He’s big in Italy. Like, huge…

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[5.56]

Michaelangelo Matos: In the first verse, Italian star Ferro, whose Italian-language version is No. 1 in Italy, sings of being “a circle in a world of squares where nobody knows me/So with every footstep I must follow the kissing moments I thought were impossible.” I swear to you, dear reader, that he sounds exactly like he’s singing “kitschy moments,” and it makes the record.
[2]

Ian Mathers: Unexpectedly I really like his voice, and he and Rowland blend well together. The sweet chorus and dulcet piano backing is enough to allow me to overlook lines like “I am a pirate, love my fortune”, but it’s a close run thing. That hair metal-power ballad guitar during the middle eight ain’t helping either.
[6]

Chuck Eddy: So when was the last time an Italian hit got translated into an American one? Laura Branigan did it with two Umberto Tozzi songs in the ’80s (“Gloria” went #2, “Ti Amo” #55); anything since I’m not thinking of? Here, Ferro matches the middle-aged Mediterranean lothario passion of a Zucchero or an Eros Ramazzotti, and Rowland keeps up with him, especially when she switches languages. I like it, but I can’t see it hitting Stateside in today’s unexotic climate, unless aging Sting and Jon Secada fans are hiding in the woodwork waiting to exert purchasing power.
[7]

Jessica Popper: Tiziano and Kelly have both been involved with unexpectedly great Europop duets in the past, so I’m quite disappointed that this one doesn’t live up to “Universal Prayer” (Tiziano’s duet with Jamelia) or “When Love Takes Over”. The ungrammatical title doesn’t help much, either. I’m sure it will be very successful in Italy and other countries where Tiziano is known, just through the novelty of him duetting with a world-famous popstar, but if he hopes to use this track to break through to English-speaking markets he certainly won’t succeed.
[4]

Richard Swales: A mess; the chorus is so weak (and the mixing doesn’t help) that it just seems to get lost within the rest of the tune, and the break after the second chorus is really just all over the place. Shame really, because the first couple of verses are actually quite nice. You’d think he’d be able to get a decent producer on board after 7 million album sales; seemingly not.
[3]

Martin Skidmore: An Italian singer who plainly wants to be Bob Marley circa “Sun Is Shining”, but ends up falling very short, of course, and occasionally drops into something more like sub-light-opera. The switch between the two is very unconvincing. Kelly sounds as good as ever, and gives the whole thing a real lift now and then.
[5]

Anthony Easton: Sounds like Catholic folk c. 1965, but with a very mild R&B beat. So I love it.
[9]

Martin Kavka: The perfect soundtrack for those twentysomethings backpacking across Europe who meet that Special Someone with whom to have that Life-Changing Summer Fling. If in hindsight the fling seems paper-thin, in the throes of passion it seems as timeless as Pachelbel’s Canon (which shares a chord sequence with this, U2’s “With Or Without You,” and Village People’s “Go West”).
[7]

Anthony Miccio: There’s a real disconnect in Ferro’s taught, operatic voice booming “be geeeeentulllll”, but over a smiling synthesis of Alicia Keys’ “No One” and Pachelbel’s Canon, the effect is so winning and kooky I almost mistake Kelly Rowland for Shakira.
[7]