Laura Pausini is finishing talking on the phone with her ten-year-old daughter Paula, who has already made choruses for her this year. In a discreet suite at the Bless Hotel in Madrid she advances with firm steps, and her smile, or rather, her presence, spreads a cloud of charm in the room as only a diva can do. It is Pausini's frankness that is overwhelming, the naturalness displayed by a woman who has been famous almost all her life. At the age of ten she was already singing in piano bars with her father, causing admiration with her father New York, New York and emulating Vanoni.
He didn't have time to dream of fame; Her challenge then was to be the first woman to sing alone in the piano bars in her region — “there were no women, no, they sang in groups, but not alone” — but she ended up being the most universal Italian singer. . She did not go to the conservatory, she learned music with a teacher from Solarolo who played the flute, and her father taught him everything, except her music.
At 18 he won his San Remo with Solitude, and since then he has built a career on solid columns, demystifying his achievements every day and without being a victim of the character. A bit of traditional Italian song, another of pop, and above all a portion of feeling accompanied by a soprano voice. His latest album, Parallel Souls, has sold millions of copies in a week. Pausini transmits, feels what he sings. After her nomination at the Oscars for the song Solo io —which received a Golden Globe—, in the film Life ahead, played by Sofia Loren and directed by Edoardo Ponti, she has been chosen as Person of the Year at the Latin Grammys .
The most Latin Italian woman married the musician Paolo Carta this spring, after 18 years of living together and having a daughter: “We are made to live together.” One of the songs from the album, In Front of Us, was used as wedding vows, and the couple sang it at the ceremony. Love and music. She has also celebrated her thirtieth birthday by overcoming a challenge: she sang at the Apollo Theater in New York, the Music Station in Madrid and the Teatro Carcona in Milan in just 24 hours.
We start recording and Pausini asks me questions beyond courtesy. “In the end I'll interview you!” he says, laughing. It is one more trait that reveals his curiosity and his sparkling verb. We talk about age, and he swears with exquisite elegance, without staining himself. “Before I have been asked how I feel at almost 50 years old. And I responded “well, I feel shit.” I don't like it at all, but I have also told the journalist that, in ten years, I hope to be able to tell him that I feel freer."
Were you more conservative when you were younger?
Yes. I had the mentality of my small town; and, furthermore, I was a teenager in the nineties, when everything was more conservative. And not only in Italy... I still feel ashamed of certain things, although absolutely not at all about other things...
Have you lost your shame?
So I was very shy, yes. And on the other hand, shy is not a word with which I can define myself now. I'm not ashamed of anything. I may not like everyone, but I am satisfied with who I am and what I do.
Especially after having sold more than 70 million records.
That gives you certainty, of course. But there comes a time when you know that, beyond the number of albums sold, the people who buy them love you. In the last ten years I have seen that they love me more and more: first, as a person; later, as a singer. At the beginning of my career I didn't feel this, but today the relationship with my audience is much truer and deeper. That's why when I'm not on tour, sometimes I feel guilty, like I'm not going to visit the people in my family.
What relationship does it have with politics?
I don't like getting involved in politics... Within that word, politics, there are many aspects that I don't know or that I'm not able to argue, so I don't like to get involved in it.
How did your father influence you, not just musically?
My father has been essential in my life, as a father and as a musician. I have many things about him: his madness, his fantasy... he is an atypical man, because he is always very focused on his passion for singing and is very, very disciplined. He taught me a discipline that allows me to enjoy this job, because when you are successful at 18 years old it is very easy to live badly... He told me: “Well, for today we have finished the interviews, but tomorrow morning we have a radio: at nine I want you in bed.”
Didn't you have much freedom?
He has never told me what I should do at my job, or how to do it. I've always done what I wanted. But it has taught me to be a responsible person. Because when you live in music, it seems that everything is sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. On the contrary, it is about always being lucid, capable of doing interviews as well as singing and taking care of your voice. The first five years of my career I was in a different city every other day. I think I only spent a week at home.
Did you study while traveling?
When I won the Sanremo festival I had not finished school and my mother had told me that until June, until I finished my exams, I was not allowed to do anything: “You finish school and then you leave,” she told me.
¿An Italian mother?
She is an Italian teacher! She represents elegance in my family: she is very fine and gentle. And she is politically correct, except at home, with me. She listens a lot and if she talks, she says something that will never provoke a strong reaction. I, on the other hand, never think about causing a stir, but then I cause it.
He has a very fluent verb and speaks several languages…
Sometimes I feel like I don't have a rich vocabulary and I scold myself for it. But I haven't had time to continue studying, you know? I would like to have a bigger vocabulary, which maybe I actually have, because when you know so many languages, then each word makes you think about the conjugation or where this word comes from.
What has been the biggest trouble you have gotten into because of your sincerity?
When I didn't want to sing Bella Ciao on a television show, a controversy that made me suffer a lot. I was criticized by those on the right and those on the left. Since the first day of my career, 30 years ago, I have not expressed myself politically. But I have always spoken and fought for human rights. Bella Ciao is a song that opens some rallies in Italy—nothing to do with Money Heist—and I don't want to get into politics. This is why I was a trending topic in Spain and Italy for a week. Now, on the other hand, I have not been a trending topic for receiving the Grammy for Person of the Year, nor was I one with the other Grammy, nor with the Oscar nor with the Golden Globe... I was on everyone's lips with something that does not belong to me ; judged, furthermore, by people who do not know me. A politician even told me: “Shame on you.”
The hatred released on the networks has established itself in our society.
And it's getting to a point that is too strong. And I'm going to confess something that I haven't told you: shortly before my paternal grandmother, María, who was like my father and like me, a little crazy, died, she asked us to put Bella Ciao in the cemetery. We were all silent, crying, and suddenly the song started playing. I still don't understand why she asked for it at that time... but she wanted it and we did it. When the controversy arose, I cried for a week.
Many divas, from Anna Magnani to Maria Callas, had difficult lives. Have you avoided the thorns?
They had harder lives than mine. At that time, divas had to behave differently than they thought. They had to hide. I have always felt very uncomfortable in that sense. In the nineties they told me “make everything a little mysterious around you, because it will make you bigger,” but I don't have that veiled character. I feel like I'm teasing the public and that's why, perhaps, I talk so much and I like to be normal more; My mother scolds me, she says I talk too much about my things. I have always felt more honest without secrets.
Sensitivity always surfaces in you. I remember he told me about that episode at the Latin Grammys in Las Vegas, when his record company didn't want to pay for your plane ticket to attend the gala. And you came with your family. And won.
They told me that it was useless, directly: “We are going to spend money for you to go, but you are already 47 years old and you are not going to win. Better to use the money for an advertising campaign in Italy.” You can win an award at 90 if you do something good, right? I don't forget it and I don't forgive it either. I am not able.
You are a believer, did you distance yourself from religion when your first loves began?
No, I have never distanced myself from religion. On the contrary, I have gotten closer. Traveling, I have begun to feel curious about other religions. And, so, I have begun to read about other ways to love God. There was a time when in Italy—well, I think in the entire West—they were all Buddhists, then came the Kabbalah... Today, what I feel closest to me is from a very small evangelical church called Valdense, in which everyone—women, men, heterosexuals, homosexuals, etc.—can enter and play an active role.
Have you suffered any type of harassment?
No no. They know that they can't with me. But many girls have approached me to tell me their experiences. On the album there is a song called Flashback dedicated to Alessia, a girl who called me on an Italian radio station 25 years ago, crying and telling me “please, call me privately, I need help.” I didn't know her at all, but I did it. And she told me that she was a minor and her father bothered her. “My mother doesn't report it because she is afraid of it, I need your help.” For five years she called me on my cell phone every time her father raped her, and I called the police again and again. The police went to her house and her mother told them “it's a simple family fight, because we scolded her.” One day, the police in Turin—where this was happening—came to Milan to tell me privately not to continue calling them because I risked being reported. After a few months, Alessia finally turned 18 and ran away from home. And now, after a long time, she has just published a book.
Soon he will sing in Barcelona. What relationship does it have with the city?
On January 29, yes. I haven't sung there for a long time. But I love the city. That was my first getaway with my husband, 18 years ago, on Easter Day... We wanted to see the city, but in the end we didn't see it because we were fucking in the hotel the whole time.
Was living in Rome a condition of your husband? Did she move for love?
It wasn't a condition, no. He is from Rome, and has three children from a previous marriage… it was what we had to do. I have given up work commitments to be with them on the weekends. If you can choose, you have to do it well.
In Italy there are characters as passionate as you, Pope Francis, Giorgia Meloni or Sofia Loren. Do you know them?
I don't know Pope Francis. I met John Paul II and sang for him, but I would love to meet Francis. I found Meloni in a public garden, where my daughter and I played. Her daughter was next to her, at a birthday party, and we greeted each other. But I have no opinion, of any politician. I met Sofía in Switzerland, because she lives there. And one time I did a benefit concert with Phil Collins, who is her friend, and she came. During the rehearsal she told me: “I see your wide face. Are you doing treatments for something?” And I say: “How do you see it?” And she answered me: “Because for five years she wanted a child and couldn't get one. So she was doing a lot of treatments.” And Sofía Loren spoke to me as if she had been a person from the most intimate family environment. She gave me some advice, she made me feel very strong and we already had a bond, a click. She has always been a woman who loves women.
