# taz.de -- Rock icon Nannini about „Amore Gigante“: „Italy needs a woman… | |
> She's a rebel-rockstar, a feminist, a doctor of philosophy. Italian | |
> musician Gianna Nannini about her new album against hatred, her | |
> pansexuality and #MeToo. | |
Bild: „Unfortunately, in my job prostitution was a standard situation of wome… | |
taz: Gianna Nannini, you're famous for your Rock'n' Soul roar – you've got | |
the voice of a big lady tiger but in some of your love songs you suddenly | |
sound like a very fragile tiger. | |
Gianna Nannini: I'm a tigre fragile? (Laughs) That's nice … | |
When we really mean it, love makes us strong and fragile, doesn't it? | |
Yes. But I also like this because I think ‚fragility‘ is a Rock expression. | |
In a way, the weak point in a human being is also the strongest. Sometimes | |
when you write songs it makes no sense to hide your weak point. | |
You made a world career in your mother tongue, in Italian. | |
Why always sing in English? You see, Europe itself is fragile in this | |
language respect. It's very difficult to hit the emotion just right in a | |
language that's not your own. In Italian we come more from the roots of the | |
folk tradition. That's another reason why I got to this point of only | |
singing in italiano. The song is much better in Italian because we use more | |
vowels in our language. | |
You yourself became famous for being this Italian feminist rebel with a | |
giant voice, a big heart and lots of courage. But it wasn't always easy, | |
was it? | |
When I was 18, I wanted to escape from home and my home town Siena. So I | |
went to Milano. For my music. I also worked to help some patients in mental | |
hospitals but we soon discovered that we had more problems than the people | |
in the hospital! (Laughs) It was always my dream to work in psychology. On | |
my first album I dedicated a song to a woman who was in a psychiatric | |
hospital. We had a big anti-psychiatric movement in Italy in the 70ies. Do | |
you know Franco Basaglia? | |
I do! Basaglia fought to open the asylums. But, you know what, today we are | |
going backwards, now psychiatrists are even promoting electroshocks again | |
in Germany. | |
What? No! | |
They call it „electroconvulsive therapy“. You should do a new version of | |
your song „Scandalo!“ | |
I will sing „Scandalo“ on my new tour, yes, but I really didn't know that | |
electroshocks are again practised in Germany – today. That's terrible! In | |
2016 I wrote a book that has not been translated yet. It's called „Cazzi | |
miei“ like „Here's my own shit“. The book explains what happened to me in | |
1979 when I was recording in Cologne: I went out of my mind. Really. With | |
the help of a lot of people I came out of my problems but it was quite | |
heavy, it was very difficult to come back. And it was a big experience. But | |
if I had been sent to a normal psychiatric place at the time – I would have | |
been probably given electro shocks. (Pause) Anyway … What else would you | |
like to know about me? | |
You call yourself pansexual. | |
I don't want this branding of homosexual or heterosexual. The word | |
pansexual just means all kinds, all types of love. We have heterosexism, | |
ageism – the world is full of these prison words. Words can imprison you! | |
For me pansexual is so big that you cannot touch it. You can't put it in | |
one corner. Don't ever put love in a corner! Because if you do, with your | |
words, you corner real people – you divide. | |
Janis Joplin was one of your biggest inspirations and you once said that | |
you would have loved to save her because everybody jumped on her drug abuse | |
but she was not appreciated as a singer as much as she deserves. | |
She wasn't appreciated enough as a musician! If we say she's a singer, we | |
talk about her as an interpreter. But we should fully value her as a | |
musician and as an author. For the poetry she wrote. | |
You wrote about Janis in your thesis in philosophy and music about the | |
relationship between the voice and the body in female cultures, didn't you? | |
Yes, Rock music was one example and I took Janis Joplin. I worked on | |
several ethnic cultures: Nepal, Napoli, Morocco, Mali and Senegal. I | |
basically tried to find out how the gesturality of the movement influences | |
the singing. You need to be fit to be sure of your voice, you need to be | |
your body. I do a lot of sports but there's a big difference whether you do | |
sports or a tribal dance! I analysed the movements of Janis Joplin in a | |
tribal context. Remember „Cry baby“? Listen: Tryyyyiiyyeieieiyyy. | |
Wow, you really sound like Janis's sister! | |
The drama was influenced by her voice, of course, but she moved all parts | |
of her body – she gave action to the sound. And this action made her sing | |
with a different attitude. It's very important to come back to your own | |
culture to understand how you can move. | |
„Amore Gigante“, the title song of your new album, could be the headline | |
for all of your music. | |
Well, we are living in a situation where hate and the haters are growing | |
big again. „Amore gigante“ is talking about this big chance we still have �… | |
we can be on the same planet with all our different colours! Have respect | |
for all people of the world! We don't have to go for this racism, sexism, | |
this homophobic place. The spirit of „Amore Gigante“ wants to stop this | |
fight of one against the other. It must happen in our mind. Open your mind! | |
Freedom of spirit – that's our chance! | |
The mindset in international politics is currently closing down on freedom. | |
What do you expect from the Italian elections? | |
Too much marketing, like in my song: [1][bla, bla, bla] … We don't have a | |
real political culture at the moment. I think Italy needs a woman – just to | |
change this political culture! We need a change of vision. We have to | |
understand that no culture is better than any other! Look, I went to Iraq . | |
At the time of the war, because I wanted to know the truth. And I saw the | |
truth: It was a war to make business, a war about oil and petrol, which | |
killed people and the culture. | |
You supported some Iraqi artists, didn't you? | |
Yes. See, all the museums and artist places were destroyed in the war. All | |
the universities were burning and I said: Why are they burning all the | |
books?! The children have nothing to study! So we went back to Italy and | |
collected some books and computers to help at least a little. | |
And then you fell in love with the desert. | |
It's so peaceful in the desert … I was in Iraq twice during the war, but in | |
the desert I felt at peace. | |
In your autobiography you wrote that people told you at the beginning of | |
your career: You have to jump into bed with a good producer, sorry, but | |
that's the way it goes. And you said: ‚No way! My grandmother told me not | |
to do this!‘ Today, 40 years later, we finally have a #MeToo campaign. | |
In my job prostitution was a standard situation of women during the last | |
decades. Now it's different but sometimes women are still stuck. It's so | |
important to understand that you must not be afraid! I personally think | |
women always have to decide for themselves. If you want to sell yourself … | |
sell yourself! But the woman herself has to decide. | |
28 Feb 2018 | |
## LINKS | |
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJTUxrSNYa4 | |
## AUTOREN | |
Gaby Sohl | |
## TAGS | |
taz international | |
Schwerpunkt #metoo | |
Feminismus | |
Sexuelle Freiheit | |
Italien | |
Rock | |
Musik | |
Psychiatrie | |
Italien | |
## ARTIKEL ZUM THEMA | |
Gianna Nannini über Lebenskrisen: „Die Frau muss entscheiden“ | |
Vor 40 Jahren erlangte sie Ruhm als feministische Rebellin und Rockstar. | |
Jetzt hat Gianna Nannini ein neues Album – und Kritik an der Wahl in | |
Italien. | |
Echo-Verleihung in Berlin: Früher war alles besser | |
Während ihrer Selbstinszenierung bei der Verleihung des Echos schwelgte die | |
Musikbranche über lange Strecken in Erinnerungen. Die Preisträger waren | |
vorhersehbar. | |
Kommunismus-Debatte: Das böse Wort mit K | |
Der Traum von einer anderen Gesellschaft bleibt aktuell. Der Begriff | |
"Kommunismus" aber gehört entsorgt: Gianna Nannini ist K., Wikipedia ist K, | |
"Tiere essen" von Jonathan Safran Foer ist K. |