"Vivere" is a song written by Italian singer-songwriter Gerardina Trovato with Angelo Anastasio and Celso Valli. It was first recorded as a duet between Trovato and Italian pop tenor Andrea Bocelli and included in Trovato's 1994 album Non è un film as well as on Bocelli's debut albumIl Mare Calmo della Sera. It was also released as a B-side single with Bocelli's "Con te partirò" in 1996 and it was later featured on the compilation albumRomanza, released by Bocelli in 1997. In 2007, Bocelli, together with Italian singer Laura Pausini, recorded "Vive Ya " and "Vivere ", two multilingual versions of "Vivere" in Spanish and Italian respectively, the latter featuring verses in English. The Spanish version was subsequently nominated for Record of the Year at the Latin Grammy Awards of 2008.
Background
"Vivere" was composed by Italian singer-songwriter Gerardina Trovato for her second studio album, Non è un film, released in 1994. Trovato decided to invite Bocelli to record the song with her after meeting him at one of Zucchero Fornaciari's concerts, during which he performed the song "Miserere" in a duet with Zucchero. Bocelli and Trovato performed the song as a live duet during Trovato's 1994 Italian tour, to which Bocelli participated as a regular guest.
Track listing
;CD single – "Con te partirò" / "Vivere"
"Con te partirò" – 4:09
"Vivere" – 4:01
;CD single – "Vivere"
"Vivere" – 4:01
"Misere" – 4:23
"Panis Angelicus" – 3:51
2007 version
In 2007, Bocelli re-recorded the song under the title "Vivere ", with Italian singer Laura Pausini dueting with him. Pausini performs her part of the song in English. This version of the track, produced by Humberto Gatica and Tony Renis, was included in Bocelli's second greatest hits album, , and it was released as a single in November 2007. "Vive ya", a Spanish version of the duet, was later released as a single. It was nominated the following year, for Record of the Year at the Latin Grammy Awards of 2008.
Music video
The music video for the song was directed by Beniamino Catena and was produced by Paolo Soravia. The video promotes the "Progetto Vivere", a charity project supported by Action Aid against poverty. Partially shot in Africa, it shows different people bringing some water to a tree in the desert, using it as a metaphor representing the idea that poverty could be fought if everybody gives his own contribution. Beniamino Catena described the video claiming that:
"It is not only a music video, we created a small film, a daydream, clear and bright, which tells the path of some unknowns, coming from different areas of the world, roaming in a huge ocean of sand, looking for the only tree to water."
