Annalisa: “Transforming helps you understand others better”

“When everything has to be redone I can transform myself, you think it hurts me but I am fire”. Annalisa literally gets back on track with “Ma io sono fuoco”, an album in continuity with “E poi sia fini nel vortice” released in 2023, which allowed her to become one of the most important and awarded Italian pop stars. In this project, which is also very closely linked to the ’80s on a sound level, anger, fears and anxieties change into something else, between sarcasm, positivity and synth, without too much desire to make it a life lesson. On the other hand, it is not the first time that the singer-songwriter changes her skin, creating real characters, even on a visual level, as the three faces of “Bellissima”, “Mon amour” and “Sola” recall. Annalisa, from today, will be in various cities for her “art gallery & instore”, not a simple copy signing, but a meeting with fans in real art galleries, and from November she will return on tour in the arenas.

When did this album take shape?
I started to have an idea about the whole project about a year ago, even if some songs were born before that.

Is it an album designed for the live dimension?
We certainly talked about it often during the writing phase, we thought about how much the pieces could grow in the staging and in the hands of the musicians.

Is “being fire” a reaction to the “vortex” of life in the previous project?
Yes, the new album is not so much about what happens, as perhaps the previous one was, but about how you react to what has happened. There is a red thread. The “but I am fire”, with the adversative, portrays the desire not to be passive, not to be carried away, perhaps managing to transform negative things into opportunities.

From the way you talk about it, this “reaction” is important to you.
It should be like this for everyone, but as a woman I don’t deny that I feel the issue very strongly. As a woman it has happened to me and I happen to risk suffering situations that perhaps a man would not suffer. The central message of the album is: “Let everyone live their life as they want”.

It risks being a banality.
I realize that it is, actually. But given the times it is important to talk about it. Why must there be prejudices? Why attack people for who they are if they aren’t hurting anyone? Why point fingers? Everyone must make their own choices, perhaps even making mistakes, but they must be free to make them.

“And then we ended up in the vortex” marked a period: Is returning to the studio, after the goals achieved, scary?
The pressure was there. But it was positive. After a favorable period you are full of stimuli and ideas. You can “steal” a lot from bright moments. And then I included that pressure in the album because this need to react and transform is not only a general message, but also a state in which I found myself: I wanted to change again, without abandoning myself.

The transformation is also real, not just figurative: in “Maschio” you literally become a man.
It’s a pop classic: transforming to make the message reach even stronger. It’s a great opportunity: using small universes and placing them alongside the songs is magical. I tried to build real characters, from “Bellissima” to “Maschio”, which told more parts of me. Then I am also convinced that the songs should fly on their own and everyone can see what they want in them, but offering an additional imaginary, at the start, is always interesting.

The male figure, in this project, is ironically demolished: men are liars and vampires. What is the goal of an album like this? Dancing on sentimental ruins?
Pop music for me is largely made for this. I like the sonic speed of a certain pop, because it allows you to overcome the sadness of a story that doesn’t work.

You are married. Where do these libertine stories come from? As friends or are they your previous stories?
A mix. I rarely make precise-precise references to specific facts. In my songs there are brushstrokes of stories that I often don’t even have anything to do with, but which I have collected. What matters to me, beyond this, is to strike from an emotional and conceptual point of view. I also like to include provocations.

The one you are most proud of?
“Friend”. It’s perhaps the rawest song on the album. It’s straight. Maybe it’s not entirely politically correct, but it’s human. It was among the first I got my hands on, but among the last to be closed. It wasn’t a coincidence: it presents some uncomfortable reflections.

You collaborate with Paolo Antonacci on “Avelenata”: the piece is particular because your voices seem like one.
He has an almost feminine voice. My collaboration with Paolo, as an author, is long-standing, but I had also been thinking about a piece together for some time. I find it interesting to talk about fragilities from two different perspectives which then become one. The fragilities, seen up close, are all similar, even Paolo and I are similar.

“Piazza San Marco” with Mengoni is a different piece from the general sound of the album. Why?
The song with Marco is a collaboration that wants to take its time, not burn quickly. It doesn’t have a purpose, it was born from an urgency and that’s why we would like it to have a long life. For me it’s a kind of anthem, I want to carry it with me for a while.

Who is “Emanuela” to whom you dedicate a song?
That piece amuses me a lot. I made a mental movie: an evening at the disco where you look around and feel like you don’t fit in. In that place there are poverty and nobility, amusing aspects and others that leave you speechless. At a certain point something happens: the boyfriend of my fictional friend Emanuela, with whom I’m at the disco, hits on me. And I threaten him that if he doesn’t stop, I’ll tell her everything.

Was the release of “Bellissima” in 2023 the big bang?
That was the gear change. Among other things, I had that song there for a while, but it’s always difficult to understand when to publish a song that you feel is important. The release of “Mon amour”, my first Forum in Assago and the first Arena in Verona were also fundamental pieces. Another moment that resonated with me was when I was honored at the Billboard Women in Music in America. Talking about yourself, in English, in front of several international stars such as Karol G and Katy Perry… it was exciting.

In 2024 you published “Sincerely” in Spanish. Do you want to play your cards at an international level too?
I think the songs will find the way in the end. This mechanism cannot be “forced”. One thing I am sure of: there must still remain an Italian identity in what I do. For me, songs “become international” if they maintain a recognizable identity.

How will “But I am fire” turn into a tour?
It will be a mix of feelings: anger, nostalgia, love, despondency and reaction.

Where’s the anger in the record?
“It depends” in my opinion is an angry piece, that’s where the reaction is triggered. And in fact the project is just starting. That anger, then in the various pieces, turns into irony on “Maschio” and “Emanuela”, into nostalgia on “Piazza San Marco” and in “Amica”, or even into disappointment on “Delusa”.

Transformation also involves empathy, because it requires the acceptance of points other than one’s own. Has the burning world we live in forgotten this?
There is a lot of intolerance on social media, but also in person, about perspectives different from one’s own. I witness nervousness even over small things. It’s true, in general there is little empathy, little desire to understand the other. Putting ourselves in the shoes of those in front of us is important. Transformation, playing with one’s identity, helps me try to understand others better.