Emma: “I was born again after a difficult time. After the fields, I stop for a while: I need to sleep, dinners with friends. Sanremo? I can’t do it”

“I am in a state of grace: those who know me well, on a human or professional level, have seen me calm and happy. The spirit with which I approached the concert was: this is my party.” Emma he still has to overcome the emotions of the concert at the Forum in Assago the night beforethe first of the three buildings with which he closes the project «Souvenir», an album released last year and which has just seen a new version with 6 unreleased songs.

Happy and quiet, but the show starts with a video of her as a ghost attending her own funeral…
«We always think of the end of things as a moment in which there is the usual feeling of pain, but I want to give another idea. I have died many times and have always experienced the end as a new beginning. I’m back in style and I want to get rid of that feeling. On stage I bring not only the songs, but also my feelings and with these images I tell the path between death and rebirth.”

The lowest point was when you realized she was gone again?
«My father lost (in 2022, he was 66 years old) the most difficult time he faced. The click to restart came when I was in the studio and “Mezzo mondo” was born. I realized I wanted to get back on track. For me Souvenir was a reset album not only because I was going through a family and personal problem but also because the music changed After the release of the album I started right away with the club tour: I was not physically and mentally capable of some big places. i was
too much destroyed, disturbed, irritated… It was a difficult time in my life, and I needed to reconnect with music and people.
It was a personal choice, not a market choice.”

During «Intervallo», a song dedicated to her father, there is a video in which she is shot in front of the picture and the emotion comes like a wave, to the point of tears. What was it like on stage?
«That video represents my desire to tell what I feel by putting my face to it. No other video would have been adequate. I put my pain out there in public, which I don’t usually do. I only saw these images at dress rehearsals. At the Forum I was excited, but the challenge I set myself was not to give up and bring the piece home. I did it.”

The concert has a stage with a rock arrangement, then slides into pop (and there are guests Olly and Jvli for “I want you”), with Lazza, Fabri Fibra and Tony Effe a rap window opens, techno the deejay Deborah De Luca opens until the end of the dance. Summary of Emma,​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ but does it also tell us the future?
«I gave everything I was and am. I don’t like to define myself in terms of genre or emotion and I try to connect everything organically with my presence on stage.”

He also sings differently, his voice seems to have less of a shout…
«I have matured and developed, while remaining myself. Pachy, my vocal coach, works not only on technique but also on wrong postures and physical traumas. With him I found out that by using my body in a different way I can do falsetto and thin voice well. Anger and force do not always help: in my life I have always used them but I realized that softness and sweetness can help.”

For «In Italy» he screens sections of articles on femicide and rejection of the Zan bill. He launches his battles again…
«I’m honored that Fabri Fibra contacted me for a new version of that denial song that is always current. For myself, I always try to focus the magnifying glass on the issues of civil rights, racism, homophobia… I try to bring the discussion back to a human level and compassion. Giving rights to someone does not mean taking them away from others.”

For some time now he has opened up to collaborations with rappers who often go into less appropriate language when it comes to respect for women. How do you reconcile it with your ideas?
«We need a more open view of rap. Just as pop has its direction, rap also has images made up of strong and uncomfortable words. Behind that style are respected people and I believe that music should be allowed freedom of expression. We point the finger at rappers, but the problems are elsewhere. Just listen to the news.”

Speaking of rights. It seems that they want to limit not only minority languages. The right to abortion applies to all women…
“We intend to live in a free society but we will go back. The women’s battles of the 60’s and 70’s seem to have achieved nothing. We are obsessed with the burqa because it has an immediate visual impact, but even here there are limits. Or consider the law that has made pregnancy for others a universal crime in a country like ours where birth rates are zero and singles can’t accept it… Women pay more than everyone else.”

Even in music… why are there very few women in the Italian charts?
«Annalisa is there and also reaches the Spanish ones… But if an Italian boy goes on stage in his underwear we talk about his performance; if a woman does it, we’re talking about the outfit and not the fact that she worked to get there.”

There is a concept that returns in the unreleased songs of the new version of Souvenir that was released recently. In «Lacrime» and «Centomila» we talk about starting or starting again «from the beginning».
“For me this was a reset album. I said to myself: “Do you have a 15-year career behind you? Very well, but I’m not, you have to go again.” And I did it not only because I was going through family and personal trauma but also because the music changed . I got back on my feet in every way.”

Now there are two more fields: November 14 in Rome and November 17 in Bari.
«i stopped I need to sleep, have dinners with friends, breathe and enjoy what has happened since the album came out.”

What if Carlo Conti calls us? Maybe not singing?
«I just can’t do it. I need a moment to myself.”