TENCO PRIZE
The Rassegna della Canzone d’Autore – Premio Tenco was born in Sanremo in 1974 on the initiative of Amilcare Rambaldi, founder of the Club Tenco, with the aim of promoting and supporting singer-songwriter music. It is held at the Teatro Ariston in Sanremo and soon became a cultural point of reference, hosting some of the most important artists of the Italian and international music scene.
In 1982 Andrea Pazienza began attending the Premio Tenco, together with his friend Vincenzo Mollica. During his first participation he recounted the festival experience every day through a personal diary of texts and drawings, posted on the theater’s noticeboard. Some of Andrea’s drawings were later collected in the volume Caro Diario.
At the 1982 edition Andrea engaged in delightful verbal “duels” — and even an arm-wrestling session — with Francesco Guccini, exchanging affectionate jabs and witty mock postcards, in a creative game that reflected the free and convivial spirit of the Tenco.
Two works by Andrea created to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Premio Tenco.
In a strip drawn in 1984 and published in Il Cantautore, distributed at the Premio Tenco in October of the following year, Andrea imagines and recounts a meeting with his character Zanardi at the Teatro del Giglio in Sanremo.