2002
The Shake World Tour 2002 began with the following musicians: Luciano Luisi (keyboards), Mario Schilirò (guitar), Polo Jones (bass), Zachary Alford (drums), James Thompson (horn section and chorus), Lisa Hunt and Elaine Jackson (chorus); Paul Young was a guest on the Zurich leg of the tour and Zucchero and he sang “Senza una donna” together.
The new single “Dindondio” was released and included the De Andrè song “Ho visto nina volare” covered by Zucchero during a concert from the previous year dedicated to the memory of the singer/songwriter from Genoa.
The Spanish version of “SHAKE” arrived on the shelves and the translations were done by Nuria, Raquel Diaz and Pau Donés.
The first leg of the tour ended, having had Paul Young as special guest for the opening concert.
The cd SHAKE was released in a special tour version including a cd of 4 live tracks. Some songs on the record are in a different version from the original.
He closed the “”Mayday” workers festival in Rome” to a crowd of 500,000 people. This date was the opening of the second leg of the tour and the accompanying band were: Luciano Luisi (keyboards), Mario Schilirò (guitar), Polo Jones (bass), Adriano Molinari (drums), James Thompson (horn section and chorus), Lisa Hunt and Elaine Jackson (chorus).
As always, he was a guest at “Pavarotti International” and sang, with maestro Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli, “Miserere”, and then, along with his own band “Sento le campane”, and then, along with all of the other guests, the famous Beatles song “Hey Jude”.
He performed as a guest at the Swiss Red Cross Gala, Geneva.
Tenth edition of “The Sugar Night” Zucchero arrived with his friends: Alex Britti, Luisa Corna, Michele Torpedine, his nephew Davide, his daughter Irene and Andrea Bocelli and sang: “Immagine” with his daughter, “Ho visto nina volare” with his nephew Davide Figliè, “Diavolo in me”, “X colpa di chi?” with Alex Britti, “Hey man” with Alex Britti, “Proud Mary” with Luisa Corna, Michele Torpedine (drums) and Fio Zanotti (piano), “Miserere” with Andrea Bocelli and before closing the night, invited everybody onto the stage to sing and dance “Baila”.
Mina’s new CD “VELENO” came out and included “Succhiando l’uva”, written by Zucchero.
The DVD GOOD ROCKIN’ TONIGHT came out in the United States and Zucchero sang “Who will the next fool be” with Mark Knopfler and Scotty Moore on guitars, Jools Holland on piano, and D.J. Fontana on drums.
“THE FREDDIE MERCURY TRIBUTE CONCERT SPECIAL 10th ANNIVERSARY EDITION” was released worldwide, the famous concert from 1992 and remastered on DVD.
He started a minitour with a concert in Parma for the “F.A.O.”. The tour covered most European capitals and saw the substitution of Polo Jones and Lisa Hunt by Gaetano Diodato and Sara Grimaldi, respectively.
SPIRIT STALLION OF THE CIMARRON was released, the Christmas cartoon produced by ‘Dreamworks’ with Italian soundtrack by Zucchero. Zucchero got help writing these lyrics from his daughter Irene. The seven songs were: “Sono qui”, “Non mi avrai”, “Sempre tornerò”, “Levati di dosso”, “Suona il corno”, “Non mi avrai reprise”, and “Sempre (e per) sempre”.
2003
In Switzerland for three special evenings during which three of the best skaters in the world put on a show for his concert. On the final evening, the former world champion Denise Biellman performed for the last time in public to the sound of “Così celeste”. Zucchero closed the evening dedicating his version of “Va’ pensiero” to her
During his trip to Cuba, he met Chucho Valdes and other Cuban musicians from the Buena Vista Social Club and took part in a Press Conference with them
The CD GAÏA was released worldwide and includes “World” sung by Zucchero
The single “Eres mi religion” was released in Italy by Manà sung with Zucchero, the first from the Mexican group’s album “REVOLUCIÓN DE AMOR”
“SHAKE” was released in Mexico with the addition of “Baila morena”, sung by Zucchero and Manà
At the tenth edition of “Pavarotti & friends” Zucchero was more involved than ever singing “Così celeste” with Luciano Pavarotti, then “Eres mi religion” with Manà, he performed “We are the champions” with Queen, and accompanied the master and Bono of U2 as they sang “Miserere” and wrote the adaptation in Italian of “Too much love will kill you” performed by Pavarotti and Queen
He appeared as special guest in three concerts in Spain with Manà
He performed with Manà at the Festival ‘Son Latinos’ in Tenerife
He was a guest at the Royal Albert Hall in London with Sting, Placido Domingo, Joaquin Cortes for the “The royal hope charity gala 2003”. He sang “Va pensiero” accompanied by an orchestra, conducted by Master Vasko Vassilev.
He took part in Manà’s Madison Square Garden concert in New York
He started a nine-concert tour in Canada, the accompanying band was made up of: Mario Schilirò (guitar), Polo Jones (bass), Adriano Molinari (drums), Matteo Saggese (keyboards), Lisa Hunt (backing vocals)
SHAKE was released for the Northern American market in a version that included a DVD
End of the Canada tour
He took part as a guest in five of Manà’s concerts in the United States
FABER – AMICO FRAGILE was released, a tribute album to Fabrizio De Andrè recorded in Genoa in 2000, Zucchero sings “Ho visto nina volare”
Ronan Keating’s new album “TURN IT ON” was released and includes a song duetted with Zucchero, “The flight – il volo”
Having been invited by Brian May and Dave Stewart, Zucchero took part in the mega-concert “46664 give 1 minute of your life to AIDS” an event organised by Dave Stewart and Queen to support Nelson Mandela’s campaign; Zucchero sings: “Everybody’s got to learn sometime” accompanied by Brian May, Roger Taylor, Sharon Corrs. After that, he took part in Queen’s marvellous medley “I want it all” and “We are the champions” with Anastasia. Finally, he was one of the artists involved in the gran finale when they sang “46664 (long walk of freedom)”
Cheb Mami brought out his new album called DU SUD AU NORD. Among the songs there’s an unreleased version of “Così celeste” as a duet with Zucchero.