We met Anna Castiglia in Selinunte, on May 25th, during the “A Name Their” musical marathon dedicated to mafia victims. The exclusive interview
The further you go from Sicily, the more Sicilian you feel.
Anna Castiglia he knows it well. The singer-songwriter from Catania who bewitched the audience at the latest edition of XFactor with her songs busy songsleft the Island at the age of 18 to chase his dreams.
We met her in Selinunte, on May 25th, during the “A Name Their” musical marathon dedicated to mafia victims. Together with Arisa, Levante and Daniele Silvestri there was also Anna, fresh from X factor.
«I feel like Rosa Balistreri – she explains – who when she left Sicily felt even more Sicilian. It’s like that for me too, I feel my roots very muchI think they can’t hide.”
Twenty-six years old, talented and self-confident, she is currently traveling around the country with her tour, bringing around the unreleased songs from her next (and first) album.
After X Factor and May Day in Rome, he performed on big stages, opening concerts for Carmen Consoli and Max Gazzé.
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For many – especially in Sicily – she is “the daughter of”, she knows it and jokes about it, ironically mimicking it in a song. Her father is the well-known and multifaceted showman artist (comedian, cabaret artist, singer, radio host) Giuseppe Castiglia; Her mother is also an actress, Enrica Tranchida.
Anna was born into a house full of art and was fascinated by it from an early age. «My family was an excellent environment in which to grow up – she says – my parents did theater and made me listen to a lot of music, then obviously everyone has their own nature and must support it.”
He began studying piano at nine years old, at 12 he also began singing and writing his first lyrics. At the age of sixteen he performed for the first time, with guitar and voice at Waxy O’connor’s in Catania, many others would follow.
At 18 he moved to Turin and at 24 he lived in Milan to study at the conservatory. «I moved to the north – she says – like many people away from home, to study.
She misses Sicily, but She likes knowing that he will come back and then go away again. «Sometimes I feel an emptiness – she explains – and when summer approaches I can smell the sea even in Milan, like a hallucination. I like this condition of perpetual nostalgia.”
«I’m a bit fickle – he laughs – I’d probably get tired if I lived there. I do not know”.
Ironic, with her songs she also makes politics: «Music has a responsibility and a power because it conveys messages – she explains to Balarm’s microphones – music reaches people and people change things. I think there’s nothing wrong with doing entertainment, I also write love songs”
If he had to dedicate a song to Sicily it would be ‘U seas. «It’s a nostalgic song – he explains – I wrote it when I was in Turin, I felt like writing it in dialect even though I don’t speak it every day, let alone in the north, it’s a song that talks about solitude but at the same time is very festive» .
Anna is like this: with her music she first makes you laugh, then think. The truth hurts, but in the meantime you dance.
