Ghali's Reflections on His Journey, Art and the Influence of His Mother

"My mom is elegant by nature. Everything I have learned, everything I know, I learned from her. As children we do not realize it but it is amazing how much we learn from our parents: from speaking to flow, rhythm, musical influences, taste. My mom's name is Amel, it means 'hope', the rest is history". So Ghali, guest of Fabio Fazio on 'Che Tempo Che Fa' on Nove. On the divisive effect of the phrase said in Sanremo and the value of peace: "It's what we learned in school, it's strange to find ourselves today in such a world. We have been taught one thing all our life and at some point we hear that we can't. For me it is the most important thing: anything is to be shared. The success, all the goods we have on this planet, would not be riches if they were not shareable. They are shareable only if we are all well and if there is peace, if in a room we are in 10 and 7 people are not well the other 3 will also be unwell. If in a room of 10 people 7 are well, the other 3 even if they are unwell will start to recover. It is important to be all well as much as it seems banal". On his success: "From Sanremo many things happened, I find myself in a moment that is part of a process started a year ago, or even more: after my success of 2016 I did tours and I released a lot of music, broke many records and did beautiful things, at some point I was clouded by everything. You start to roll and you go on by inertia, you no longer have time to think and to lead a normal life, because in the end we are normal people. I come from a suburb of Milan like many people and at some point I had to deal with my personal life: there was a moment when my mother fell ill again, a moment when I had to go to the psychologist, normal life. I took a break from music because I wanted to stop rolling, I wanted to stop and think, go back to my essence, which after a while I lost under the spotlights every day. I started really young and the success I had in those years was unprecedented, I didn't have broad enough shoulders to bear everything". On art and credibility: "Art exists for this, it is a safety valve, a creative room for those who suffer and understand that they can benefit from their own 'misfortunes'. Art today is the only way we have to turn our pain into a precious stone. I feel that people are able to perceive this because I really am. A year and a half ago I really stopped with my team to think about how to come back to do something extraordinary, it is not easy to get out of mediocrity, from superficiality and do it. We are in a moment where there is a lot of superficiality, many things that come out are mediocre and we settle, but settling does not make me feel good and I know that to do something extraordinary I have to go back pure and myself. Success takes you after a while to take away that innocence and I don't want to believe that you can't redo it twice. I did this thing and it was a very strong experiment on myself and on the people who have worked with me all this time, people I have to thank because I took them to the limit, I am one of those directors who takes the actors to the limit and you don't know if they want to re-work with you, but I care so much to give the best of my art that I had to work a lot on myself to create something special". On the trap: "Trappers are the new songwriters of today: exactly as the songwriters of the past who used the street language of that moment, the songwriters of today use the street code. That's why many young people find themselves: we talk about real life. I hear it in De André's lyrics that he spoke as it was spoken in the streets, I can perceive it that it was a slang of that moment. I have been a last for a long time and I still am". On the "feeling the present" of the artist: "In the song [Casa mia] everything is written that then also happened in Sanremo and the day after, it's absurd".