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“One day I would like to play this record to my daughter and let her hear what my eyes saw and my heart felt while I was waiting for her.” This is the spirit with which Ermal Meta is preparing to give birth to his new work. An extremely personal album, which photographs not only the emotions of an unrepeatable period (“A different form of inspiration, never felt before. An album of memories that I will probably tend to lose once I become a father in June”) but also a new maturity and awareness reached by the singer-songwriter.
“There comes that moment when even musically you have to take stock of where you have arrived and where you are headed – he explains -. It’s not easy but it becomes necessary to have small coordinates within yourself. There have been changes in my life, I had to learn things again. The experience of the novel (“Tomorrow and forever”, published in 2022 – ed.) also led me to push myself further which led me to wait to make an album”.
The name chosen for the little girl is linked to a song on the album. “The word Fortuna was born in a peculiar way – he explains -. I was in the studio and I was working on a piece called ‘Ironica’. I was revising the text and Chiara, who was sitting on the sofa, suggested a change with the phrase “there’s something called Fortuna”. And we both thought at the same time ‘if it was a girl I’d like to call her Fortuna’. It was a very emotional moment.” But what is luck for Ermal? Something closely linked to our behaviors. “Chance does not depend on your will, while luck is not like that – he explains -. It is something you commit to, you fight for, you build it like a craftsman day after day. Chance flies, luck walks”.
After “Tribùurbana”, the 2021 album, Meta dedicated himself to the novel and then to this new work whose genesis was, however, difficult at the beginning. “I’m not good at writing with discipline. I only write if I’m inspired – he says -. In the last few months there has been a crazy boost even if at the beginning I was a bit blocked: I felt unsuitable to describe this feeling. Then I understood that the right words were simply those that came out of me. Most of these songs were thrown down in one go rather than inspired by authorship.
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The album opens with “I decide the path“, a sort of declaration of intent in which Ermal talks about how he has somehow taken his destiny into his own hands. “People often think they know what is the best thing for you to do. Instead, everyone perceives the world through their own skin and looks at it with their own eyes. There is an Albanian saying that says: ask 10 people what they think and then do what you want.” But the song is also a way of leaving behind a difficult past. “The initial years of my career were very important but also very difficult , I always had panic attacks before going on stage. This song is about shaking off that feeling.”
Panic attacks weren’t the only burden Meta had to free himself from. “When I started making music – Meta recalled – it was to save myself. Music saved my emotionality. At twenty, all my childhood problems came to light and I couldn’t keep my anger at bay. I went to therapy because I always ended up in bad situations. I had swallowed for too long. First with La Fame di Camilla and then when I started writing songs for others I could help my family with a little more money”.
Among other songs it has an important weight “Mediterranean“. “Musically it gives a twist, it’s a mix of the south of the world – says Ermal -. It has a warm temperature, it speaks of our Mediterranean, a non-place, in which more lives collide than one can imagine.” Overall, an album in which Meta also worked on himself to be drier. “Today I think I am more musically direct – he underlines -. I was born first as a musician and then I became a singer and sometimes this led me to be a little musically convoluted.”
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The feats of “Buona Fortuna“: Levante and Jake La Furia
Among the new songs, collaborations with Jake La Furia also appear for “Malepiù non fa” (“He has an impressive writing ability. We seem distant but only in genres, not in intentions”) and Levante on the notes of “Io e te ” (“the song also needed another soul. I called her because she manages to be strong and light at the same time”).
For “Buona Fortuna” a special cover
Standing out on the album cover is a white whale to which several threads are attached. “The image of the white whale of Melvillian memory is something you look for, chase and you have to be ready to tie it and carry it with you – he explains -. The threads represent the songs. And the image lends itself to a double reading. The whale is a kite flying and being anchored or dragging songs?”.
The dates of Ermal Meta’s summer tour
13 July Beauty Festival, Roman Theater – Verona
18 July Anima Festival, Amphitheater of the Soul – Cervere (CN)
19 July Live in Genoa, Arena del Mare – Genoa
28 July Anaxum Festival, Arena del Marinaretto – Palazzolo Dello Stella (UD)
11 August La Versiliana Festival, La Versiliana Theater – Marina di Pietrasanta (LU)
21 August Oversound Music Festival, Piazza Libertini – Lecce
24 August Sotto Il Vulcano Fest, Falcone e Borsellino Amphitheater – Zafferana Etnea (CT)
25 August Dream Pop Fest, Teatro di Verdura – Palermo
5 September Rome Summer Fest, Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone, Cavea – Rome
14 September Carroponte – Sesto San Giovanni (MI)