Released 6 March 2015 Recorded 2015 Length 3:32 | Format Digital download Genre Pop Label Sony Music Italy | |
"L'amore esiste" (English: Love exists) is a song recorded by Italian singer Francesca Michielin, written by Fortunato Zampaglione and Michele Canova. The latter also produced the track, which was released on 6 March 2015 as the lead single from Michielin's second studio album, di20. Certified double platinum by the Federation of the Italian Music Industry, it was Michielin's second solo top ten single in Italy. The song also received the Lunezia Pop Award in 2015.
Contents
Background
In April 2014, Francesca Michielin revealed she was working on new material for her second studio album. Later during the same year, she appeared as a featured artist on the single "Magnifico" by Italian rapper Fedez, which became a commercial success in Italy, but she did not release any work as a lead artist until March 2015. In February 2015, Michielin started posting messages on her Twitter account, suggesting a new release. After sharing a photo of a red background, she sent a series of pictures with incremental details, including a prism and Michielin's name. The picture was later revealed as the single's artwork. During the same days, she also sent a message including the sentence "L'amore esiste" (English: Love exists), leading to speculations on it being the title of her new single or album. On 2 March, it was officially announced that "L'amore esiste" would be released on 6 March 2015 as the lead single from Michielin's second studio album, which was later titled di20.
Composition and lyrical content
"L'amore esiste" was written and composed by Fortunato Zampaglione. Michele Canova, who produced the single, also contributed composing the track's music. The song is an electropop ballad, in which Michielin lists a series of faint hints suggesting that love exists, concluding that the only thorough definition of love is "you", the man to which it is dedicated. However, Michielin revealed in an interview that the song also has a general meaning, claiming that "it is a hymn to love, which expresses itself both in its singularity and plurality". In the same interview, she stated the song represent "a sign of hope, an invitation to think about love as the only way to escape from the dark days we're living in".
Reception
The song was a commercial success in Italy. It first entered the top 20 of the FIMI Singles Chart in April 2015, nearly a month after its release, and it peaked at number ten during the last week of the same month. Between April and June 2015, it spent ten weeks within the top 20. "L'amore esiste" was later certified double platinum by Federation of the Italian Music Industry, denoting combined sales and streams in excess of 100,000 equivalent units.
On 24 July 2015, Michielin received the "Lunezia Pop Award" for "L'amore esiste". The prize awards Italian songs in different genres for their "musical-literary value". Reviewing the track, Radio Italia's Paola Gallo considered "L'amore esiste" a very emotional song, praising Michielin's voice and the song's international sound. Writing for Italian music portal Rockol.it, Mattia Marzi also noted an "interesting work on arrangements and production", citing the use of vocoder as an element distinguishing the song from most Italian productions and comparing the track to Lorde's work. Il Fatto Quotidiano's Michele Monina strongly criticized the song, considering it a clone of Marco Mengoni's 2014 single "Guerriero", also co-written and produced by Zampaglione and Canova, and released by the same recording label.
Cover versions
American singer Amy Lee recorded an English-language version of the song, titled "Love Exists". Her cover was released on 10 February 2017.