Lamú: Urusei Yatsura (Italian Opening) is a formerly unidentified europop song by Noam Kaniel, Circo Dammico, Haim Saban, and Shuki Levy. The song was used as the opening in the Italian dub of Urusei Yatsura in 1984.
Search History[]
Pre-2000[]
In 1984, the Italian Dub of Urusei Yatsura was broadcast by Telecapri. Instead of using the Japanese Intro or the song of the original theme in Italian, a new song was recorded for the program to promote the show. This would be the intro used for Urusei Yatsura up until 1990.
No singers or songwriters were credited for the song or listed under SIAE, where most of the Italian copyright information for the show was registered. The intro song was likely only created for the TV show, as the ending uses the instrumental of the song, suggesting it was commissioned specifically.
Urusei Yatsura become one of the most popular animes in Italy, with the first intro becoming semi-iconic. Since the version played in the show's opening suddenly fades out, fans wondered for decades if a full version of the song existed.
Telecapri was repeatedly contacted by members of the community. They refused to comment on the song and eventually Lawyers associated with the company claimed the song came prepackaged with the dub. Ricmon, the company that dubbed Urusei Yatsura had gone bust, but former employees involved with music suggested Monica Caudieri knew the artists behind the song. Unfortunately, she was unable to be contacted.
2010s-2020[]
The search started on Facebook in the 2010s, particularly Italian cartoon group FUMETTOSO. User Wally Rainbow suggested that Noam Kaniel could’ve been the artist behind the song. Noam was also the artist behind multiple other songs used in TV shows, such as the Heathcliff theme, the Italian Spider Woman theme, and I Want To Hold You, a formerly unidentified song from Sweet Valley High. Kaniel had even collaborated with Saban and Levy before on theme songs, solidifying both leads further. Kaniel was contacted in 2018 didn’t respond.
The Facebook group Il Mistero Della Sigla Di Lamù was created as a new hub for the search, where user Franco reached out to Kaniel once again. Eventually he received a response that was posted to the group in January 2020. Kaniel confirmed that he was singing on the track but it was a duet and he didn’t remember who the other vocalist was.
Sometime after YouTuber Justin Whang made a video on the search, Ciro Dammicco was brought up as a possible second vocalist, as he had collaborated with Haim and Levy before on multiple occasions. Kaniel confirmed this to be the case.
When asked about singing on the track in an interview, Dammicco said that they must have sung on it if Kaniel said so. Shuki Levy later was contacted, where he confirmed the track was a duet between Kaniel and Dammicco.
Lyrics[]
TBA
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