Ancora
by Eduardo De Crescenzo
How to study this song
Learning “Ancora” means 53 entries at A2 — 15 Italian words, 8 adjectives and 30 verb forms, every one taken from what the song actually says. Work through the glossary first: notte, chiodo and casino are the words you will lean on most. This one leans on its verbs: 30 distinct forms against 8 adjectives, so conjugation is where the effort goes. At this level the goal is recognition: hear a word, place it, keep going.
The words of this song, in six languages
Every word below is taken from this song and translated by us. Nothing here is the lyric itself — these are the individual words you need in order to follow it.
Vocabulary
| IT | EN | ES | FR | PT | NL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| notte | night | noche | nuit | noite | nacht |
| chiodo | nail | clavo | clou |
Adjectives
| IT | EN | ES | FR | PT | NL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| alta | high; late (of the night) | alta; avanzada (la noche) | haute; avancée (la nuit) | alta; avançada (a noite) | hoog; diep (in de nacht) |
| sveglio | awake | despierto |
Verb forms
| IT | EN | ES | FR | PT | NL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sono | I am | estoy, soy | je suis | estou, sou | ik ben |
| sei | you are | eres, estás | tu es |
What this song teaches you
Level · A2
- Vocabulary words
- 15
- Adjectives
- 8
- Word combos
- 8
- Expressions
- 12
- Verb forms
- 30
- Quiz questions
- 35
Background
About the song
«Ancora» was released in February 1981 as a 45 rpm single on Dischi Ricordi, with «Il treno» on the B-side, and it is the song that turned Eduardo De Crescenzo from a respected musician into a household name in Italy. Both sides were written by the same team: the lyrics are by Franco Migliacci, one of the great lyricists of Italian popular music and co-author of «Nel blu, dipinto di blu», and the music is by the composer Claudio Mattone. Within weeks of its release it was in the Italian top five, and more than forty years later it is still one of the most recognisable ballads of the period.
De Crescenzo was born in Naples on 8 February 1951 and was, in the most literal sense, a child of music. He was given his first accordion at the age of three and made his stage debut at the Teatro Argentina in Rome when he was only five. He went on to study classical music, and in the late 1960s he played in a beat group, as so many young Italian musicians did at the time. By the end of the 1970s he was known in the business as an excellent accordionist and singer, but he had never had a hit of his own. «Ancora» changed that almost overnight.
The turning point was the thirty-first Festival di Sanremo, held from 5 to 7 February 1981 and presented by Claudio Cecchetto together with Eleonora Vallone. Twenty-eight songs were in competition, and the festival was won by Alice with «Per Elisa», ahead of Loretta Goggi with «Maledetta primavera». «Ancora» came through the preliminary rounds and reached the final, but it did not finish among the top ten in the public vote. What made the difference was a separate jury of quality, presided over by the film director Sergio Leone and including actors such as Alberto Sordi, Ugo Tognazzi, Giancarlo Giannini and Eleonora Giorgi. That jury gave De Crescenzo its award for the best performance of the festival. The idea proved so successful that from the following year Sanremo made it permanent, as the Critics’ Prize that still exists today.
The song is a love ballad sung by a man who cannot sleep. It is the middle of the night and he lies awake, unable to stop thinking about a woman who is no longer with him. He looks back on how much trouble he went through to win her, on a love that had not had time to ripen, and on the cruel timing of losing her just when he had come to love her properly. In the chorus a single word, repeated three times, carries the whole weight of the song: he still wants her, he is still stuck, and nothing has moved on since the evening they parted. He insists that no one else, not even an angel, could make him feel the way she did.