Who would Laura Pausini have been if she hadn’t won the San Remo Festival in 1993?
If she hadn’t been famous, she would have sold millions of records or won a Golden Globe. She explains it in the documentary ‘Nice to Meet You’, which she premieres on Prime Video. After “a 2021 with many lows”, she is ready to start again. Her next challenge will be to present Eurovision.
She is very busy. Laura Pausini (Faenza, Italy, 47 years old) spends Friday locked up in a studio, finalizing her documentary film, Laura Pausini. Nice to meet you (April 7 on Prime Video), she and at the same time she is preparing for “the three unforgettable nights” that she predicts for the Eurovision Song Contest , which she will co-host with Mika and Alessandro Cattelan in Turin in May.
She still finds time to respond to the interview. She speaks Spanish and is approachable, spontaneous something that those who have seen her on shows like La Voz de ella love about her and very sure of herself.
In 1994 her first album in Spanish, Laura Pausini, it became a best-seller in Spain (even today it is the best-selling album by a foreign artist). Several generations have bawled their hearts out singing his “Marco has left to never come back”. That young woman who won San Remo with La solitudine grew up in Solarolo, a town in Emilia-Romagna, near Ravenna.
Her father sang in a piano bar, and that led her to get on stage for the first time: “It was my eighth birthday and I went with my mother and sister to dinner at that place to celebrate near him. She asked me what she wanted as a gift and I said, ‘I want your microphone.’ My mother was in shock, she always wanted her to be a pharmacist”.
Now Laura Pausini are going to present Eurovision, would you have liked to go to the festival?
When I started it was not very well known in Italy, but in the last 10 years it has started to be and I have become a total fan. I knew Eurovision because my friends from Spain told me about it, I would have liked to participate and now it is an honor to present it. I hope to sing, I’m freaking out.
Her friend Raffaella Carra was a Eurovision icon, in Spain she presented the program Salvemos Eurovision. Will you have any wink towards her?
I am moved to tears by her talking about her. She is an icon for the whole world, she loves music, joy, equality from wherever she is now. I adore her and my heart is always with her.
What would have happened if in 1993, at the age of 18, he had not won the San Remo Festival?
It is the idea from which his documentary starts. I wonder every day what my life would have been like if I hadn’t been famous. You’ll see everything in the documentary, you’re going to discover that Laura who isn’t famous.
In the film’s single , Box , he talks to his teenage self. What would she tell him?
I have always done what I wanted, and that makes me feel proud. Even though she was small, naive, and sometimes a bit cheesy at first, she was always authentic. I’ve always been sure of myself, I’ve never sung a song I didn’t want to. What she would tell him is “pay attention to the people.” I have met the many people who have made me suffer, I would give you a list of names.
What have been your struggles to be true to yourself?
At the age of 29, Laura Pausini stopped promoting From the inside in the United States because she had dance remixes. I made that decision risking my job, alone, without a manager. It was difficult but I’m proud, it reveals a truth about my character: I hate being teased or wanting to get involved and then change the route. I didn’t understand being introduced as Cher. Prove that I am Taurus, stubborn, stubborn.
He says that 2022 is going to be a “start”. Why?
I have spent 2021 with many downturns. Although I won the Golden Globe [for Yo Sí, from Life Ahead] and was nominated for an Oscar, I didn’t feel strong. I want to start, be energetic, have discipline, sing.
I see myself with strength to be in front of the public, without fear. Years ago I told Tiziano Ferro: “Fear does not exist”, and thus a song was born. I repeat it a lot.
At the Oscars he wore a couture Valentino. How have you used fashion to define yourself?
Being Italian, I think fashion is part of our culture. Since I was a child, I cut out photos from magazines, and it was clear to me that suits are my favorite garment, they make me feel safe.
Over the years my body has become more womanly, with curves, at first it was not easy to accept it, but it is my physique and I have learned to love it. I have collaborated with Armani and Gucci, a few days ago in San Remo I wore a dress that Donatella Versace drew for me. I like being friends with designers.
He became very popular with his love ballads, but in Similares (2015) or the song Yo yes he has talked about equality and diversity, he has condemned racism.
When Similares came out I felt sick of reading or seeing those things about differences on television , to divide people. It was unbearable.
In addition, in my nation they have always been a little slow in giving the same quality to everyone. I made that record and I did because they are things that I believe in. That matters more than marketing ; music for me cannot be synonymous with falsehood.
What do you think that homosexual civil unions are accepted today, but not marriage?
It’s ridiculous, it’s absurd. And I haven’t been married, although I feel as if I were with Paolo [Carta], we’ve been together for 17 years. I find that very dictatorial, I don’t like someone to tell you if you can get married or not.
Why do you want to fight in the future?
Seeing that over the years things get worse instead of getting better, there is an important list. What worries me the most, since I have the nine-year-old girl, is explaining to the new generation that you can dream, see a movie in a cinema, go to a concert, not spend so many hours on the networks, talk, hug. The contact. They are getting used to the distances. And it worries me.
Are you tired of singing Soledad or Se fue?
I can’t stand singers who tell you that they don’t sing the first songs anymore, damn it. What bores me is falsehood, being told how beautiful, how wonderful you are, I can’t stand those false compliments anymore. From the beginning I sing my life.
Marco was my first boyfriend and we keep in touch, I get emotional with La Soledad . I love memories.
