In his vessels, Greeks, Norman and Byzantine blood; in his heart the South fire, in his voice the MEDITERRANEO sound: AIELLO is a moving artist, tainted and contemporary.

Cosenzian by birth, he started to study piano and violin at the age of 10, by growing on bread and R&B.

When he was 16, he wrote the first lyrics and in 2011 he published the first of his songs: Riparo.

Hungry for music, he decided to travel and to search for inspiration beyond the national boundaries. After the Australian break, he came back to Italy and started to work at unreleased acoustics that helped in shaping a more and more original musical style.In 2017 he released HI-HELLO, his first EP, an indie-pop electronic project preceded by the single COME STAI.

His music experienced a unique evolution and on the 27 of September 2019 the first album EX VOTO was realized, among the most awaited record projects of that autumn, and revealed in advance by three pieces: Arsenico (certified platinum), La mia ultima storia (certified gold) and Il cielo di Roma.

Last February AIELLO joined the Sanremo Festival as a singer in the Campioni group withheld song ORA, that is part of the new recording project of the artist, MERIDIONALE.

We met him in Milan on the set of the exclusive editorial. Here’s what he told us:

When was your passion for music born?

When I was very young, I enjoyed myself by singing with my cousins. Later I started to do that alone, in front of the mirror while watching MTV on the TV. Soon, it became a real need for me and when I was 16 I started to write songs and to have chant lessons. It became something serious.

What’s the first song you sang?

The first song I wrote and sang was an R&B entitled Come le onde del mare which tells about a very anguished teenage love.

From Sanremo Giovani in 2011 to Sanremo 2021: your pay long dues and different from the contemporary standards according to which fastness is the rule. What are your best and worst moments in these long years?

Actually, in 2011 I did not manage to reach the final phase of the Festival. Since than, but maybe even before, I have experienced an embryonic phase of experimentation and research. In 2019 I recorded Arsenico independently. Thanks to Arsenico the record companies came to me. So, yes. Mine has been a cross-current path: slow and exciting. A contaminated and contemporary new pop path in constant progress. I love mixing.

As said, Arsenico is the consecration single. What does it represent for you and what did you want it to tell?

Arsenico is the piece of the epiphany to me and the audience. But to the audience, only my voice and my texture were revealed. Not my face. This used to thrill me a lot, it was and is a victory: the song and the content were more important than the appearance, in the era when appearance prevails. Arsenico is a detox, cathartic song. Arsenico represents the heart rebirth after the end of a love story.

In 2021 you joined Sanremo and, let’s say that, the disclosure to the great audience. The single ORA and the album MERIDIONALE are a homage to your roots, to your present, to your future, to Aiello. What may you say about that?

I don’t think 2021 Is the year of the reveal or the consecration. It wasn’t my first year for Sanremo. Because of some misfortune, since the first night, I didn’t live that experience in a positive way. It certainly was an opportunity for a bigger and important meeting. MERIDIONALE is an instinctive and conceptual work at the same time. It’ tainted. It has different colors with the aim of surprising without dazing. MERIDIONALE represents the courage to do. It’s a roots story. The story of the South, the Greek, the Spanish, the Byzantine, the Normans. MERIDIONALE is a not-so-direct album but with a more contemporary vibe. Its sound and arrangement made me enthusiastic. Music is change. MERIDIONALE is that as well and I’m sure the third album will be even different.

FINO ALL’ALBA (ti sento) is the new single available on all the channels and on the radio since June, 25. FINO ALL’ALBA (ti sento) is the way you see summer, your personal southern urban manifesto.

In summer it can make people dance but without becoming one of the clichès that satisfy the right need for levity but tell nothing. There’s something else. I don’t write summer songs. MERIDIONALE, the whole work, is done of this particular period of history. We can say it’s more clubbing than the past projects. My goal with FINO ALL’ALBA (ti sento) was to make people dance and launch. The message is important even today, in 2021: it’s a message of love, free love. It’s a hymn to the diversity you must be proud of. This is the added value, my added value.

Just like the lyrics, the video tells about love, free love. What about the partnership with Giulio Rosati, the director?

The video clips world, I’m fond of it. It’s the additional element. I have been collaborating with Giulio for a long time, he’s a friend and an incredible professional. I want now to decode some possibly enigmatic point in the video: I’m actually the bull. Children represent freedom: freedom to think and to do. Their hide-and-seek is the search that every single human being performs, or should, to evolve and improve. Even the other guys represent freedom, but a more conscious one. And then, the ‘bullfighter’ is passion (and also my animal-rights soul).

At last, the tours have started again!

At last! MERIDIONALE is having different stops in Southern and Northern Italy: Ortona on August, 14; Messina, on August 17; Reggio Calabria on August 24; Lecce on September 10…. In autumn we are meeting the club audience again, hoping we get a larger freedom. The tour represents the synthesis of two works and a mix of energy and freedom, romanticism, thinking, dancing.

How great is your emotion in being on the stage again in front of an audience?

The stage is the dream of my life. Listening to your voice on the radio is exciting as well, but the stage is an emotion! To see faces, eyes, mouths singing your songs… priceless!!!

Future projects?

The summer and the autumn lives and then the new album!

Talent: AIELLO
Interview + Styling: Luca Imbimbo
Photography: Simon
Production: Simona Pavan
Fashion Coordinator: Corinna Fusco
Grooming: Chiara Marinosci @GREEN APPLE
Fashion Assistants: Bianca Passamonti & Greta Trizzino
BRANDS: Fendi, Lanvin, Maison Margiela, N.21 – FW21-22