The artist from Belluno tells for the first time why he left the team after seven years. The management who eliminated the less famous players from the group photo is accused
BELLUNO. The management of the National Singers is not new to acts of discrimination, even towards its own players. Talking about it, many years after leaving the team, is the artist from Belluno Federico Stragà, who played in the National Singers for seven years, until he decided to leave the group. Stragà never explained why he made that choice, but what happened in recent days to Aurora Leone, with the resignation of the general manager Gianluca Pecchini, convinced him to open up.
“Let me be clear, I do not know that story so well that I have formed a certain opinion, I do not want to enter into this debate”, Stragà specifies, “but this event reminded me of why I left the National Singers”.
«I was invited to play with the National Singers by Marco Morandi in 1999 and I joined with enthusiasm. I have very beautiful and exciting memories of that experience, but also a sense of disappointment and discrimination, ”says Stragà. «In the team there were internationally renowned singers and younger and lesser known artists, like me. Right from the start there was a difference in treatment by the management, which I have always taken for granted and accepted without problems, like other members of the team ».
The moment in which Stragà decided to leave dates back to the celebration of the team’s 25th anniversary in 2006. All the members of the National Singers participated in the broadcast on Rai, even some young emerging players returning from their first Sanremo and ready to join the team.
«Inside the Rai studio some players had been placed on the stage and others, myself included, on the stands. In fact, we were excluded from what was happening, away from the cameras, as if we weren’t there. Like on the bench, but worse, because people who had never played there were celebrating as protagonists of the team ».
The management had told the singer-players to bring a white shirt for the group photo, which would end up on the cover on TV. Smiles and Songs. “We were coming down from the stands to join the others on stage for the photo when the management stopped us and told us to wait. “Now let’s take pictures with these, then all together”, they told us ».
But it didn’t happen that way. «At a certain point, one of the many headlights in the studio went out and a little voice told us“ unfortunately the light went out and we can’t take pictures anymore ”. With that very embarrassing excuse, some of us stayed out of the official photos and it was at that moment that I said to myself “what am I doing here?” and I decided not to go there anymore. It was very frustrating, because I had been playing with the National Singers for seven years and it seemed obvious to me that I was among 50 people too. I felt part of a group ”, adds Stragà,“ aware that there were famous singers and others at the beginning. It was normal for there to be different reactions from the management and the public, but what happened in Rai was unacceptable to me ».
Federico Stragà has since left the team. “Every now and then, Mr. Sandro Giacobbe with whom I stayed in touch, invited me again to play, but I preferred to say no, despite the many fantastic memories of great games of the heart full of public and events, equally experienced, in the fields of remote villages ».