It’s not easy to reconcile career and personal life when you have a string of successes and tours all over the world. Salvatore Adamo has paid the price, both in his roles as father and grandfather, in which he struggles to find his place.
With around fifty albums under his belt, and sales estimated at nearly 12 million copies in France alone, Salvatore Adamo is a monument of song. And at 82 years old, the Italian-Belgian artist does not intend to stop there.
Salvatore Adamo “wants a little” : “My granddaughters are complaining”
Recently, he unveiled a new studio album, Medlars and currants. However, this workaholic who dedicated his life to his career sometimes had to make painful choices. “This hobby – I don’t dare call it a profession – involves a total gift of oneself. At a given moment, you have to choose between seeing my granddaughters in London and doing a concert”he admitted on RFI.
“It’s the eternal dilemma and we blame ourselves a little. But to be honest, when the audience gives you such a standing ovation when you enter the stage that you can’t even sing behind it, the reward is there”he continued. Before concluding, resignedly: “It’s certainly selfish compared to the fact that my granddaughters complain about not seeing me often enough. The happy medium is difficult to find”.
Salvatore Adamo grandfather model for Lily: “That’s how it ends up on my new album”
This father of three children – Benjamin (drummer), Anthony (airline pilot) and Amélie (artist) – has often expressed regrets about the education of his children. “Not only was he never there, because he went on tours and galas all over the world. But he also made mistakes, leading people to believe for twenty-five years that Amélie was the daughter of Nicole, his wife, when she was born from his romance with the German actress Annette Dahl”told the journalists of Paris Match. “My three children and my granddaughters live abroad, I rarely see them. So I plan ahead, I hope to still be here in ten years to see them fulfill their lives”the principal concerned also informed them.
Grandfather more absent than average, the interpreter of the legendary hit Snow falls However, don’t forget to share your passions with your offspring. As he revealed to Paris Match last January, his first granddaughter, Lily, followed in his footsteps. The young girl, who lives in London, started a group at her school, and has just won a first prize. She even makes an appearance on her latest album:“Lily has an innocence in her voice that touches me deeply. So I asked her to record a few sentences on her iPhone. And that’s how she ends up on my new album”.
