Vasco Rossi

Doubtless Italy's one and only true rock star, Vasco Rossi is not only the most successful Italian singer since the 1980s, but he is also the most realistic and consistent incarnation of the triad of sex, drugs (or alcohol), and rock & roll. Ignored -- when not hated -- by the critics but adored by his fans, Rossi was the first Italian artist to tour the stadiums (at the end of the 1980s), reaching the apex of a popularity that has survived uncountable trend changes and at least two full decades. His songs, heavy riff-based rockers and romantic power ballads, and his lyrics made him a sort of a prophet for a generation of disappointed youngsters who found in them an escape, a door to an easier, reckless life: the "Vita Spericolata" described in one of his most famous hits.

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