At 51, she doesn’t feel in competition with anyone but herself. This was also evident in Sanremo 2023, where she returned twenty-two years after her last participation and took sixth place with angry words: «I didn’t want to do it at all. Then Amadeus threw a magic powder. And I thought that it’s basically an experience, at this stage in my career, where I’ve rebuilt my style and my sound, after even thinking about retirement,” admits Giorgia. On new album Blu1, the Roman singer-songwriter, who will make her acting debut in April in Rocco Papaleo’s Scordato, before hitting the opera houses on June 12, with a stop at the Rome Opera, enjoys ignoring expectations and they rediscover Soulroots and R&B. Patience when it debuted at number twelve in the Fimi / Gfk ranking of bestsellers in Italy: the way they are done now, focused on streaming that rewards the very little ones, the rankings leave the time they find. And then someone like her, 7 million copies sold in a thirty-year career, is in a different league.
Dry question: Do you really still feel like it?
“Yes. I got it on the Ariston stage. The emotion was greater than in 1994 with And then: the flame is intact, after thirty years of questionable characters».
Which?
“Everyone who didn’t make it easy for me. Starting with the managers. I have rarely felt protected: they even tried to change me ».
names?
«What eggs (laughs). One even sued me, I don’t remember why, and I had to give him money. I’ve always paid in my life. I also had a non-VIP boyfriend who took everything from my house to the studio after I cheated on him. Freedom comes at a high price, but it’s always worth paying.
Had he really thought about quitting?
“Yes. I felt empty. The lockdown was a desert of ideas. Even singing seemed too exhausting to me”.
How did it come out?
«Thanks to Big Fish (real name Massimiliano Dagani, 51-year-old producer, considered a column of Italian hip-hop, editor’s note). He convinced me to do an R&B and soul record, my roots. I got involved in another area with Papaleo, who also shot the video for Normale, the single written by Mahmood. It went well. I play a physiotherapist who begins conversations about existence: I recognized myself in it».
Did the record companies put you under pressure?
“I turned down a few suggestions: duets with younger artists. I avoided.”
Snobbery?
«No: coherence. Pino Daniele told me: “Don’t do anything you might regret”. Then, in the meantime, some of my long-term employees in Columbia (part of Sony, editor’s note) have switched to Warner».
Didn’t you think of following them?
“It’s like the other record companies think I’m a pain in the ass, a fighter. Now all that’s left of the historic Sony team is President Andrea Rosi, who I love. I don’t know what will become of me.”
Do you rule out a move to Warner after thirty years?
“I’m not ruling anything out. We have to see if they let me go and if they want me (laughs)».
Among the zodiac signs on his body, one is missing from the hilt. The Capricorn. That of his ex-partner Alex Baroni, who many thought of when hearing “Parole ditte male”.
“He is always with me. In Tornerai I mention his Onde. It speaks of a belief beyond the physical”.
Is there someone who reminds him of that in the way he sings?
«Marco Mengoni, very much. When we recorded Come Neve together in 2016, I had big problems in the studio. It made me shudder.”
Did Baudo hear him?
“Yes. It made me cry before the festival. I called her for ten years, dominated by its size. We even had a discussion once.”
Why?
«In 2003 he wanted me to compete again in Sanremo. But I had a tour. It was bad. He told me: “You are exhausted”. He was right: I couldn’t take it anymore. A little later we talked again as if nothing had happened.”
You are often a guest at “Amici”: did Maria offer you to be a judge in the evenings?
“I go there because that’s how I see my partner (Emanuel Lo, choreographer, father of Samuel, 13, editor’s note) who is in the cast. Maria made the suggestion to me years ago: It’s not for me. We still respect each other. What a pain, the disappearance of Maurizio. Did you know that the first show on TV was The Costanzo Show? It was 1994. He invited me to do a duet with saxophonist Steve Grossman».
As the experience went well in the end, would Sanremo do it again?
“Each other? (Laughs). It was exhausting. And I’m old.”
Read the full article
on Messenger