«It took me my whole life to become myself: taking off the masks was liberating», says the great artist, a true revelation of Che tempo che fa. “I’m done with love, she disappointed me,” she explains. «I’m just sorry I don’t have a family. Sometimes I feel lonely”. Her secret to her 90th birthday? “Never stop working”
“I look like a lady, but I’m not: I’m often in my underwear.” Ornella Vanoni is not only the wonderful velvet voice that served as the soundtrack to generations of lovers, over time she also became the friend you listen to on TV to smile at, a regular guest on the last season of What’s the weather like; the celebrity who tells you behind the scenes of a stellar life for
make you understand that, under the sequins, “we are all the same”, as he repeats several times during this interview – photo | video
GET OLD LAUGHING – Vanoni is a river of words interspersed with some swear words, a shot of good humor said by her. «I committed myself to growing old laughing and over the years I have also almost freed myself from the sadness that had stuck to me. What you saw from Fazio is my funny, childish nature, the real me”, she explains sitting on the sofa after a long photo session taken for our cover. «What the fuck…., We couldn’t finish it», she snorts after three changes of clothes but then we sit down and she smiles. The truth is that Ornella changes her look, she moves and puts herself in favor of the objective without ever batting an eyelid, without tantrums, a mutter between her lips and she gets back to work, 90 years be damned.
The first question is a stumbling block: she who has now entered the hearts of Italians no longer just as a song diva… «No, look, I’ll stop you! Don’t call me a diva because I don’t feel like a star or anything like that, words I can’t stand. I’m a person who sings and acts, there are already too many people who don’t know how to do anything and call themselves “stars”, for goodness sake. I won’t name names, let’s leave it alone.”
Here, now that the order of merit has been re-established, the queen of Italian song, more than 55 million records sold, is ready to tell her story.
Ornella Vanoni, the biggest vice, the dig at Gino Paoli and the love for women: «I have always made them suffer» – Look
She is the revelation of Fazio’s program: if until before arriving in that studio she was in the hearts of Italians as a singer, now she has won us over with her irony and disarming frankness. A new Ornella was born, one of us. «I’m just like that, I have the same problems that everyone has. When I sing I can’t express this funny part of me that is there and, perhaps, has always been there in private. But, it’s true, now the distance with people has shortened, I feel it in the tenderness they express when they stop me. I also want to point out that what I tell on the show is not prepared: I leave the house at 9pm and when I get to the studio I talk about what I wrote down in my notebook, a sentence that helps me remember what I want to talk about.”
Reaching 90 and being able to express yourself without filters is a beautiful freedom. «It took me a lifetime to get to be myself. We all wear a mask, I took it off, it’s liberating. Be careful, however, there must be filters if they are needed, it is a question of grace and education.”
She said that Sunday makes her sad. Now that the program is over, what will you do? «It’s a day that has made me melancholy since I was born, knowing that I had Fazio’s commitment put me in a good mood. If I stop working I die, I can’t, I always have to have a project and, in fact, I already have other commitments. After the two dates in Milan, on June 6th I will have the Caracalla concert. My tour, Endless, gave me back the emotion of the stage and the pleasure of singing. It was wonderful to have Elisa, Patty Pravo, Mahmood, Madame, Giuliano Sangiorgi and all the other guests with me. After the summer holidays I will also record a new album.”
Ornella Vanoni talks about her loves: “From Strehler to Gino Paoli, here is the whole truth” – Look
In September he will blow out 90 candles. Desires? «Scuba diving. I would like to dive again, I have always loved it. My son, however, doesn’t want him to travel and go far away, I have to give up. However, to blow out 90 candles I would have to blow like a typhoon, I can’t do it.”
Superstitious question: why does he talk so often about his funeral? «I organized it well, that’s all. I want Paolo Fresu to play and I will wear a white Dior dress, long, very elegant. They have to spend the minimum for the coffin, I want to be cremated so much. I told my son to get help from Matteo, my nephew, who is more practical. In my opinion he will die at 95. And I’m not afraid.”
And here Ornella dissolves into sincere laughter.
What are your priorities at your age? “Sleep”.
I rephrase: what is important, what makes you feel good? “The tenderness. I miss it, I miss hugs and for me they are the most beautiful manifestation of affection. Luckily I have my friends, four in total, Stella Pende, Laura Panno, who is an artist, Daniela Bertazzoni, Daniela Angelini, and a few friends. I have one who is gay, a fabulous man. When he comes to visit me he stays to sleep with me, I like it. I’m on the edge of the bed and I almost fall off and he’s on the opposite one, but we keep each other company.”
Her legendary sensuality is not forgotten. «But I’m 90 years old, do you think I give a damn about sex? That would be ridiculous, come on. And then how annoying is this stuff that seems like I was someone who gave it away like a Frisbee, it wasn’t like that. I had great loves and adventures, like everyone else.”
His loves caused a scandal. «Of course, when I fell in love with Strehler he was de facto separated but there was no divorce. When love broke out with Gino Paoli he was married and I got married shortly after. Tremendous suffering, nothing but a scandal. Among other things, Paola, Gino’s wife, is now a friend, a woman I respect very much, I would have wanted her as my wife.”
Ornella Vanoni: “I had affairs with women, but I made them suffer” – Look
Here we come to the women. She has never made a secret of having loved men but also women. Did it happen because males disappointed her? «No, it happened because I fall in love with people, with genius, whether man or woman. But I was attracted to men, I’ve never had a great passion for sex with women and I’ve only had two important relationships. Now I have been alone for almost 30 years, my last relationship left me deeply embittered. He was an unsuitable man, he had a complex towards me but for three years I told myself that he would change, it was my fault. I wish I had never met him, it was a human disappointment, worse than someone who betrays you.”
She has many loved ones around her but not a family. She is sorry? «Yes, a lot, I still suffer from it. During the day the house is vital, there is my assistant, work, friends… In the evening I am almost always alone with my love, Ondina (his poodle, ed.), and sometimes I get sad. I would also have liked to give my son Cristiano a brother because I suffered being an only child. Instead, the right man didn’t arrive.”
What kind of mother was Ornella Vanoni? Long pause. Ornella looks down and when she looks up again you can see tears tucked behind her eyes. «It was wonderful being pregnant: the only moment in my life when I didn’t feel alone. I gave birth and cried for three hours between happiness and regret. I wanted to enjoy motherhood but my husband (Lucio Ardenzi, theater manager, ed) said I had to get back to work immediately otherwise he would go bankrupt, and I wanted to help him. The result is that it went bankrupt anyway, he didn’t pay me and I had to roll up my sleeves. I haven’t stopped since then and my job required me to be out at night, traveling around the world. I saw my son often but he grew up in Santa Margherita with my parents, his father didn’t take care of him, and I didn’t feel like leaving him with a nanny. He said his little words but I didn’t understand him, but my mother did and it was painful.
But I can say that I did everything I could for my son and for the entire family. Nobody missed anything. When Cristiano grew up he understood and thanked me. My greatest joy is my son and my two grandchildren, I love them.”
«I’ve made mistakes many times now», she sings in L’avventura, the song that made her famous. If you could go back, is there a mistake you wouldn’t make again? “I wish I hadn’t met the man I talked about. For the rest, I had great suffering and great happiness. But when you’re happy you don’t learn anything, you just live in the moment. Mistakes are worth more than successes and pain more than happiness: reflect, observe your interiority, grow.”
Ornella Vanoni, the voices in her head and the need to stop: “I need rest” – Look
She said she had three serious depressions. How do you get out of it? «Treating yourself, there is no other way. Psychotropic drugs saved me, I’ve been taking them for 40 years but I have periodic check-ups and I’m fine.”
Anxiety was at the root of his discomfort, he explained. She could never sleep. «My brain never stopped, I was constantly apprehensive, the stage terrified me until 20 years ago. A nightmare, but I didn’t want to give up. One day they made me try smoking a joint and I slept very well. Since then, it has been my sleeping pill.”
He has said many times that he owes his education to Strehler. Yet she studied in boarding school. «I attended the Swiss school in Milan but the principal told my parents that I wasn’t that intelligent. And then they sent me to boarding school abroad to study languages. Great Britain, France, Switzerland… I speak English, French and German well. But when I returned to Italy I only got a diploma as a beautician, I wanted to do that job, but instead I enrolled in the Piccolo theater school, just by chance.”
You declared: “Having lived during the war is a great privilege, those who didn’t see it are missing something.” What? «He taught me that you can’t expect everything to work: we were displaced in Varese and had no heating, we slept with our clothes on, to wash we heated water in pots. With war you learn to struggle, to adapt. I was very young, about 10 years old, but I felt the terror of adults.”
How is your day? «I don’t always have the same times, I can wake up at 9 or 12. I read books and newspapers and I’m following what Liliana Segre, a very intelligent woman, also a friend, says. You’re right: a single man leading the country is dangerous. Our Constitution must not be changed: it was made this way so that the president did not have full powers, for fear of fascism. Going back to the unique man, without even knowing who he will be, makes your veins tremble.”
Cristina Rogledi
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