the bridge has passed, things have changed, as have so many songs that Coez has given to his audience. But above all, there was another “From The Rooftop,” in 2022, which brought back some chills to those who listen to him assiduously and loved that format. Now, 10 years after the first, and 4 years after the second, the third chapter of this so successful format is ready to be released, which Coez presented to the press yesterday, Monday, May 18, 2026, at Cinema Anteo in Milan. With a small screening of some excerpts of the performances recorded for this edition, as well as a free chat with the journalists present, including us, to tell what he perhaps never did all the way through. Since “From The Rooftop” has always had a life of its own and has not had too many introductions to pierce the screen and become what it is today.
“The format, to be a format, somehow has to have rules. I gave myself the rules at the beginning and now I have to respect them. Which is not very easy, because for example anyway inside there is always a rap piece, inside there is always a song let’s say from my world which is that of the modern song, indie I don’t know, call it what you want, I don’t know either. Maybe in the beginning it started out that there was also a big Italian piece, now instead we have included the unreleased already from the previous version, from the previous season. So basically here is also there is a little bit of a difficulty, in the sense that when you go to the studio we maybe can pull out 7-8 songs. It’s not necessarily that everything we try, I can interpret it well or it will come out well in such a sparse form. The difficulty with the format is that so many things are rehearsed and then still don’t see the light of day. On this rooftop I have to say that with Colombre we took a long time to choose the songs, we have been working for maybe I won’t say a year but in short we are there. Clearly we discarded a lot of songs, we also had other collaborations in our heads, but then they didn’t work out precisely because of a fact that anyway it is not certain that a song will come out well sung by everyone,” the Roman artist explains further.
But it is good to remember, it is also good to dwell on what has been and what will be. Because from the initial formula of “From the Rooftop” there have been rules and novelties. As well as this year, the first time away, since the terrace chosen by Coez is the one in Florence at the Hotel Baglioni. After the two times in Rome, a novelty that also coincides with the From The Rooftop Tour, which will start with the two sold out performances on July 8 and 9 at the Amphitheater of the Cascine right in Florence, and then continue on July 11 at the Amphitheater of the Ruins of Pompeii (NA), July 16 at Lake Sound Park in Cernobbio (CO), July 18 at the No Borders Music Festival at Laghi di Fusine in Tarvisio (UD), July 22 in Piazza dei Cavalieri in Pisa, July 25 and 26 at the Amphitheater del Vittoriale in Gardone Riviera (BS, sold out), July 30 at Piazza Monastero Colonna in Trani (BAT), Aug. 1 and 2 again at the Amphitheater del Vittoriale in Gardone Riviera (BS) (first date sold out), Aug. 4 at Rocca Maggiore in Assisi, Aug. 28 at Palazzo Te in Mantua, Sept. 2 and 3 at the Sferisterio in Macerata (second date sold out), Sept. 5 and 6 at the Teatro Romano in Verona (first date sold out), Sept. 10 at the Teatro Antico in Taormina (ME), and concluding Sept. 12 and 13 at the Teatro di Verdura in Palermo (first date sold out).
We were saying about Florence, how did you come to this choice? “We still try to create something new, different every time. The first rooftop was every piece on a rooftop in two, I mean, around Rome. The second one we really managed to do this direct take, however we were very scared of the weather, the wind, and so we did it in a hotel that had this tensile structure around it, like a veranda, that you could open, so towards the end then we managed to open it, still in Rome. This year we did a little bit of scouting around Italy, and we saw this hotel that was amazing, right in the center of Florence. Plus with the tour we start from there so then it seemed like a good idea anyway, here.”
A new tour that is becoming more and more played, on the wave of what has already happened in recent years. “If I look at what’s going on in my discography, from the previous album to now, I’m definitely moving towards the more played out world, towards something more minimal. Even maybe 1998, which is the previous album, I think it was somehow going towards this direction, even the concerts that were done in London were all of them without sequences, without clicks, so I think just in general I’m going towards this direction just artistically. Maybe the choice of Colombre, who precisely is also a musician who is very good at improvising, who never does one take the same as another, was also because of that,” Coez says.
Dozens of professionals involved, several collaborations, even an unreleased song. More precisely, “Nothing to Hide,” which opens the tracklist consisting of tracks such as “I Make a Mess,” already released on YouTube by the singer-songwriter, “Blatte” with Colombre, but also “Speak Softly / You Are My Lady” with California.
Ten years, we said, but has the spirit remained the same for Coez? Answering this is him directly. “In the beginning, I’m honest, we wanted to record it on a rooftop, however with our limited means we still recorded the auditions and then did playbacks. Because basically just also economically we didn’t have a structure, we didn’t really have the personnel, so it was really me and my guitarist doing this thing. The first time we went on this roof to record and it was windy, it was in short a mess. So I think the intent is still there, which is basically to emote with the songs to precisely get them across in a more intimate way, such as what happens in the theater as well.”
The songs that must excite. But does Coez still get as excited as he did the first time, singing dozens of feet above the ground? “Let’s say that in my opinion the rooftop captures a little bit that feeling, even a little bit that adrenaline of not making a mistake. However, on the rooftop we are sometimes as many as 30 people. So when a clapperboard starts, it creates a little bit of a climate … I don’t want to call it tension, I don’t want to give it a negative term, however that thing there already anyway puts you in a live dimension. I still get excited at concerts. And on rooftops you create that thing there, with a very good technique behind it. And so yes, to answer, I still get excited even with From The Rooftop.”
Not only terraces and skylines, in short. As of May 8, in fact, “CI VUOLE UNA LAUREA (from the Netflix Series “Due Spicci”),” the new single by Coez featured in the trailer and soundtrack of the new animated series “DUE SPICCI” created, written and directed by Zerocalcare, produced by Movimenti Production, part of Banijay Kids & Family, in collaboration with BAO Publishing, is available, and will arrive only on Netflix on May 27. About the partnership with Zerocalcare, Coez revealed, “He and I have known each other for a long time, every now and then we talk, anyway we are both from Rome, we have met several times for other things as well. I remember once I wanted to make a video, he still didn’t make cartoons and I wanted to know if he was willing to make me a minute cartoon and we met because he didn’t know how to make it. I mean just everybody wanted something that then he didn’t get. And then after months I started to see that he was doing these stories that he also called the cartoons, I mean, and then clearly subsequently I saw all the Netflix stuff. I was always a fan. I had played him a piece of 1998. I had actually written to him, “Oh listen to the song, it made me think of your series the old one,” actually it could have been just the soundtrack to that old one. And he said, “Look I was going to call you, I’m not doing anything with this track, said though it would be cool if you have something.” We met up and went to lunch, had a chat, and then in short established that he loved the piece I had sent him however he would never use it – that one for example was very rock, it was much harder. However, when he told me what kind of series he was doing, I played him this other piece, which anyway for me has a little bit of the ’90s vibe, even a little bit of the 883 vibe, which anyway knowing him, knowing his taste, they could easily marry well. And in fact he chose it, he liked it right away.”
[📸 Tommybiagetti; Courtesy of Words For You]
