Franco Trincale, Italy’s last great ‘cantastorie’—a traditional wandering musician who sings the news—is still performing at the age of 90 from his nursing home in Milan. Once a barber’s boy in Sicily, he rose to fame by combining true crime and political scandals in song, and even antagonised former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Trincale has spent six decades walking Milan’s streets, singing about key moments in history: 1970s terrorism, Berlusconi’s election, the Iraq war. He has released over 30 albums and performed from the USSR to the US. He also played a role in Italy’s labour rights movement, providing a soundtrack to workers’ protests.
His style of ‘journalism in songs’ was born outside factories in the 1950s, where he shortened traditional hour-long ballads to fit workers’ short breaks. Labour conditions became a theme, with workers asking him to write about their struggles. Trincale also covered true crime, such as the 1969 kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Ermanno Lavorini, in a series of recordings that anticipated modern true crime podcasts.
Now living in the Il Parco delle Cave nursing home, Trincale organised a Valentine’s Day concert for 150 residents and relatives. His voice struggled with high notes, but the audience helped him along. His wife Lina, who has Alzheimer’s, watched from the front row.
‘Cantastorie’ emerged in early 20th-century Italy as public opinion formed, says anthropologist Mauro Geraci. Unlike other travelling musicians, they only sing about real-life stories. Trincale became a cantastorie out of necessity after leaving the navy and failing at selling vegetables. He moved to Milan in 1959 and never looked back.
