“Everything is fine, mom is here with us” Thus begins Ghali, having just gone on stage at the Teatro Manzoni in Milan. In the audience there are women, patients and former patients, of the European Institute of Oncology, gathered for the usual meeting wanted for the first time by the oncologist Umberto Veronesi and now a consolidated tradition that continues even after his passing, albeit with a new name: no longer ‘Ieo for women’, but ‘Ieo with women’. It is a way for the rapper to exorcise “emotion”. , he explains, immediately declaring his feelings shyly, when he talks about his mother Amel’s illness – a breast tumor – at the beginning he talks about it as “that thing that happened”.
“I was thinking of preparing a little speech, but you can’t prepare for some things,” he smiles. It’s a story that “started many years ago – he says – and over the years I have also noticed the difference in how it is dealt with now. I went through this thing for the first time in 2001. It was another time, other treatments, also another moment for me and her. But, once we got over it, everything changed for the better. Many things changed in me, in us, in our lives.” Amel’s illness came at a difficult time. Ghali was a child, he attended elementary school. “In the meantime they had evicted us, we had no home. But it was crazy how, as soon as I got over it, everything got better. A light entered our lives, they gave us the house, I started living in the neighborhood that then raised me and that gave us so much creativity and strength: Baggio, my neighborhood. Faith entered, I started to believe a lot in God. My passion for music was ignited. We came out great.”
“The disease then returned during Covid”
Then, however, continues Ghali, “after many years we thought we would leave it behind us, but during Covid it came back. And we were lucky enough to be followed by incredible and fantastic doctors who saved us once again, I thank them and I applaud them. I have so much admiration for you, you inspire me so much and you are also an example. My mom always wanted me to become a pilot or a doctor“, he admits, sparking the audience’s hilarity, also underlined by the comment of the actress Lella Costa, next to him on stage: “Thank goodness you didn’t listen to her”.
“I think that a child cannot know what it is until it happens” that the disease, cancer, crosses your path. “It’s not something that exists in the imagination, in the head of a child, it’s almost unbelievable. And so I had to deal with one of the first sad realities of my life”, mother Amel’s illness. “At that age – it was 2001, she was 8 years old – I was shaken by many traumas, and this was one of them. But despite everything I have good memories, even nice ones. I have strong memories of love”.
For example when “My mother and I went to visit my father in prisonshe had the wig on and managed to hide it so well, the first few times, that he didn’t realize it was a wig. And we stopped in the parking lots as we went, because she had to scratch her head, she was itching because she had lost all her hair. We stopped and laughed about this, a lot. It was very strong.” So many memories. And a journey that brings Ghali and her mother, in the front row as she spoke from the stage, closer to the other women present in the room. “I am honored to be here – she explains – but I find it difficult to be able to say something to such strong people. I have so much respect for those who react and overcome this. We all keep calling it that because we’re afraid to talk about it. But the other time we had a meeting and they explained to us, the doctors first and foremost, how much they would like to convey this message: that cancer is increasingly curable.”
“Write a song about it? Maybe”
“It’s bad but it’s not like what it was 20 years ago, thanks to studies”, says Ghali. “A child experiences it”, the disease, “discovering it for the first time”, but at home between him and his mother “it has never been a taboo”. This journey, although painful, also reserves many beautiful unexpected turns, he assures. “What if I write a song about it? It’s one of the things I haven’t addressed yet. Like many topics that I’m afraid to touch. This thing here is as if I had experienced it – she reflects – and to go and reopen it you need a certain maturity. Maybe now I’m ready to face it. Today is the first time ever that I’ve faced something like this and talked about it like this in front of people. And maybe who knows, even in my art, in music, I will be able to face this thing like many others that I haven’t faced yet“.
“Many things happened – Ghali recalls -. I remember that in that period I watched a lot of cartoons. Like ‘Holly and Benji’. I left school, I went with my mother, to her in the hospital. At that moment they weren’t there many friends. It was a period that unlocked many things for me, my creativity. I understood what I wanted to do in life. Ghali thinks back to those who were close to him. “My mother always had many gay friends. And I got to know this friend of hers well, who took care of me a lot. I slept at his place and he also acted as my mother a bit, he took me to school, went to work, then after school he came to pick me up and take me to my mother, I want to say thanks to this bad luck, however, God is great and it’s as if things then took the right direction, he reasons.
“It’s a very delicate topic, I wouldn’t want to say that certain things happen for a reason – he continues -. But it’s absurd how much the strength that arises after such an event is decisive for life and can change life for the better, positively , on many aspects”. In 2020, cancer returned for Amel. “The first time was in 2001 and we all know that chemotherapy was exhausting at the time. Then, during Covid, the second time was unexpected. But we experienced it in a completely different way. It’s obvious, the fear is there always, it was a good blow there too. From the beginning at the IEO we felt protected. The doctors conveyed an incredible confidence and strength. And it went much more smoothly than the first time. And once again life improved again, there was yet another boost.”
At home, “we talked about the tumor with mum”, “we talked about it”. No taboos, he repeats. “During my journey, I was also lucky enough to meet a child in Rome, Ledio. Unfortunately he is no longer here, but I spent the last period with him. His situation was a little different from that of mine mother. He was a child, he had a more serious illness. I have always been sensitive to this thing and my mother’s strength has always pushed me to support other people, to be close to other people with the same problem”.
“Recognize the State of Palestine? Many Italians would like it”
“I am very happy with what has happened,” with the fact that Norway, Ireland and Spain have announced that they will recognize the Palestinian state. “And I think that Italy, in any case, due to the Constitution it has, can be one of those countries.” This is how Ghali responds to those who ask him what he thinks of the developments regarding the Palestinian issue, a topic dear to him as he demonstrated by also bringing a message of support to the Sanremo stage. In recent days, after the Norwegian Prime Minister stated that their recognition will be made official on May 28, followed by statements along the same lines from the Irish Prime Minister and the Spanish Prime Minister, the debate on the so-called ‘solution to two states’. Should Italy also take this step and recognize Palestine as a state? For Ghali “it could be one of those countries. But then – he explains today on the sidelines of the ‘Ieo con le donne’ event at the Manzoni Theater in Milan – I also see the support of the people on the street and for me the State is the people “.
His words were few, because – he points out – he doesn’t want space and attention to be taken away from the women protagonists of today, the patients and former patients of the European Institute of Oncology, who have lived the experience of cancer, like his mother Amel. “What I see, however, is that I don’t know when it will happen that Italy” will take this step, “I don’t know what the process is”. “But I see that many people in this country think like those states“, he concludes.
