Serena Brancale in Sanremo: “I would like to stay still on stage”
Serena Brancale will be among the protagonists of the 76th edition of the Sanremo festival which will take place in the coastal town from 24 to 28 February. The Apulian musician’s return is just twelve months after her previous participation in the festival. Last year he presented the song in the competition “Anema and Core”this year his Sanremo song is titled “Here with me”.
A step back. Two days ago, in the Rai studios in Milan, there was preview listening dedicated to the press of all the songs that will be competing in Sanremo. This is the opinion given to Serena’s song by my colleague Gianni Sibilla: “Before listening to the song, I would have bet that Serena Brancale would have tried to distance herself from meme songs and TikTok (which relaunched her career). For what it’s worth, I won the bet with myself: she rediscovers her r’n’b roots with a powerful ballad that plays with the classic references of the genre and vocalizes like Giorgia: “And if I took you away from those stars/to erase your goodbye from my skin/I would climb the earth and the heaven/even the whole universe/for still having you here with me.”
The opinion you read above was fully confirmed today during the press conference in which Serena Brancale he presented “Here with me”. A totally different song from the previous party songs “Anema and Core” And “Serenade”single of the summer performed together with her compatriot Alessandra Amoroso (“I love “Anema e Core”, but I also want to show more of myself. This was a summer of celebration in which I thought ‘if I go back to Sanremo’ I want to bring another me, a me that can excite the public”). “Here with me” shows – even in her look, which is decidedly more sober – another side of Serena. It shows off her most intimate side, as intimate as a song dedicated to her mother who passed away six years ago can be. “It’s a song I dedicate to my mother,” he says. “I show up on stage without masks. I sing something that I have metabolized, but which hurts me and continues to hurt me. I bring the truth on stage.”
Ask her how she wants to present herself and present on the Sanremo stage “Here with me”responds calmly and primly: “The protagonist will be the voice, not the dress. I would like it to be a very spare performance. I would like to stay still, without even touching the microphone stand. I hope that a tear doesn’t fall on my face. When you sing about a mother who is no longer here, it’s one of the possibilities.” With a song dedicated to my mother Serena Brancale runs the risk of being criticized for a smart and national-popular choice. “There will always be criticism, I don’t ask myself questions. I’m just focused on doing my job and doing something real.” Serena also explains about her mother that she was her favorite daughter because she sang, just like her mother who could see herself a little in her. As often happens with parents, as we mature we end up resembling them more and more. “I couldn’t stand some things about her, and I became like her. Even my voice is starting to be very similar to hers, as well as my appearance.”
Returning to talking about the festival, she was asked how she approached the issue Eurovision Song Contest. Some countries have decided not to disagree with the organizers’ choice to include Israel in the singing competition to be held next May in Vienna, Austria. Levant he stated that if he were to win the festival he would refuse to take part in Eurovision. Serena doesn’t express a position on this matter and says: “It’s something I’m not thinking about for now. However, taking part also sends a message, when the time comes I’ll think about it.”
The last question concerns family. Will her family accompany her to the festival? (apart from her sister Nicole who, like last year, will conduct the orchestra for her performance) Serena begins by saying: “They didn’t know if I was ready, I don’t know, my father…”. When she mentions her father she is moved, a tear falls, and the meeting respectfully ends with applause.
In the press kit given to journalists there was a letter from Serena intended for her mother. You can read it below.
‘Every time I stop to think about what happened, a strange confusion comes over me, the kind that makes your head spin, like when you take a step convinced you’ll find ground under your feet but instead, no, emptiness. Because, you see, I still can’t figure out a real reason, the kind that settles inside you and you don’t think about it anymore: that this thing happened to us. I’m not saying this to complain, but because the head, sometimes, gets askew and doesn’t want to understand, and the heart, unaware, goes after it.
Over time I have learned to live with it, no, because certain things are never fully accepted, even if we wanted to. But you live with it, yes, because life continues to move forward and you, like it or not, have to stay with it. And I’ll tell you something, which maybe will make you smile, like you did: I still feel you. I feel you in everything I do, even in the little things, the ones that don’t count for anything, and yet do. I feel like you are an accomplice, as if you were giving me a half tip, a knowing look, without the need for words. Sometimes I think this is how you would do it. And then I feel calmer, as if I weren’t really alone.
After more than five years, mother, I have decided to write you this letter. I don’t know if the letters reach where you are, nor if they need stamps or silences; but I entrust it to the air, with a song, with my voice, which the air, after all, knows how to find paths that we don’t see. I just wanted to tell you that I always think of you and to stay calm. That I know, and I know with that certainty that needs no proof, that you are still “Here with me”. Serena’
