Avigliano Umbro – On August 17, Giulio Rapetti will turn 90, and hardly anyone has shaped the sound of Italian pop music quite like he has. Under the stage name Mogol, he wrote the lyrics to songs that everyone in Italy can sing along to: „Il mio canto libero,“ „I giardini di marzo,“ „La canzone del sole,“ „Emozioni.“ Ahead of his birthday, he has spoken out in several interviews, explaining that he does not fear death—it is a natural part of life—and that being immortal would be an unreasonable burden anyway.
Mogol was born in Milan in 1936, the son of a director at the Ricordi music publishing house. He submitted his first lyrics in 1960, and a year later he won the Sanremo Festival with „Al di là.“ His collaboration with Lucio Battisti, which began in the mid-1960s, made him a defining songwriter for an entire generation. Battisti would first compose the melody—often using hummed syllables—and Mogol would set the lyrics to the existing rhythm. The partnership ended in 1980 with the album „Una giornata uggiosa“; the reasons were never fully made public.
He himself estimates the number of his songs at around 1,740. He has written songs for artists including Adriano Celentano, Riccardo Cocciante, Mina, Mango, and Bobby Solo. David Bowie himself recorded his Italian version of „Space Oddity.“ He had a falling out with Bob Dylan, however, because Dylan would not tolerate any changes to his lyrics.
Mogol in Umbria: School Instead of Retirement
Mogol has lived in Avigliano Umbro, in the province of Terni, since 1992. There, he founded the Centro Europeo di Toscolano, a nonprofit school for music and songwriting, which he continues to direct to this day. From 2018 to 2022, he also served as head of the Italian copyright collective SIAE.
He has no shortage of projects. He is currently working on a song about femicide from the victim’s perspective, sung by Giusy Ferreri, as well as on a musical piece with Riccardo Cocciante. He was pleased by a proposal to appoint him a senator for life—but he says that will never happen. His recipe for nine decades: fresh air, the right food, and at least twenty laps of water aerobics in the pool, day after day. He admits to one regret: that he and his wife Daniela never had a child together.
