Singing the news: the story of Italy’s last ‘cantastorie’ – still performing in his 90s

Famous for combining true crime and political scandals into songs – and antagonising Silvio Berlusconi – Franco Trincale keeps the tradition alive in his nursing home When Franco Trincale was a barber boy, he used to sing Sicilian songs in breaks between customers, his boss strumming the guitar. Back then, he could never have imagined that he would grow up to become Italy’s last great cantastorie, a now dying tradition of wandering musicians who entertain audiences by recounting the news in song-form. And he could not have predicted he would still be performing at 90 – in a nursing home. For six decades, Trincale walked the streets of Milan singing about key moments in history, from 1970s terrorism to Berlusconi’s election and the Iraq war. He has released more than 30 albums, and performed everywhere from the USSR to the US. He also played a key role in Italy’s labour rights movement, providing a soundtrack to workers’ protests. Born in 1935 in Militello in Val di Catania, a small town in Sicily, he has been living in Milan for the past 70 years. We meet at the Il Parco delle Cave, an assisted living facility in a nondescript redbrick building, which has been his hom