1991 Italy: Peppino di Capri - Comme è ddoce o mare (7th place at Eurovision Song Contest) SUBTITLES

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Performed by: Peppino di Capri
Music by: Marcello Marocchi
Lyrics by: Giampiero Artegiani
Conductor: Bruno Canfora
Language: Neapolitan
Placing: 7th (89 points)

If you want to read the original lyrics please click the SUBTITLES button. And if you wish to understand them, select the language of your choice in the settings.

"Comme è ddoce 'o mare" (English translation: "How Sweet Is the Sea") was the Italian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1991, performed in the minority Neapolitan language by Peppino di Capri. This was the first occasion on which Italy had not performed at least partly in Italian. Additionally, it was the first time that a host nation had ever submitted an entry in a minority language.

With music by Marcello Marocchi and lyrics by Giampiero Artegiani, the song is a ballad comparing the beauty of the singer's lover to that of the ocean. Di Capri opens the song by explaining that "Only the one who never falls in love/Doesn't have a heart to sing". Later, he tells his lover, "When I call you: "Butterfly"/Fly and I'll fly with you" and declares that "Love is what make us live".

The song was performed twenty-second on the night (following Cyprus' Elena Patroklou with "SOS"). At the close of voting, it had received 89 points, placing 7th in a field of 22.

Peppino began singing and playing the piano at age 4, entertaining the American army troops stationed on the island of Capri with a repertoire of American standards. After 6 years of classical studies and playing at nightclubs around Capri, Peppino and his group The Rockers released their first single, with the songs "Malattia" ("Sickness") and "Nun è Peccato" ("It's not a sin"), sung in Napoletano in 1958.

The single was an instant hit, and Peppino spent most of the following year touring. A string of hit singles soon followed, usually alternating between Italian versions of American rock'n'roll and twist songs (with some verses sung in English), and originals in Italian and Napoletano, and di Capri became one of the top acts in the country.

After performing as the opening act for The Beatles in their 1965 tour of Italy, Peppino and his group attempted, with moderate success, to break out of the European market. Their work was well received, particularly in Brazil, thanks to the large Italian immigrant community in the country.

The 1970s saw Peppino with a new band, the New Rockers. He won the prestigious Festival della canzone italiana ("Festival of Italian song", better known as the San Remo Festival) in 1973, with the song "Un grande amore e niente più" ("A great love and nothing more").

He won the Festival della canzone italiana again in 1976, with the song "Non lo faccio più" ("I won't do it anymore"). In 1991, he represented Italy at the Eurovision song contest, coming in 7th place with the song "Comme è ddoce 'o mare" ("How sweet is the sea"), sung in Neapolitan.

As of 2006, Peppino di Capri is the performer with the most appearances (15) at the Festival della canzone italiana, his last appearance being in 2005, singing "La Panchina" ("The little park bench").

Lyrics:

Comme è ddoce 'o mare

Ammore, sole, mare, luna e stelle
Parole belle, sò parole belle
Nisciuno ha scritto mai cchiù doce e cheste
Parole sò, parole ma
Ma surtanto chi, nun s'annammora maje
Nun tene 'o core p' 'e cantà

Ma comme è ddoce 'o mare
Comme si ddoce tu
Quanno l'ammore è ggiovane
Te vene voglia 'e cantà

Ma comme è bello 'o sole
Quanno tu staje cu' mme
Quanno te chiamme palummè
Vola, e i' volo cu' tte

E gira, gira 'o munno
Gira mmiez 'a tutte 'e stelle nun se pò fermà
E canta, canta 'nà canzona
Cà nisciuno sente, cà nisciuno sà
Da sempe accussì, pe' sempe sarrà
L'ammore è chillo cà ce fà campà

Ammore, sole, mare, luna e stelle
So' sempe belle p' 'e cantà

Ma comme è ddoce 'o mare
Comme si ddoce tu
Quanno l'ammore è ggiovane
Te vene voglia 'e cantà

Ma comme è bello 'o sole
Quanno tu staje cu' mme
Quanno te chiamme palummè
Vola, e i' volo cu' tte

Quanno te chiamme palummè
Vola, e i' volo cu' tte

TRANSLATION:

How sweet is the sea
Love, sun, sea, moon and stars
Beautiful words, they're beautiful words
Sweeter than those nobody has ever written
They're just words, words but
Only the one who never falls in love
Doesn't have a heart to sing

But how sweet the sea is
How sweet you are
When love is young
You feel like singing

But how beautiful the sun is
When you stand by me
When I call you butterfly
Fly and I'll fly with you

And round, round, the world goes
Round among the stars and I can't stop
And you sing, sing a song
That nobody can hear, that nobody knows
It has always been like this, and it'll always be the same
Love is what makes us live

Love, sun, sea, moon and stars
Are always nice to sing about

But how sweet the sea is
How sweet you are
When love is young
You feel like singing

But how sweet the sun is
When you stand by me
When I call you butterfly
Fly and I'll fly with you

When I call you butterfly
Fly and I'll fly for you