There are coincidences that seem written by someone with a refined taste for symmetry. On February 24, 2026, Tullio De Piscopo turned 80. Three days later, on February 27, he will go on stage at the Ariston Theater for the duets evening, alongside LDA and AKA 7EVEN, to sing Slow progress.
Not a simple return. A circle that closes — and reopens.
Why Slow progress it is not just any song in its history: it debuted in Sanremo on 24 February 1988, thirty-seven years ago. The same date as his birthday. That song was born on a day like this, and today it returns to the stage that saw it born while its author celebrates eight decades of life and rhythm. A coincidence that has the flavor of a drawing, of a story that knows how to tell itself.
Talking about a finish line, however, would be an understatement. De Piscopo has never had the profile of someone who stops to count the years. Born in Naples on 24 February 1946, he crossed jazz, funk, pop and Neapolitan tradition with a rare freedom, leaving his mark alongside Astor Piazzolla, Quincy Jones, Chet Baker, Mina, Fabrizio De André, Lucio Dalla, Franco Battiato. And it is with Pino Daniele that his path became a shared vision: together they built a new language, profoundly identifying, capable of blending blues, Neapolitan roots and modernity. A silent revolution that changed the sound of Italian music.
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Slow progress
Slow progress it is perhaps the most powerful symbol of that season: a collective heartbeat that has crossed generations without missing a beat, and which on the stage of Sanremo 2026 returns to resonate with the same strength as thirty-seven years ago. Not nostalgia — continuity. Not a past that is commemorated, but a present that is renewed.
After all, Ariston is the right place for this moment. A stage that has a long memory, and which this time hosted something more than a guest: it hosted a double anniversary, intimate and collective at the same time.
2026 promises to be a full year for De Piscopo: there’s the tour 80 Tullio – The Last Tour… Nun ‘O Saccio! — an ironic and sincere title like its protagonist, who even when he talks about leaving leaves the door open to the unexpected — and in the spring a celebratory four-vinyl box set will arrive with the entire artistic journey and an unreleased, Mirandaa reminder that the story is not over yet.
But it all begins here, in these days of late February. Eighty years old on the 24th, Sanremo on the 27th. The rhythm that calls, and Tullio De Piscopo who responds – as he always has.
