Sayf: “I don’t want to do Ghali 2.0 in Sanremo”

There are artists who get paranoid months before Sanremo Festival: the Ariston – together with everything that stage entails – has this effect. For rappers it is even more complicated: to move from the street to the main event combed of Italy can be uncomfortable, a dress that is tight. None of this for Adam Viacava, aka Sayf: the Italian-Tunisian rapper from Genoa is experiencing the approach to the Sanremo event with great serenity.

He will make his debut in the city of flowers with “I like you a lot“, a piece with a dense text, which presents a social component and a reflection on the present – but with the traditional catchy Sanremo melody. “It’s like a suppository”, jokes Sayf, who sugarcoats the pill to adapt it to the context of the singing competition. But he won’t go on that stage with the same (political) intentions as Ghali:

I respect Ghali a lot and love him, but I don’t want to do Ghali 2.0 just because I’m Tunisian and have similar hair. If someone does something they must do it because they feel like it, certain things should not be taken lightly but with respect. I agree with all the positions he has taken so far: certainly if there are issues on which I feel I can speak out I will.

Attention to certain themes is not lacking: “I don’t think aboutEurovision also out of good luck, but I agree with the positions of those who expose themselves on the Palestinian question. It’s right to give a message when people like politicians and institutions don’t do it.” The text of the song talks about a “flower on the truck” as a “symbol of nonviolence”, because “the protester and the cop are children of the same people: we are divided by trivial things like work and we end up making war on each other”. A song that can only scare “those who live in a schematic way, those who need to label everything by force”.

“I’m pleased that the press has spoken well of the song, but I don’t give it too much weight. I don’t want to prove anything“. The stress and the spotlight of Ariston do not destabilize him (in this regard he quotes his colleague and fellow citizen Vaz Tè: “I will never be embarrassed in front of you”) and he listens to just one piece of advice“trying to be light-hearted and happy with what I do”.

The only sore point it suffers is “la pressurethe dynamics that have consequences on the person’s psyche”: this is why he cites Luigi Tenco and what happened to him, “to exasperate my condition. This can be considered my internship phase, like a debut in the national team and that passage is deliberately exasperated. It is the most personal crack of the song”. Like the famous phrase of Silvio Berlusconi“Italy is the country I love”: “This is also deliberately sarcastic. Being also Tunisian, in my opinion it is an added value to say that Italy is the country I love. Even if it is a messed up country, I consider it the best in the world. For cuisine, for culture, it is unbeatable.”

In the evening dedicated to cover we will see him perform together with Mario Biondi and ad Alex Britti in a new version of “Hit the Road Jack”: “They are two giants, two prominent elements. I thank them for being there. The idea for the song was already that, then the video of the two of them playing together appeared and gave us the idea to call them both”. The more technical side doesn’t worry him: “I’m going to singing lessons, but if I’m stuck I won’t die. My strength isn’t my vocal range, it’s the words.”

After Sanremo, “God willing”, an album will arrive. Meanwhile, good news for fantasy players undecided whether or not to spend bauds on Sayf: “Yes, I think I’ll play at We’ll fantasize”.