Abstract

In the female singer-songwriters' Italian "scenario" Roberta Alloisio is one of the artists who most successfully makes use of dialect (Genoese dialect) in her songs. The article focuses on the singer's production trying to depict a fulfilling picture of her artistic-linguistic features throughout her career. This is possible through an analysis of her three cds in which song and language appears strictly connected. Starting from her debut as a dialectal singer with "Lengua Serpentina "(Sharp Tongue) (2007) and passing through "Janua" (2011), it is easy to comprehend how linguistic choices structure the themes involved in her songs. The former re-proposes the folk and literary tradition of Liguria, whereas the latter shows a mixture of several styles and languages: literary Italian, folk songs and dialect, obviously. The fascination with multilingualism develops in her last album entitled "Xena Tango. Le strade del tango da Genova a Buenos Aires" (Xena Tango. The roads of tango from Genoa to Buenos Aires) which may be considered a musical bridge between the Italian city and the Argentinian metropolis. The article includes an interview to the singer (a combination of a sociolinguistic questionnaire and a set of questions about her attitude to art and music) in which she explains and justifies her artistic and linguistic motivations and uses.