28 year old Italian Patrizio Buanne - whose aim is to "make romance cool again - the same way that Jamie Oliver has made cooking cool!."

Since the release of his Top 10 debut album 'The Italian' in spring 2005, Patrizio has been busy conquering the world. Now with one million album sales tucked under his belt Patrizio is back with his second album 'Forever Begins Tonight'. A collection of timeless romantic classics that sees Patrizio singing in English, Spanish and his native Italian.

I Like Music caught up with Patrizio Buanne to talk about the new album, Robbie Williams and Patrizio's tips for British men on how to be more romantic.

"I Like Music because… it's the soundtrack of your life." PATRIZIO BUANNE

ILM: Your new album, Forever Begins Tonight' is out now, just incredibly lovely. Can you describe the whole vibe of the album?

PATRIZIO: First of all I must say I'm very happy that there is a second album. Many artists don't get the chance to make a second album. And that's really true, nowadays, you never know. The first album, The Italian, was very good for me. I've been able to travel the world after receiving my Golden record in England. I was in Australia and the US and across the world, apart from South America, and we sold a million worldwide. So that's the reason we have a second album, which is not much different to the first. I would say; it's like a volume two of The Italian, the first album. For those who don't know what my music is all about, I'm singing the Italian songbook. Not classical music, nothing to do with opera or Andrea Boticelli, Pavarotti or Il Divo or anything like that. It's typical Italian; it's all about love songs, it's a pop crossover romantic album.

The Italians call me the ambassador of Italian songs. What they mean by that is, I'm singing songs that people don't know are Italian, like You Don't Have To Say You Love Me, or A Man Without Love, or You're My World that Cilla Black recorded. A lot of those songs people know in English, so I do them half and half, because I want to bring back the Italian language, just the sound of it. I think it's a beautiful language. Then of course people can understand the lyrics as I do a verse in English and because I love these songs. I released my first album when people like Michael Buble were releasing standards and those American songs. And I thought, 'why shouldn't I be myself, I'm not American, I'm not trying to be anyone other than being Patrizio Buanne, the Italian,' so that's why we called the first album, The Italian.

What is different on the second album is that we wanted to move on and include some songs written for me and performed by me, in other words, original material. Forever Begins Tonight, the title of the album, is a song written by Mike Stevens and Connor Reeve for me. It's basically… you know when people say being romantic is being boring or cheesy? I can understand that with romance from the past, because it's not up to date. But, it's been a while since romantic singers have released albums, so I wanted to bring that back and speak the language of nowadays. If I may quote for a second:

"Don't be afraid to turn down the light;
Move a little bit closer, it's going to be all right;
This is the moment we'll remember all our lives;

Forever Begins Tonight." So, you see it's not just, "I miss you, please come back to me, I can't live without you." It's just trying to be uncomplicated, but a little bit more original: a modern twist to romance. So, even though there are some old songs on the album that I've chosen, I wanted to make sure that these songs speak the language that people use today. So I wouldn't record a song that goes, 'you're breaking my heart, because you're leaving me, please hurry back my dear, we'll make a new start, boo-hoo." But I can't see anything wrong with singing, "can you remember when we walked together?" or "you don't have to say you love me, just because it's good for you and just because you want to calm me down." So it's reinventing the genre. I'm a new school crooner. And that's really it, I'm really happy. It's doing brilliantly in the country's that have released it. In England it's just been released and I've been on GMTV and Loose Women. So I'm excited. And I want to thank you once again for your commitment and support also.

Thankfully my music isn't just appealing to who would be obvious, to girls and ladies; a lot of guy's out there, say, 'I don't want to be one of those lads who says, "heh baby, lets go for a lager," I want to be like Patrizio. I want to buy a nice pair of shoes and I want to talk about romance and kiss the lady on the hand.' I don't think it sounds too immodest to say, I think it was time to bring back a person that would be a role model, who would say, 'If you don't know what to do, I have some ideas.'

ILM: Well, you are described as sophisticated, charming, stylish and romantic - ie, the perfect man. Do you have any advice for men on becoming more charming and romantic on a day to day basis?

PATRIZIO: I always think just be yourself, but maybe for some men it's not best to recommend that, because maybe they won't score some goals with that. You know what? I think it's all about respect, attention and tolerance. I think, give more attention to your partners, give more respect to your partner, or the person you fancy. And not just to give the feeling you are after a quick something. There are many men who don't know that there is more than just football and rugby. And there are some great girls, especially in the UK, who love sharing that passion with their men. But, let me ask you this: how many men would want to share the passion that women have for shopping? The woman tries to make the man happy, but what does the man do for the woman? Why must they always wait until Valentines Day?

I'm not the perfect guy. I don't want to be a sex symbol, I'll leave that job to Ricky Martin. I'm not spending more time in the gym than I would learning songs. But I do understand why I might be a role model, because girls like me and guys might want to be like me, which is all right. Because I'm trying, not to just have success with my music, but to change or add something in society. I'm not saying 'don't do this, don't do that', I'm saying, 'you could do this, and you could do that'.

ILM: The Pope and The Queen are said to be fans. Have you met them?

PATRIZIO: I met the late Pope in 1997. I was singing for him and he gave me a blessing. The Queen, I didn't meet personally, but I was singing for the Duke of Edinburgh Awards, and I met the Duke, Prince Phillip, and I gave him a record and had a little chat. It was protocol not to have your hands in your pockets and not to step forward, so I almost said, 'this is for your wife,' when I gave him the record. But we had a very nice chat. I said 'I also have an award in your country, I have a Gold record.'

He was friendly and said I should 'wear my Gold record on my jacket.' So he was lovely. I assumed, because he took this record with him, that it might have been played in Buckingham Palace. And some people who worked at Buckingham Palace have reported they heard it playing. I don't know, but I believe so. It's very interesting that I make a lot of fans with the music.

A lot of people, Robbie Williams, Gwen Stefani, even the guys from Oasis, Liam and Noel Gallagher, even they came up to me and said, 'listen, I think you're cool'. I never spend time thinking about if I'm cool or not, I'm just myself really. But there's still a long way to go and a lot of work to do, because I'm not known by any reality show that gives me the push so people out there know who I am, I have to convince people. That's why I'm personally thankful when people phone up and want to chat with me. I'm living my dream. I had this concept and wanted to record this kind of music and I'm living my dream. I'm very happy.

ILM: And Robbie Williams was so impressed by you that he gave your permission for him to record Angels in Italian - the only artist ever to be allowed to do so. How did that come about?

PATRIZIO: To be honest, I'm known for singing the Italian Songbook and on my first album I had a pop song in Italian called Don't Say Its Over and I did the Italian version of it ('Na Sera 'E Maggio). Then I had this idea of doing an international pop song in Italian. So, the other way round, not doing an Italian song in English, but the other way round, was kind of interesting. So, I was sitting in the studio and just fooling around, and I almost did Don't You Wish Your Boyfriend Was Italian Like Me? - my take on the Pussycat Dolls, but that was a bit too cheeky, so I thought about other songs, and I suddenly came up with Robbie Williams Angels.

We went to Abbey Road Studios to record the song and suddenly realised we hadn't asked for permission and needed permission. So my producer was asking for that and thought he wouldn't get any answer, or we'd be ignored or the answer would be no. So we had to chase that through the management and the publishing company. After four months we received a phone call from Robbie's management, saying Robbie listened to my version, he remembers me, sends his regards, thinks it's great and he wishes me good luck.

He remembered me because we met in 2003 already, before I was signed to a record company. I did a concert in Budapest and had already done a lot of touring before I had a career in Europe. He happened to be there, we stayed in the same hotel. I was sitting with my musicians in the bar, having a drink, having a laugh and playing on the piano. Suddenly six musicians came in, with Robbie. And it seems to be a musicians' thing after the concert, to have a drink. So we had a chat and we were singing along together; we had a duet. He said 'you've got a brilliant voice, if I do a Swing When You're Winning 2, I'd like to consider you as a voice partner.' I said 'are you kidding?' and he said, 'No, I can't promise anything, but you sing brilliantly; you have a big future.'

Then he asked me what millions of girls ask me for… he asked me for my telephone number. [Patrizio and ILM laugh]. He didn't call me, but I met him again at the Brit Awards 2005, where I was introduced officially through my record company. He remembered me, gave me a hug and said "welcome to the Champions League, you're doing all right." And then with the permission too… So, Robbie isn't a friend who I can call up tomorrow and say, 'hey I did an interview today and we were talking about you,' but he has me on my radar.

I wrote him a letter, but I didn't send it because I don't think he's in the best position to read any letters now. But I'll be in LA soon and hopefully will sort something out to see him. He's a star. I ignored his music, because I wasn't into it. But he is in my eyes a star, to have the coolness and strength to say, 'right, you did a good version, good luck.' I'm releasing it in South America. I did it in Italian and Spanish and I'm the first person ever to cover any Robbie Williams song in another language. I hope you like it as much as he did.

ILM: You recorded the album in Vienna, Warsaw and London's Abbey Road Studios. Which track did you have the most fun laying down in the studio?

PATRIZIO: It was fun doing the Robbie William's song, because I did it in London. So the Italian bloke who dares to record at the Abbey Road Studio with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was just fun, walking in there and recording that. I have to say most of the material was recorded in London. I did the corrections in Vienna and Warsaw. The orchestral stuff was in London. I mean Abbey Road, c'mon! We did the photographs of us on the Zebra crossing; we walked across the crossing a million times to get the picture right because there was so much traffic. It's just genius for me, the Beatles, everyone who's really big recorded there. It's like a museum.

I believe in karma and positive energy and there is so much positive energy there. It's just lovely. The only step up from this would be Capitol Studios in America, which I want to do too. Let's see, maybe the third album?

The difficulty is, not to have success, but to keep being successful. To be around for the next 50 years like Tony Bennet, Engelbert or Tom Jones or Dean Martin.

Well, if Patrizio continues to impress the likes of Queens, Popes and Robbie Williams, career longevity will no doubt be his. Forever Begins Tonight is out now (released March 12th 2007).

"I Like Music because… life without music would be very boring. Music brings up memories.It brings up emotions; happiness or sadness. You can remember things from the past that you shared with your girl friend, your friends or your family. I like music because it's like a photo book." PATRIZIO BUANNE

Source: I like Music