Xavier Herrero |
Madrid (EFE) it allowed him to overcome a recent crisis of confidence in his professional future.
“I have always been a melancholic person, which does not mean pessimistic, but in recent years I felt that turning 30 had come to summarize something and I was afraid that I would not have anything new to say,” he confessed in an interview with EFE held in the Spanish capital before the publication of his song “A good start”.
Pausini (Faenza, Italy, 1974) says that she had lost “the fighter’s instinct” that characterizes her, perhaps due to the fear that she listened to many songs, all that came into her hands, by known or anonymous authors and of very varied styles. . “But nothing worked. She thought that something had broken in me or that she could no longer identify with the music”, she recounts.
Something changed when Jacomo Pesce, artistic director of what will be her next album, contacted her, the first since “Make yourself feel” (2018), and told her that he had songs to suit her.
“‘Un buen inicio’ played and the music excited me”, he stresses that he says he felt something similar to the first time he heard “La soledad”, the success with which on February 27, 1993 he won the victory in the Sanremo Festival, partly because of its simplicity, “because sometimes saying things simply is very difficult without sounding stupid.”
Composed by one of the members of the Italian band Pinguini Tattici Nucleari, the artist points out that it brings together “a very Italian writing, but current”. “It makes me feel comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time because it respects my past, but brings it to the contemporary and makes me sing and breathe in a different way,” she celebrates.
Although the lyrics and the original story changed, its very title was already an incentive to consider life in another way. “Before, I programmed my life a lot, but there came a time when I was afraid of not being afraid, knowing too much, which is very similar to being dead,” he comments.
“Being afraid and not knowing if I will be able to meet challenges makes me feel alive,” she highlights as justification for the marathon in which she embarked last week with three concerts in a single day around half the world, accepting the possibility of being wrong, as has happened to her. sometimes in the past, but also to get up and learn from it.
The controversy of “Bella Ciao”
Among those errors, he recalls the controversy that arose when in 2022 he refused to interpret the song “Bella Ciao” on a Spanish television program, the partisan anthem that popularized the series “La casa de papel”.
“It was a disaster for me. I lived it very badly. Here he attacked my left and in Italy he used my right, just everything I didn’t want. I told my team that I wanted to answer and they suggested that I not feed the controversy anymore because in a few days they would vote in Italy ”, she recalls, regretting not having explained herself more directly.
He points out the reasons why “since day 1” of his career he has always taken care not to define himself politically, for example, so as not to influence his own followers. “When I voted for the first time, I did it for what an idol of mine voted for, but voting without knowing what a political program is is a mistake,” he says.
“I don’t see myself capable of having a political talk. Of human rights, which is a part of politics, yes, I have always been involved there. I’ve been singing the same things for 30 years and I think I’m very explicit, but politics is more than that,” says someone who has positioned himself on the side of the feminist struggle or the LGTB cause.
Eurovision, Chanel and television
Regarding other possible challenges, such as making her debut with her own television program after seeing how well she performed as a jury in programs such as “La Voz” and as the presenter of the last Eurovision Song Contest, Pausini is clear.
“They have offered me three programs in Spain in these years, but not musicals and I don’t see myself as a presenter. In Italy I have been asked several times to present the Sanremo festival and I don’t feel up to it. In addition, I would be the artistic director and, honestly, I would not be impartial, I would put all my friends, ”she admits with a laugh.
Already in Eurovision (“One of the five favorite experiences of my entire career”, he highlights), he was criticized for at one point cheering Chanel’s participation during the points reading with a “Very good, Spain”.
“I loved Chanel, her energy, her positivity. I like women like that. And I have affection for Spain, I was not able to hide it. She came out to me only when she began to gather so many votes, even though they scolded me from below, ”she says.
Was the Cuban-Spanish representative one of your favorites? “Yeah. And she sang well, without using autotune. Not everyone does, ”she confesses.