Escaping the city during one of the most chaotic and demanding weeks of the year, the Milan Design Week, is always a pleasure. And if the destination is Cascina Selva - a paradise nestled in the Lombard countryside - to collaborate and have a chat with one of the most interesting artists in the contemporary Italian scene, then it's even better. The weather promises sparks, and after lunch, the sky erupts into a thunderstorm that already feels like summer, but Gaia also promises sparks. She has just gifted the world with her "Dea Saffica" and has no problem throwing herself among the cows, feeding them, caressing them, playing with a calf, and posing - beautiful as, indeed, a pagan deity of sowing and harvesting - in a barn, among flowers and tractors.
"Dea Saffica" is both a point of arrival and a starting point, an anchor and a buoy in a career that began a long time ago, at Amici di Maria De Filippi, where she won the nineteenth edition. "The program and Maria have given me many tools to assert myself and to affirm my individuality in a complicated and complex world, where everyone has an opinion because music belongs to everyone, and thank goodness," Gaia tells us, in front of a wonderful wisteria bush. "In such a complex world, you really have to want it and protect your vision, put yourself at the service of music. Many people do this job because music has helped them a lot, so if you're then put in a position to speak to such a vast audience, you feel the responsibility, you know you have to respect the stages that have been given to you, you have to be authentic to your heart." While talking about others, Gaia also speaks about herself, but never absolutizes what she says or thinks, instead actively expanding her point of view to a collective vision. The responsibility she feels on stage she also felt at Sanremo, and on two different occasions, albeit in completely different ways. Her first festival, in fact, was as a contestant in 2021, with the song "Cuore Amaro." Her second, instead, was in the cover night with BigMama, singing "Lady Marmalade" as a member of a true girl gang. "My Sanremo as a contestant wasn't the best," she confesses. "It was during Covid, I had lost my voice. I had to face many pressures and a lot of work, I slept very little. As a guest of an artist in the competition, everything is different, it's easier and more enjoyable. I only had two parts, I took it easy, and then I drank for free," she says, funny and amused, but above all authentic.
"Dea Saffica" is both a point of arrival and a starting point, an anchor and a buoy in a career that began a long time ago, at Amici di Maria De Filippi, where she won the nineteenth edition. "The program and Maria have given me many tools to assert myself and to affirm my individuality in a complicated and complex world, where everyone has an opinion because music belongs to everyone, and thank goodness," Gaia tells us, in front of a wonderful wisteria bush. "In such a complex world, you really have to want it and protect your vision, put yourself at the service of music. Many people do this job because music has helped them a lot, so if you're then put in a position to speak to such a vast audience, you feel the responsibility, you know you have to respect the stages that have been given to you, you have to be authentic to your heart." While talking about others, Gaia also speaks about herself, but never absolutizes what she says or thinks, instead actively expanding her point of view to a collective vision. The responsibility she feels on stage she also felt at Sanremo, and on two different occasions, albeit in completely different ways. Her first festival, in fact, was as a contestant in 2021, with the song "Cuore Amaro." Her second, instead, was in the cover night with BigMama, singing "Lady Marmalade" as a member of a true girl gang. "My Sanremo as a contestant wasn't the best," she confesses. "It was during Covid, I had lost my voice. I had to face many pressures and a lot of work, I slept very little. As a guest of an artist in the competition, everything is different, it's easier and more enjoyable. I only had two parts, I took it easy, and then I drank for free," she says, funny and amused, but above all authentic.
The responsibility she feels on stage she also felt at Sanremo, and on two different occasions, albeit in completely different ways. Her first festival, in fact, was as a contestant in 2021, with the song "Cuore Amaro." Her second, instead, was in the cover night with BigMama, singing "Lady Marmalade" as a member of a true girl gang. "My Sanremo as a contestant wasn't the best," she confesses. "It was during Covid, I had lost my voice. I had to face many pressures and a lot of work, I slept very little. As a guest of an artist in the competition, everything is different, it's easier and more enjoyable. I only had two parts, I took it easy, and then I drank for free," she says, funny and amused, but above all authentic.
"I find it interesting that in this life I was born a woman, and I have worked hard to find a more intimate and sincere dialogue with myself."
Authenticity, for Gaia, is everything, and it is also the common thread of this interview: "When you are authentic and aligned, you do something that is honest: this is what engages people. People connect with themselves and with you, a moment is created between you, a memory, a revelation that opens up to life, to beauty, to care, and to music, which then becomes an exchange." "Dea Saffica," in its own way, also speaks of this moment of connection with the external but above all with the internal: "I use writing and music to analyze my life and my experiences. It's my filter. I find it interesting that in this life I was born a woman, and I have worked hard to find a more intimate and sincere dialogue with myself, which allows all my parts to coexist and not judge each other, even when they are distant. "Dea Saffica" is this: my understanding that all my parts - even those that bother me - are essential, that in my femininity there is sisterhood, motherhood, eroticism, fertility but also anger. Anger that is not just mine but also that of my ancestors, my mother, my grandmother, all the women who came before me and them. "Dea Saffica" is an invitation to experience our sensuality and our being women firsthand, but also much more." This song, this discovery, this journey into herself fits into a global creative and evolutionary moment, of writing something that could become a new album, different from those that have come before. "I'm writing a lot, I've also approached Italian. All my projects in Portuguese and of Brazilian origin have a simpler musicality, it's easier for me to write in Portuguese, it gives me security. Italian is very poetic but has many truncated words, it decides the musicality. The word has its importance, I am very attached to melodies, and I discovered the power of the word afterwards, so I approached Italian as if it were a new infatuation with music. I am very happy with this writing moment, and soon I will be able to share something else."
International pop stars go through eras, and each album is a different era. Just think of Taylor Swift, who changes skin and attitude depending on what she faces in her works. In what era does Gaia find herself now? With her tendency for deep reflection between sky and earth, which comes out repeatedly during the interview but also before and after, at lunch and during the shots, she tells us: "I want to be a great vehicle for what my angels want me to say. In my songs there is a projection of me. It's like having children: you put everything you have into them but then you let them go into the world, you have to let them follow their path and have their identity. So here it is, my new era is that of emotional intelligence." The same emotional intelligence that, when we ask her if she has ever received unpleasant comments or experienced discrimination as a woman in a competitive industry, the music one, leads her to respond: "I have suffered discrimination in my career and in my life, like all people belonging to marginalized and marginalized categories of our society. The problem is that we forget that we live in a flawed system, in the sense that we could live in a nice and empathetic world but we have our masculine and feminine parts imbalanced, and this imbalance creates detachment, hatred, distance between women and men. I firmly believe that those who have hurt me in life have done so because they, in turn, were traumatized by someone else." She then adds: "I don't point fingers, but I'm sure that if we remembered how we felt when we were wronged, we could change our reactions, even towards injustices and everything that comes from a non-pure, non-loving source. It's not always easy, sometimes telling someone off is also therapeutic and I recommend it."
"But I want to focus on my allies, those who have helped me, who have decided not to impose themselves on me, who have truly seen me and respected me. I am sure that things will change because I am a positivist. The universe is smarter than us, it will find a solution," she concludes, with a confidence that is contagious. To someone who would like to embark on their path, perhaps mindful of her youthful mistakes, of an approach to music so personal as to become painful, of a lack of sacred detachment that comes with youth: "Take the time to listen to yourself, to listen to your needs, try to understand if you are happy with what you are doing, with how you are doing it, put authenticity above all else. Don't let anxiety, paranoia and insecurities take over. They are part of the journey, they are normal, but if you act in that state, you will continue to chase your tail and go around in circles. If you generate love and abundance, you will receive love and abundance in return. Take your time, listen to music that motivates you. The rest will come naturally."
"Dea Saffica is this: my understanding that all my parts are essential, that in my femininity there is sisterhood, motherhood, eroticism, fertility, but also anger."
1st Look:
Full look VIVIENNE WESTWOOD, jewels PARISIAN GAL.
2nd Look:
Full look MIU MIU.
3rd Look:
Full look SPORTMAX, jewels APRICUS.
4th Look:
Full look JW ANDERSON.
Credits:
Photographer Anna Adamo
Ph. Assistant Veronica Brunoni
Stylist Tiny Idols
Stylist Assistant Martina Ghia
Make Up Giovanni Zummo
Hair Alfredo Cesarano
Artist Gaia
Interview Priscilla Lucifora