I treni di Tozeur

"I treni di Tozeur"
The original 7 inch single sleeve (Italy)
Eurovision Song Contest 1984 entry
Country	Italy
Artist(s)	Carla Bissi, Franco Battiato
As	Alice & Battiato
Languages	Italian, German
Composer(s)	Franco Battiato Giusto Pio
Lyricist(s)	Franco Battiato Rosario "Saro" Cosentino
Conductor	Giusto Pio
Finals performance
Final result	5th
Final points	70
Appearance chronology
◄ "Per Lucia" (1983)
"Magic Oh Magic" (1985) ►

"I treni di Tozeur" ("The trains of Tozeur") is an Italian song, written by Franco Battiato, Saro Cosentino and Giusto Pio. It was the Italian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1984, performed in Italian (with some lyrics in German) by Alice and Franco Battiato.

In a studio version sung only by Battiato, the song was later to be included on his album Mondi Lontanissimi (1985) and was subsequently also recorded in English and Spanish language versions as "The trains of Tozeur" and "Los trenes de Tozeur" and featured on albums Echoes of Sufi Dances and Ecos de Danzas Sufi respectively. In 1994 Battiato recorded an interpretation of the song with a symphony orchestra for his live album Unprotected.

Alice has also recorded solo versions of the song, included on albums Elisir (1987) and Personal Jukebox (1999), the latter featuring strings by the London Session Orchestra, arranged and conducted by Gavyn Wright. The original 1984 duet version of the song features on the 2005 career retrospective Studio Collection, in effect making its debut on an Alice album twenty-one years after its recording.

The train line referred to in the lyrics runs from Metlaoui in the north through the Selja Gorges in the Atlas Mountains to Tozeur on the border of the Sahara desert in the south, the frontier mentioned is subsequently the Tunisian-Algerian. The track was built in the early 1900s at an enormous cost of both state finances and human lives in order for the Bey of Tunis (the King of Tunisia) to travel in grand style to his winter palace in the oasis town of Tozeur and largely also to impress foreign dignitaries on visit. There was originally only one train set, built in Paris in 1910 and this was an official gift from the state of France to the Bey of Tunisia when the country was a French protectorate. With all five carriages painted deep-red it was colloquially named 'Le Lézard Rouge' (The Red Lizard) by the oppressed and empoverished Tunisian people and was seen as a symbol of both the emperor's power and extravagant Western-influenced life-style and the French imperialism.