Italian television stations recently paid tribute to the late Neapolitan singer Pino Daniele. Personally, I have not heard much of his songs and so I was intrigued by his massive popularity.

In one of the programmes it was pointed out that 200,000 people attended his 1981 concert in Naples.

However, when I heard his famous song Napule è, it brought back memories as I had just got hold of the film Passione by John Turturro.

This song is the last one in the film, complete with fireworks, a fitting ending to a great film.

In this film Turturro managed to pick up some of the most popular Neapolitan songs and gave them a new musical arrangement in a totally humble atmosphere, which brought back their popularity.

This reminds me of the time Claudio Baglioni sang L-aħħar bidwi f’Wied il-Għasel when he performed at the Valletta Waterfront some years ago.

The crowd went crazy and the song regained its popularity.

This shows that we have great Maltese songs, which maybe with a different musical arrangement can always remain popular, no matter how old they are.