The 2022 Sanremo song festival has just finished and Brividi by Mahmood & Blanco was declared the winner. Let’s translate the lyrics into English to learn some Italian with fun!
Make sure you don’t skip the handy Italian words list from this song that I compiled at the end of this lesson with audio clips!
Table of Contents
Mahmood & Blanco – Brividi [lyrics & translation]
Brividi (Shivers)
Ho sognato di volare con te
I dreamed of flying with you
Su una bici di diamanti
On a diamond bike
Mi hai detto: “Sei cambiato, non vedo
You told me, “You’ve changed, I can’t see
Più la luce nei tuoi occhi”
The light in your eyes anymore”
La tua paura cos’è?
What is it that you fear?
Un mare dove non tocchi mai
The deep end of a sea you never reach
Anche se il sesso non è
Even if sex is not
La via di fuga dal fondo
The way out of the bottom
Dai, non scappare da qui
Come on, don’t run away from here
Non lasciarmi così
Don’t leave me like this
Refrain
Nudo con i brividi
Naked, shivering
A volte non so esprimermi
Sometimes I don’t know how to express myself
E ti vorrei amare, ma sbaglio sempre
And I’d like to love you but I always mess up
E ti vorrei rubare un cielo di perle
And I’d like to steal a pearl sky for you
E pagherei per andar via
And I would pay to go away
Accetterei anche una bugia
I would even accept a lie
E ti vorrei amare ma sbaglio sempre
And I’d like to love you but I always mess up
E mi vengono i brividi, brividi, brividi
And I get the shivers, shivers, shivers
Tu, che mi svegli il mattino
You, who wake me up in the morning
Tu, che sporchi il letto di vino
You, who get the bed dirty with wine
Tu, che mi mordi la pelle
You, who bite my skin
Con i tuoi occhi da vipera
With your viper’s eyes
E tu, sei il contrario di un angelo
And you, you’re the opposite of an angel
E tu, sei come un pugile all’angolo
And you, you’re like a boxer in their corner
E tu scappi da qui, mi lasci così
And you run away from here, leaving me like this
Nudo con i brividi
Naked, shivering
A volte non so esprimermi
Sometimes I don’t know how to express myself
E ti vorrei amare, ma sbaglio sempre
And I’d like to love you but I always mess up
E ti vorrei rubare un cielo di perle
And I’d like to steal a pearl sky for you
E pagherei per andar via
And I would pay to go away
Accetterei anche una bugia
I would even accept a lie
E ti vorrei amare ma sbaglio sempre
And I’d like to love you but I always mess up
E mi vengono i brividi, brividi, brividi
And I get the shivers, shivers, shivers
Dimmi che non ho ragione
Tell me I’m not right
E vivo dentro una prigione
And I live inside a prison
E provo a restarti vicino
And I try to stay close to you
Ma scusa se poi mando tutto a puttane e
But I’m sorry if I screw up and
Non so dirti ciò che provo, è un mio limite
I can’t tell you what I feel, that’s my limit
Per un “ti amo” ho mischiato droghe e lacrime
I mixed drugs with tears for an “I love you”
Questo veleno che ci sputiamo ogni giorno
This venom that we spit at each other every day
Io non lo voglio più addosso
I don’t want it on me anymore
Lo vedi, sono qui
You see it, I’m here
Su una bici di diamanti, uno fra tanti
On a diamond bike, one among many
Nudo con i brividi
Naked, shivering
A volte non so esprimermi
Sometimes I don’t know how to express myself
E ti vorrei amare, ma sbaglio sempre
And I’d like to love you but I’m always wrong
E ti vorrei rubare un cielo di perle
And I’d like to steal a pearl sky for you
E pagherei per andar via
And I would pay to go away
Accetterei anche una bugia
I would even accept a lie
E ti vorrei amare ma sbaglio sempre
And I’d like to love you but I’m always wrong
E mi vengono i brividi, brividi, brividi
And I get the shivers, shivers, shivers
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Notable Italian words from Brividi by Mahmood & Blanco
Now let’s extract a few words from the song that you might want to learn. These are very common and useful words!
Il brivido
The shiver
Avere i brividi
To shiver
Literally: To have the shivers
Brrr! Ho la pelle d’oca!
Italians have their own version of goose bumps. They are called pelle d’oca, goose skin.
Brrr, che freddo! Ho la pelle d’oca! Brrr, it’s cold! I got goose bumps!
Volare
To fly
La bici, la bicicletta
The bike
Il diamante
The diamond
La luce
(The) light
La paura
(The) fear
Il mare
The sea
Un mare dove non tocchi mai?
A mom and her child are swimming in a pool. The mom says to the child, “Rimani dove si tocca!“. Stay where you can touch [the bottom]!
A “mare dove non tocchi mai” is a sea you can never touch the bottom of. You can never reach its deep end.
Il sesso
The sex, the gender
La via di fuga
The way out, the escape route
Il fondo
The bottom
Nudo
Naked
In your birthday suit
The Italian equivalent of In your birthday suit is In tenuta adamitica, that we can literally translate as “In Adam’s costume”. After all, Adam wasn’t born with his clothes on… right? It’s quite a humorous way to address nakedness!
Amare
To love (romantic)
Amare, voler bene
There’s two kind of love in Italian: amare and voler bene.
The first one conveys romantic and sexual attraction. Ideally you’ll use ti amo (I love you) with your significant other, your wife, your husband etc. You’ll say ti voglio bene (I love you) to your best friend, to your child, to your grands, as voler bene conveys affection and the desire to take care of another person.
Sbagliare
To make a mistake, to mess up
Il cielo
The sky
La perla
The pearl
La bugia
The lie
Sporcare
To get dirty, to soil
Il vino
The wine
Mordere
To bite
La pelle
The skin
La vipera
The viper
Il contrario
The opposite, the contrary
L’angelo
The angel
Il pugile
The boxer
L’angolo
The corner, the angle
Avere ragione
To be right
Avere torto
To be wrong
La prigione
The prison
Mandare a puttane
To screw up
Literally: To send sth to whores
Comprehensive list of Italian swear words
Do you have a dirty mouth? If so, you’ll surely like Lingookies’ ultimate guide to swearing in Italian, complete with audio clips and example sentences!
La droga
The drug
La lacrima
The tear
Il veleno
The poison, the venom
(Yes, there’s no distinction in Italian!)
What next?
Now that you’ve read the lyrics and translation for Brividi by Mahmood and Blanco, you might want to keep learning Italian online with these free Italian resources:
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