Rights, benefits, wigs and freedom: Interview with Beatrice Quinta

We sit on the floor, it's a bit chilly in the limbo of our studio, but nice light comes in through the window and when we start talking to Beatrice Quinta, it feels like we're lying in a meadow under the sun on a Sunday afternoon, even though it's Monday. «How are you?» I ask her. «That's maybe the hardest question, it's kind of like a break-in period. It's the beginning of a kind of rebirth.» That's good, isn't it? I tell her. «Yes, but before rebirth comes death.» Unlikely as it is that you haven't met Beatrice Quinta, 24 years old and from Palermo, you will certainly remember her brilliant participation on X Factor, where she came second, remembered even by those who never followed the show. «Honestly, I still don't feel like I've succeeded, but hearing people sing the words you write is the most gratifying thing I can imagine, along with the love of the people I work with. On the other hand, I find it hard to deal with my insecurity, which often means I don't enjoy the results I get.»

A few weeks ago, Bea returned to the clubs and our headphones with her new single "Manette" in collaboration with VillaBanks. In it, she uses electro-pop sounds to express her unbridled desire to share intimate moments with her partner, so much so that she puts up with feeling "tied to the bed." «My music is made up of opposites, the most obvious of which is that between sex and love. Tying yourself down is tying yourself down - something that, if consensual, can be beautiful. Being a control freak in everyday life, I tend to lose control completely during sex and prefer someone else to hold it for me,» adding, «Love and sexual freedom are two things that absolutely go hand in hand. I haven't found that balance in real life yet.»

In the past year, Beatrice Quinta has released tracks such as "Fatal Attraction" and "Se$$o"," making it clear that the aspect of love plays an important role in her life and often finds a place in her musical compositions. «Sexuality subconsciously influences a lot of our decisions, and maybe for too long I wondered about things that didn't need an answer. I felt like an outsider in my sexuality, so talking about it in music has often helped me rationalise it and take away the totalising and often negative meaning I used to ascribe to it.»

With us, Beatrice Quinta showed herself as she is perceived in concert and on screen, with a disarming sincerity and a lot of irony, in keeping with her music, which "always makes a difference". But it's not always so obvious. In today's society, where appearances matter much, too much, it would be hypocritical to think that an artist is not under pressure to conform to certain standards of beauty and behaviour. «My friends and family have always told me that beauty is the child of personality and originality. And perfection not only doesn't exist, but if it did, it would be so damn boring!» Family is an important theme, which Beatrice describes as «the greatest place of love, a space of acceptance and understanding made up of sisters and brothers who are not necessarily related by blood. This is how I imagine my family in the future, a family I am building in the present.»

Beatrice Quinta's music is powerful and liberating, like a female orgasm. «I advise young women never to take other people's advice, certainly not mine. Never. Rebel against it. That's my advice. Be free. And above all, don't change just because you see there is negative feedback from the other side. Do what's on your mind without submitting to a system you didn't build.» Beatrice is blunt and direct and not afraid to stand up for the rights of anyone and everyone. «There are so many challenges that the LGBTQIA+ community faces every day that I wouldn't even know where to start. Maybe I would start with the bias I have noticed in the working world, especially in the Italian discography. I often have the impression that there is no space for queer artists or that they don't feel free to express themselves in their entirety. On the contrary, I have never seen a comment about a rapper being "too violent" or "too straight". Then there are some purely queer arts that are still considered second-rate, when in fact they are something extremely sophisticated and desired. And if that's not discrimination, what is?»

Although she is only 24 years old, Beatrice Quinta seems to have already lived two completely different lives, as she jokingly says: "I'm a pensioner who dressed up as a stripper". «When I was younger, I felt like I wasn't free to experiment with or understand my sexuality because I didn't have the mental space to do so. I was asking the wrong people the right questions until I met a girl who made me realise that I could allow myself to have fun, that I had the right to do so. From then on, my relationship with sex changed a lot. I think sex is like pickles: You lock them in a jar and the longer you leave them alone, the more they soak in and the better they taste.»

Today, Beatrice Quinta has a clear idea of who she wants to be and what she wants to do. She has embraced the concept of art in all its forms, experimenting with fashion, the body and her professionalism. «It's a time when pop is everything, it's not a 'pop' genre anymore, it literally means popular. It frees me a lot, also from the burden of having to be too consistent in the music I make. I'm experimenting, I'm doing new genres, I'm scaling down musically.» She continues, «The goal for this year and next year is to be able to be myself no matter what I choose, whether it's in fashion, music or writing. I want to feel free to rock and rap too. Music should never lose the sense of freedom it was created and designed for. Sometimes I talk about Beatrice Quinta in the third person. Meanwhile, it's about being able to detach myself from my character, so it's also easier for me to experiment. I put on a wig, I put on eyeliner and I'm no longer Beatrice Visconti, I'm Beatrice Quinta and Beatrice Quinta can do everything that Beatrice Visconti would never have the courage to do.»