Righeira

Righeira were an Italian italo disco duo formed in Turin in 1983. The duo consisted of Stefano Righi and Stefano Rota. They have had a number of hit singles, reaching the top five in many countries. Some of their most popular and widely known singles are "Vamos a la playa", "No Tengo Dinero", "L'estate sta finendo", "Innamoratissimo", "Hey Mama" and "Italians a Go-Go".
From 1983 and onwards, Righeira worked actively until they split up in 1992. In 1999, they were reunited and made a successful comeback, by then recording and releasing music between 1999 and 2007. The duo released re-recorded versions of some of their hit songs, including "Vamos a la playa" in 2001. After the duo's second and final break-up in 2016, they had sold millions of singles and albums worldwide.
History.
1980–1983: Formation and early debuts.
Stefano Rota and Stefano Righi first met in the Albert Einstein "Liceo scientifico" (high school) located in the Barriera district of Milan in Turin. Originally they both changed their names to Michael Righeira & Johnson Righeira, after deciding to become musical brothers, both adopting the surname "Righeira", a name that Johnson had jokingly obtained by Brazilianizing his surname Righi, while playing football during the hours of physical education in school.
In 1980, Righi recorded his first single as a debut singer called "Bianca Surf", with the executive production by Giulio Tedeschi and the artistic production by Oderso Rubini. The Bologna-based comedy punk band Skiantos also played on the same disc, and a punk rock version of the song was later recorded by Righi with the help of Freak Antoni. Other songs and early musical material recorded and produced by Righi was released in 2006 on a CD entitled "Ex punk".
By 1981, Righi had come up with the idea of the song "Vamos a la playa" and recorded it. The song itself was influenced by the 1960s and was meant to come out as a post-atomic beach song with an electric sound. During Stefano Rota's singing debut, he sang both "Vamos a la playa" and an Italian cover of D.A.F.'s song "Der Mussolini", while he was partially known under the pseudonym of "Italo Monitor".
Neither Righi or Rota were classically trained and were more interested in the sound of their music rather than making it. Both members were highly interested in design that were either taken from films or simply just artistic and they were very aware of how the concept of a modern Italian musician could look like. Righeira was officially founded in the beginning of 1983, and since they lacked the knowledge of producing and selling music by themselves, they ran into and immediately made use of the record production of the successful Italian La Bionda brothers from Milan, with whom they signed a production contract which came to last until 1987.
1983–1987: International fame and public appearances.
Vamos a la playa and No Tengo Dinero.
In the spring of 1983, the summer torment "Vamos a la playa" was released by the record company CGD and achieved massive success during the summer. The name of the song became a popular catchphrase during the summer of 1983 and reached the top of the Italian charts and remained there for seven weeks (from 20 August to 1 October), selling over three million copies. With "Vamos a la playa" being such a resounding success, and one the first summer torments of Italian discography, Stefano Righi and Rota became well-known faces that summer. The original "Vamos a la playa" song had been written, recorded and released in 1981 by Stefano Righi, already then by the CGD record company, but featured a much different sound than the 1983 version.
In the autumn of the same year, their next song, "No Tengo Dinero", became another holiday hit. The song, which was written in Spanish just as "Vamos a la playa", was seen as rather unusual in an era in which English was most popular in Italian pop productions. It peaked lower on the charts than their previous hit, but it was enough to indicate the duo as one of the revelations of that year. The song was also released in other foreign countries, including the United States, by the A&M label. The idea of the song came from Rota, which was developed with the help of La Bionda, but was first criticized as it seemed to be a bit passed off as the follow up to "Vamos a la playa".
Hey Mama and Luciano Serra Pilota.
"Hey Mama", recorded (in Italian and Spanish) in the summer of 1984, did not rise high on the charts, and was nevertheless a good success like their debut album, and among those songs were also "Luciano Serra Pilota", which was inspired by the famous film starring Amedeo Nazzari. The song "Hey Mama" was at first hand seen as a bit too delusional and not strong enough to be a single. When Righi and Rota presented the song lyrics to the La Bionda brothers, they were perplexed and had it re-written. "Hey Mama" was heavily influenced by the hip hop culture which was emerging around the world at that time. In an interview, Righi stated: ""Hey Mama" was the fruit of a vision we had had at the time. Hip hop culture was emerging almost everywhere. There was Afrika Bambaata, the Zulu Nation ... and us, always in our almost psychedelic perspective of things, at a certain point were out to do the promotion around Europe, and we began to have these visions of animalism ... no? Back to the roots, to the essentials ... and then let's see this thing about the horns. At that time we saw horns everywhere." He went on to say, "You walked into a nightclub, there was a video and there was something with horns. And we began to buy croissants, the Neapolitan ones, the ones with the hunchback. The horns have become for us a bit of the representation of hip hop culture ... then in reality now I'm explaining it rationally, at the time it was absolutely all instinctive."
L'estate sta finendo, Un disco per l'estate, Festivalbar, Sanremo and "Bambini Forever".
"L'estate sta finendo" was released in 1985 and hit No. 1 in Italy where it stayed for two weeks. The song has since found popularity as a reworked football chant at several clubs throughout the world, such as at Liverpool F.C. where it is known as "Allez Allez Allez". With the same song, Righeira participated in the Un disco per l'estate festival and also managed to win Festivalbar the same year. The song was also, despite the title, launched when the holiday season had just begun.
In addition to their singles, Righeira were also appreciated by young audiences for their extravagant appearance; for their first success they used to dress with a fake mustache in the manner of Charlie Chaplin. The duo also made a performance at the 36th anniversary of the Sanremo Music Festival in 1986 with the song "Innamoratissimo", which finished in fifteenth place in the votes combined with the Totip. This piece too was centered on electronic arrangements that continued the musical discourse undertaken by their producers and arrangers, and the La Bionda brothers who had already marked musical trends with disco music in the previous decade. The response of the public was less for the summer single "Italians a Go-Go" from the album "Bambini Forever", also containing the song "Oasi in città" which became a hit during the summer of the following year. Among the many musicians who collaborated with Righeira during the 1980s, there is for example Steve Piccolo of The Lounge Lizards, Curt Cress of Alphaville and also Rocco Tanica of Elio e le Storie Tese who was a co-author of the song "Innamoratissimo". Swedish musician Mats Björklund played the guitar in "Gli parlerò di te", who was famous for earlier having been Donna Summer's guitarist.
"Rimini Rimini" and Zecchino d'Oro.
Later they made "Rimini Splash Down", written together with La Bionda and Raffaella Riva of Gruppo Italiano, which became the theme song of the "Rimini Rimini" film directed by Sergio Corbucci, released in 1987. Gruppo Italiano also recorded a cover of "L'estate sta finendo". In the same year, Righeira released the song "Annibale" which came to be competing at the 30th anniversary of the Zecchino d'Oro song competition.
1990–2016: The last projects and separations.
1990s.
"Ferragosto" was released in 1990, a dance single which resembled some of the early songs, with a sound inherent to the music of the period. In 1992, the duo collaborated to record and release the album "Uno, Zero, Centomila" which contained songs such as "Vivo al 139" with house sounds. After the release of the album, Righi and Rota went different ways and the duo broke up. 
Stefano Righi was arrested on November 19 1993, along with thirty-seven others, for drug dealing. He remained in prison for five months and was acquitted at the end of the trial.
In the mid-1990s, Rota, together with Franco Battiato and Giusto Pio, gave life to a new project called Gloria Mundi, which lasted the space of two albums. Meanwhile, Righi and Montefiori Cocktail recorded a song together called "Papalla", which was a manifesto of the newborn Italian lounge scene. In 1999, the duo was reunited.
2000s.
Righeira released an EP in 2001 containing different versions of their classic song "Vamos a la playa" and participated in some revival-style TV shows, such as "C'era una volta il festival" and "La notte flies", which was a competition between musical celebrities that grew popular during the 1980s. 
In 2006, the duo decided to record the album "Mondovisione", anticipated on 24 January 2007 by the single "La Musica Electronica" with which they reach a moderate success with a nostalgic flavor. In August the same year, Righeira took part in the conduction of the radio program "Summer is ending" on R101. Stefano Righi took part in short films and experiments in metropolitan cinema, including "Pink Forever" by Genoese Davide Scovazzo. In 2008, the documentary "Tanzen Mit Righeira" (in German, from the title of a song from their first album) was released, produced by Endeniu and made by Alessandro Castelletto, which traces the artistic and human story of the two "brothers".
2010s.
On June 13 2011, the song "La funzione" by the Italian rock band Subsonica was released, in which Righeira was featured after they had made a collaboration with the band.
In 2016, the duo split for the second time when Stefano Righi announced his separation from the duo, and Stefano Rota announced that he was going to move and live in the town of Thiene, located in the province of Vicenza in northern Italy.
Personnel.
Principal members
Selected filmography.
Documentaries