Seltsam: “We songwriters can still have a chance”

«After the experience at Sanremo Giovani, for the first time I feel that I am more fish than flesh in people’s eyes. Even if I feel more and more meat, but of a low level. There is a lot of expectation. I feel it, it’s not easy to handle» says Seltsam. Seltsam, for those who have never heard of it (59.3 million “likes” and 448.2 thousand followers on TikTokwhere his music bounces from clip to clip), is the stage name of Lorenzo Giovanniello, a Roman singer-songwriter born in 2001, one of the most advanced of the new generation. Someone may have seen him last October at the auditions of X Factor, with “Arsenico” by Aiello. Someone else will have noticed it instead Sanremo Youth: in December with “Sorry mum” he came close to winning a pass to participate in the Sanremo Festival, among the “New proposals”. The sentence he utters at the beginning of the interview tells his current state well: that of an artist still under construction, but already within a public narrative that has magnified him faster than he himself feels ready to support. Yet Seltsam – the word is a German adjective meaning strange, unusual, bizarre, curious, or singular – he doesn’t talk about himself as a standstill. Far from it.

His idea is that of someone who has learned to live with the instability of the spotlight: turning it on, turning it off, and then going back to look for it: «When the spotlight disappears, you have to work to get it back on. That’s what I’m doing. At Sanremo Giovani I was an underdog. Like Lazio who reached the Champions League final, but didn’t win. It’s still a victory» he says, mentioning his favorite team. With the single “How’s it going buddy?”, just released, has added a new piece to his journey. While waiting for his first official concert in a club, the one that the May 21st will see him perform atAlcazarin his Rome, simply titled “Mother Rome“. The challenge is clear: to be able to transform “likes” on TikTok into tickets sold. He has what it takes to do it.

If you try to figure out where this is going, Seltsam responds with a clear, if not linear, trajectory. Five years ago the starting point was another: pop, “teen idol” attitudea more immediate direction. A sort of Italian Shawn Mendes, so to speak. Then something shifted: «Growing up, taking courage, things are changing. Today I am building a path in which people see themselves a lot. More mature, more aware”, he explains. It is a transformation that also passes through precise, almost generational references: theRoman indie between 2016 and 2020, that imagery that marked a short but very recognizable era. Between Calcutta and Gazzelle, he says, but with a more instinctive closeness to the latter in his approach to writing.

Within this evolution, Rome remains the fixed point. Not only as a city, but as an identity origin: «I wouldn’t be the person I am if I wasn’t Roman. I’m from the real Rome, southern Rome, pangocciolaio at four in the morning, pizza at Remo”, he says, while the Roman scene returns to the center of the debate. Seltsam, however, sees the return of the circuit with less emphasis: «The scene has never gone away. Fashions and trends have changed. Today everything is different, less in line with what we were when we were younger. History has cyclical phases. We songwriters can still have a chance. I feel a desire for authenticity, after years of plastic music».

This is perhaps the key to his present: the attempt to put less filtered, more direct writing back at the centre, within a context that changes quickly but seems to return to seeking precisely this. For 2026 Seltsam does not promise revolutions. But a construction yes: «I hope I can build something beautiful. Without proclamations, without forcing. Only the direction of those who are still looking for their definitive form».