Vale LP: "You don't win far from yourself"

Her career, which started with X Factor in 2021, has expanded, grown, and enriched over the past few years. Now, Vale LP (born Valentina Sanseverino, 1999), has clear ideas, many goals, and plenty of experiences to pour into her music, beginning with Guagliona, an album released last May that represents both an arrival and a starting point, a lifestyle she feels compelled to share and tell.

"The concept of guagliona reflects a way of being and living, an attitude I feel I belong to and that embraces imperfection," she explains in an informal and clear manner. It feels like having a beer with an old friend. "In a world that wants us to be perfect, a guagliona allows herself to make mistakes, learn, and start over. It's not about age; it’s about a somewhat bold and childlike desire to live life. This concept definitely came out in the song with Lil Jolie, Guagliona, which indeed highlights the mother’s judgment but in an engaging and fun way." An example of a guagliona? Anna Pepe, with whom she would love to collaborate.

Guagliona is clearly a term from the Campania and Neapolitan dialect, and Vale LP’s relationship with Naples is another major point of reflection for the artist: "It's an intimate and romantic topic. I was born in Naples, grew up in the province of Naples, and then moved to Caserta, so I've always seen it with a bit of nostalgia. I have a lot of respect for the Neapolitan culture I feel I belong to; I was raised with its values. The fact that I was finally able to use Neapolitan in this album made me very proud. But it took time to get there; I wanted it to be genuine, I wanted to be ready."

Just as she wanted to be ready for a collaboration with her longtime friend, Lil Jolie, whom she affectionately calls Angy. "We attended rival high schools, we got in touch during graduation to ask about external examiners. I saw that she was making music and releasing her stuff, I thought she was really cool, so I wrote to her and asked if I could come to her house to record a track. We didn't see each other again after that." And then things changed: "Now we are like sisters, we live together, and the fact that she’s the only feature on the album underscores that we are guaglione, we do everything within the family, honestly and sincerely. We are very close, and making this track with her, which also gives the album its title, was perfect. I'm happy we managed to do it despite her being on Amici and being away; we made it happen. I had been waiting for this for a long time."

The more this interview progresses, the more we realize that the singer of Malumore has a reflective and profound soul, which comes out despite her street look and smooth talking. "I seek and find inspiration for my music mainly in others and in myself, in what others give me. My music today is very little self-referential; my imagination, my fantasies, my relationships with human beings, friends, or strangers, the places I see, the thoughts I don’t voice, my desires, the things that scare me all play a role," she explains, and you can tell she’s thought about it, you can tell she cares, that she’s passionate. "In short, fantasy lightens real things, and at the same time, I like to give importance to light things. It's a continuous game with life," she concludes, as if it were the easiest thing in the world, expressing a surprisingly complex concept with simple words.

"To anyone who wants to embark on this path, I can only advise being themselves and following their light and ideas, because you can't win far from yourself. Cultivate, work on yourself too, keep going, don’t listen to anyone. Only you know what’s good for you and what the right choices are for you." And speaking of staying true to oneself, Vale has a strong connection with who she is, even though she constantly changes. That’s why, when we ask her what she sees in her future, she replies: "In my future, there’s a big blank sheet, and I am called to draw on it. I like to reinvent myself from scratch. The fact that the album is out now and that I have also completed a personal cycle that has nothing to do with music gives me the energy and desire, along with the associated fears and anxieties, to start over, to grow more, to make great music, to live life, to stay away from nonsense, and to be with my friends, the people I love, my family." Among the nonsense are also the behaviors of those who want to bring her down: "I face it head-on; I don't give others the freedom to make me feel belittled because I am a young woman. But I’ve noticed an intent to do so because I’m young, because I’m a woman, and because I’m Neapolitan. People always want to belittle, but we must actively respond to these kinds of stupid provocations."