«The nice thing about the summer tour is that it allows me to combine work with days at the beach. Do you know that I got my boating license? At the port authority of Fiumicino, in 2017. So when the tour stops in seaside resorts I take the opportunity to go on mini boat excursions”, he smiles Naomi at the beginning of the interview. Veronica Scopelliti, this is the real name of the 42-year-old Roman singer, is a constant discovery. While her Non ho bisogno di me is all the rage on the radio, she is touring Italy far and wide with her summer tour – over 20 dates scheduled – which will stop in her city on July 7, for a special show at the Roma Unplugged Festival, in the evocative setting of the Villa di Massenzio on the Appian Way (the event will debut on Saturday 6 with a concert by Irish cellist Naomi Berrill and will close on the 13th with the Orchestraccia).
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How did the idea of getting a boating license come to mind?
«Life at sea has always attracted me. I wanted to test myself. I passed the exam, which is divided into three parts, with flying colors. The first part concerns the correspondence, the second consists of a cross test, the third in practice: recovery of the man overboard and docking”.
What about the boat?
«No, no: you need money (laughs). For now I rent the dinghies and have fun that way. Concerts in seaside resorts, then, are special for me. They remind me of when in my apprentice years I performed in the pubs and pizzerias of the Lazio coast.”
What have you prepared for the concert on Appia Antica on July 7?
«It will be a different show, more acoustic. I will sing piano and voice, with the contribution of my guitarist and a choir in some pieces. I also like to look for other vibrations from music.” At a certain point after the success he left Italy to go and record the album “Made in London” in the United Kingdom. He said: «Italy is lazy and scared. We are cowards, terrified of new things, lazy in the face of changes. In London meritocracy pays off, here we can’t move forward without a push.”
Do you still think that way?
“I’m not as brave as I was then (laughs). However, I think that the arrival of rap in Italy has overturned those dynamics I was talking about. Luckily, that bad spell has been broken a bit. Today, something else scares me: when something is trendy, everyone follows it. So, maybe we’re becoming standardized again.”
How does she move?
«I’m someone who gets bored easily (laughs). We’ll see how she will change the market and how I will change.”
Meanwhile, “I don’t need you” plays on the radio: is it a hymn to female emancipation?
“Not only that: it’s a hymn to emancipation in general, to not being afraid to take the happiness we deserve, distancing ourselves from those toxic people who always want to make us feel a little “less” than we are. It’s also a hymn to loneliness: in fact, in the video I’m alone.”
In private, is everything okay with your husband Gabriele Greco, bassist, married in 2018?
“Yes, yes. Ups and downs, like any self-respecting couple. In the video I talk about the solitude of a moment. After saying goodbye to friends I take a walk home: I enjoy the value of solitude as a moment of reflection. Today solitude is scary: we all need to be constantly connected, to be in the midst of the social chaos. Instead, being able to disconnect, every now and then, is good.”
In the video she was filmed naked in a bathtub, covered only by foam. Has Noemi finally made peace with that body that as a teenager, at the seaside, she hid by even bathing in her t-shirt, as she said in some interviews?
«It has been a gradual path, carried forward over these years. However, I didn’t undress to make news: I simply wanted to convey the truthfulness of a dynamic. I often take a bath in the tub at home: I choose salts, a book to read, a record to listen to.”
Did any offers arrive after the interview with Vanity Fair a few months ago in which she said she was ready to make her debut as an actress?
«There could be some pleasant surprises in the coming months. For now nothing concrete, however. And I won’t add anything else out of good luck.”
The dream director? Ferzan Özpetek, who inserted “Glicine” in the series “Le faite ignoranti”, or Fausto Brizzi, who inserted “Vuoto a lose” in “Females against males”?
«They are two different ways of seeing and describing society, in different ways. But if I have to choose, I say Özpetek, without taking anything away from Fausto: I like the way Ferzan paints Rome with poetry, even in the most complex chiaroscuro.”
Did she go to see Vasco at San Siro? Did she by any chance ask him for another song, after “Vuoto a perdere” which made her famous in 2011?
«Yes, I threw it to him there, between one joke and another. He told me that he is in love with my voice: it’s not every day you hear something like that from Vasco.”
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