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I Beddi – Folk Music from Sicily

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I Beddi are a prize winning folk music group from Sicily which was founded in 2005 by Sicilian musicians Davide “Tamburo di Aci” Urso and Simona Di Gregorio.

I Beddi’s songs are in a mixture of Sicilian dialect and Italian. The group’s most recent album “E falla bedda la ninnaredda – canti e cunti del Natale siciliano” – “Sweet Dreams – Sicilian Christmas songs and tales” came out in 2012.

Today I Beddi are guitarist Mimì Sterrantino, flautist and accordion player Giampaolo Nunzio, double bassist, Pier Paolo Alberghini and tambourine man, Davide “Tamburo di Aci” Urso – one of the group’s founders. Simona Di Gregorio left in 2008, but luckily, I Beddi played on.

I Beddi - Sicilian Folk Music
I Beddi – Sicilian Folk Music

In 2007 the group did an Italy and world tour visiting a number of Italian regions and countries as diverse as Austria, Belgium, Holland, Spain, Tunisia, and Malta. I Beddi also took their jaunty brand of Sicilian music as far a field as Malaysia.

Also in 2007, I Beddi recorded the sound track for a documentary on Sicily’s many baroque treasures.

In 2010, the track Tarantella Blues won I Beddi first prize in Sicily’s New Sicilian Song Festival. The group returned to Malaysia in 2010 where they presented their SICILIAZERO album at the Rainforest World Music Festival.

Here’s I Beddi’s prize winning track

Tarantella Blues

Next, complete with pretty Sicilian dancing girls, here’s the I Beddi music video…

…A la fera di li paroli

You can here more of I Beddi’s music on their website: I Beddi Videos

You can also find I Beddi on Facebook.

Fun, aren’t they? 🙂

———–

With thanks to Mariella Caruso and Sanne de Boer for their help in translating “E falla bedda la ninnaredda – canti e cunti del Natale siciliano” via Twitter. My Sicilian dialect is not too hot, I have to admit!

PS I think “beddi” might be “donkeys” in English.

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Comments

  1. CJ says

    According to my wife, who’s Sicilian;

    ‘Bedda’ is the feminine for beautiful.
    ‘Beddu’ is the masculine for handsome.
    ‘Beddi’ is the plural beautiful/handsome.

    So the title of the group is ‘The handsomes’ / ‘The beautifuls’ literally translated. As the group is all masculine the title would be translated into English as ‘The handsome ones’, or ‘The good looking ones’.

    • Alex Roe says

      Ah ha! Not donkey then! Thanks CJ – perhaps we could all the group The Hunks? 😉

      I got the donkey connection from the donkey in the Beddi logo.

      Cheers,

      Alex

      • Gianni says

        Hi Akex I can only second Cj’s wife explanation.
        I am Sicilian and yes, “Beddi” or beddri (slightly different spelling but same meaning) could be translated into “hunks” . The donkey is used by this group in their logo as it is a very iconic animal in Sicilian folklore.
        The traditional Sicilian chariot, in rural hilly Sicily, was indeed an essential item of transportation used for trading and carrying of bulky items (now, gladly for donkeys, entirely replaced by Ape vehicles 😉 ) , and it used to be pulled more often than not by the humble yet loyal, hard working donkey, rarely by work horses (instead widely used today for folklore as deemed to make a more elegant representation). So it is no surprise that a Sicilian folklore music group makes it part of their image.
        Best regards and glad to learn you enjoyed their music.

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