LA CANZONE NAPOLETANA

La Canzone Napoletana, is a generic term for a traditional form of music sung in the Neapolitan language. The Neapolitan song became a formal institution in the 1830s due to an annual song-writing competition for the Festival of Piedigrotta, dedicated to the Madonna of Piedigrotta, a well-known church in the Margellina area of Naples. The winner of the first festival was a song entitled Te voglio bene assaie (1839). Many of the Neapolitan songs are world-famous because they were taken abroad by emigrants from Naples and southern Italy roughly between 1880 and 1920. The music was also popularized abroad by performers such as  Enrico Caruso. The most important native Neapolitan performers of Neapolitan songs in the last few decades include Bruno Venturini, Roberto Murolo, Mario Merola, Sergio Bruni.  An important factor in defining what makes a Neapolitan song is the matter of language. All these songs are written and performed in the Neapolitan language.  (Napoletano).