At 82 years old, the Italo-Belgian singer-songwriter Salvatore Adamo makes a discographic comeback with a double album of 25 tracks, released on November 14, 2025. Conceived in Paris after vocal rehabilitation following aphonia that occurred in Chile in 2022. The project draws from childhood and the passage of time. The artist says he wants to continue as long as his voice holds, while considering farewells in Japan.
A morning ritual to tame the voice
Every dawn, Salvatore Adamo adjusts his breath. A few scales, a whisper, then the sustained note that reassures. The Italo-Belgian singer-songwriter (born in 1943) has never listened to his instrument—the voice—so much. At 82 years old, he marks a return to recording with "Des nèfles et des groseilles." This project is a double album of 25 tracks released on November 14, 2025. The work matured at the pace of convalescence and rehabilitation. This process led him to reinvent his relationship with singing, without denying the romantic impulse that made him famous.
"As long as the voice is there, I will take advantage of it." This phrase now runs like a motto on the front of this seasonal album. It encounters childhood, memory, and the idea of time pressing.
What the album tells
The project mixes new songs, half-voiced confidences, and impressionistic portraits. It echoes the call of childhood, nostalgia, and the calm awareness of the passing time. The song "Ma belle jeunesse" opens the march. This track is a tender dialogue with what is slipping away. It’s an address to the vitality of yesteryear that hasn’t quite deserted. The register remains that of a wordsmith, attached to clear language and melodies that hold by their obviousness.
Throughout the tracks, Adamo allows himself modesty: memories of exile, dear silhouettes, piled-up seasons. The form remains classic: clear verses, ample choruses, human-scale arrangements. The voice, more velvety, settles half a tone lower; it never forces, it tells.
A trial: six months without a voice
The album is born from a serious alert. In 2022, while performing in South America, the singer is exposed to tear gas in Chile. The next day, not a sound: aphonia. This is followed by several months of silence and demanding vocal rehabilitation. From this scare, Adamo draws a lesson: to refocus on the voice and take care of it.
This refocusing is also part of a more generally weakened health: late 2023, a pulmonary edema forces him to interrupt his tour; he returns to the stage in spring 2024, cautiously, and resumes writing. The double album then appears as an artistic response to the ordeal: 25 songs put together, like assembling a herbarium of seasons one refuses to lose.
"Slowing down," without giving up
On air and in the press, the artist repeats: he intends to continue as long as the voice holds, without being obstinate. He expresses his fear of "making one album too many" and assumes a part of lucidity. However, he claims the joy of work: writing and refining in the studio. He seeks the right intonation and lets experience guide the phrasing.
In this dynamic, promotion is just an appendage: a few public service platforms (notably C à vous and Télématin) and a stop by product pages at distributors—the time to mark the release and remind of the project’s uniqueness.
A Japanese thread for possible farewells
Since the 1960s, Japan has shown unwavering loyalty to Adamo. The artist confides that he is considering the idea of a farewell tour in the Land of the Rising Sun, without ruling out continuing elsewhere. However, he specifies that this project will depend on his voice, adding "if the voice follows." The statement does not sound like an announcement, but like a reasonable scenario, under consideration. The man measures the weight of the miles, the fatigue, and the audience’s demands.
The Adamo workshop: a family, microphones, a studio
Adamo loves workshop work. Snippets are noted in a notebook or recorded on a smartphone, then trials take place at the piano. Then, studio sessions allow ideas to take shape. The album carries this patina of craftsmanship: care for the texts, sobriety of the arrangements, attention to breath—even the insertion of close voices that underline the idea of transmission.
A reactivated popular memory
The singer does not settle for a self-portrait. He reactivates a common memory: that of dances, refrains hummed in the family, long-haul journeys. Implicitly, the album evokes "a world before networks", made of real presences, letters, and waiting. This view is not a complaint: it is a proposal of attention to the present, an art of inhabiting age without denying the impulse.
Receptions and horizons
The first listens highlight the overall coherence, the balance between modesty and enthusiasm, the absence of emphasis. On stage, the artist asserts he retains "a touch of madness," and these new songs should coexist with the essentials. Thus, they will enrich the existing repertoire. The desire is there, he assures, but so is the measure: a concert yes, then rest.
Writing at human scale
This delivery confirms a poetic style without special effects. Adamo seeks neither disruption nor demonstration: he aims for the right word, the discreet image, and the rhythm that lets the phrase breathe. The music embraces this choice: guitars, piano, woodwinds, some strings, a drum that brushes more than it hammers. Emotion surfaces by capillarity, without imposed crescendos. One perceives an economy of gesture: every breath counts, every attack is weighed, and one senses the learning of a voice cared for after the ordeal.
Where does this album fit in Salvatore Adamo’s discography?
On the scale of a trajectory that began more than six decades ago, "Des nèfles et des groseilles" is heard as a bridge album. It connects the young singer of the sixties—the one of "La nuit," "Tombe la neige," and "Mes mains sur tes hanches"—to the artist of today who still composes and knows he is awaited. The themes are not new, but they gain in density. Indeed, the family exile and the loyalty of audiences are illustrated. They manifest in France, Belgium, and Japan. Moreover, yesterday’s letters become today’s messages. Nothing ceremonial: it’s a living album, seeking the present.
TV and radio: the regained speech
The release week sees Adamo reconnect with public service platforms (C à vous, Télématin) and radio. The tone remains sober: he talks about work, prudence, gratitude. Far from heavy storytelling, he favors facts: the accident in Chile, the rehabilitation, the desire to sing as long as the breath responds. The narrative is decanted, without pathos, carried by a few straightforward phrases: "slowing down," "not making one album too many."
Chronological markers (2023-2025)
- October 18, 2023: concert cancellations for health reasons (pulmonary edema).
- May 2024: gradual return to the stage.
- Autumn 2025: promotion and announcements around the double album.
- November 14, 2025: official release of "Des nèfles et des groseilles" (25 tracks).
- End of 2025: the artist mentions the possibility of farewells in Japan, under consideration.
Health markers: understanding aphonia
- Aphonia: total loss of voice, most often temporary, which can follow an acute irritation of the respiratory tract (gas, smoke, infections) or vocal overuse.
- Rehabilitation: managed by a speech therapist; work on breathing, voice placement, gradual recovery of timbre and endurance.
- Prudence: gradual resumption of singing, hydration, management of stress and rest.
The album in numbers
- Title: "Des nèfles et des groseilles".
- Release: November 14, 2025.
- Format: double album.
- Number of tracks: 25.
- Opening track: "Ma belle jeunesse" (official lyric video).
Career markers
- First successes: 1960s (from "Sans toi ma mie" to "Inch’Allah").
- Multilingual repertoire: Italian, French, Spanish, German, Japanese…
- Loyal audiences: France, Belgium, Japan, Latin America.
A return, a legacy
Adamo’s longevity is due to a simple recipe: singing true stories, without forcing, letting the voice—regained—take the lead role. "Des nèfles et des groseilles" is an album of memory more than nostalgia: a living inventory where one embraces what was to better inhabit what comes. Nothing of a hasty testament: rather the age of fidelity—to oneself, to others, to the songs that accompany.