La Solitudine - Background and Composition

Background and Composition

Federico Cavalli and Pietro Cremonesi, who at the time were two songwriters with daytime jobs outside the music business, wrote the lyrics and the music of the original version of the song, respectively. Angelo Valsiglio also contributed writing both the lyrics and the music of "La solitudine". The lyrics to the Italian version of the song where are about a boy named Marco, who is separated from his girlfriend at the urging of his family and sent to live far away from her. The now former girlfriend makes an emotional and heartfelt plea, singing to him about the loneliness and pain they would feel without each other.

Interviewed by Italian journalist Gianni Minà, Pausini declared that the song is strongly autobiographical:

"In the beginning the song started with the words 'Anna se n'è andata' instead of 'Marco se n'è andato'. But the rest of the story was exactly the photograph of my life until that moment . I had never met those two authors before and, even if Valsiglio and the other composers continued to give me new songs, I told my father that I wanted to sing that one only, just changing the name to Marco, because the development of the song looked to be a copy of what was happening to me. Marco was my boyfriend in the same period, and this is why, when I was singing that song, I was feeling moved."

The English-language version of the song, adapted by Tim Rice, has a completely different meaning, and it doesn't contain any reference to Marco. Its lyrics are focused on the feelings of those who want to be alone in order to better understand themselves.

According to Univision's Fabiana Steinmander, Laura Pausini's "La solitudine" is a song "with a high degree of difficulty because of the number of vocal transitions and the modulation it demands of its singer".