Annalisa, I always listen to the audition of my songs in the car

The ideal set of the telephone interview by Annalisa he would have been in the car. She on new Toyota C-HR, of which it is ambassadors, headed to rehearsals for one of the many concerts of her tour Everyone in the vortex; me sitting at my Milanese desk in front of the keyboard taking notes. But as luck would have it, I found it right in the break between one test session and another, therefore outside the cockpit of a car. Even though, Annalisa confides «I spend a lot of time in the car». A relationship with the four-wheeled vehicle that goes far beyond simply moving from one destination to another.

«Car trips have a very strong connection with music, or at least they do for me. When I start working on a song, I imagine a trip and, very often, that journey also happens in reality when the audition for that song is ready” explains Annalisa. Such a strong relationship precisely because «the place where I listen to it and understand if it actually works is in the car» says the Italian pop star. Among other things, the JBL audio system can be installed on the new Toyota C-HR premium.

Music has the power to evoke emotions and create a bond with those who listen to it, just as the design and driving of a car can evoke unique sensations in those who drive it. But before I even asked her the question of why she chose to become the Italian face of Toyota's new crossover, Annalisa anticipates: «I find that travel and music are very linked; are perhaps the same thing and certainly the car journey is perhaps the most romantic union of all. It's this one the spark that leads me to think that this type of collaboration is right for me.»

A journey, that of Annalisa, which led her to obtain various awards at the beginning of 2024. Among these, the fifth platinum album for my love became the first solo song by an Italian artist to achieve well 38 Platinums and 13 Gold. Furthermore, with three singles in the Top 100 and five in the Top 200, in addition to the official Fimi/Gfk singles chart, Annalisa she is the most listened to female artist on Spotify and the first woman to enter the US Billboard global chart in the top 100. Results which (with due warnings) are destined to grow day by day.

Always the journey, it constantly leads Annalisa to overcome boundaries just «like music, thanks to the way platforms have evolved» she explains, moving her fringe (this is imagined). Not by chance, Sincerely, the song sung at Sanremo 2024, is also having a good response in France. «We need to know how to ride this change because if you ride it, the results will come too.» Said and done: this is how the francophone version of Sincerely together with the French singer Olia Stone and the remix designed by Bob Sinclar, international star of dancefloor.

Results that come from constant and hard work. «Nothing is left to chance» says Annalisa. «Every song, every video clip, but also every photo that reaches the public is the result of intense work and many thoughts; balances that you must always try to maintain to reach people in the right way, to show who you are and what you want to convey” Annalisa tells herself. After the initial phase of a project «where I go instinctively» follows a reasoned path of exchange with the his team to try to create as accurate a world as possible. «I am the tip of the iceberg, the one everyone sees. «I believe 100% in what I do and represent by putting my face and my thoughts into it. It is essential that the idea comes from me; then everything else that is set up, in all fields, in all areas – from the image, to the social profiles, including the strategy – is something that is done together.»

LEONARDO DAMO

The secret? «The people who work with me, in addition to obviously being trained in what they do, have a mentality similar to mine […]Basic you have to be happy to do that thing together and feel good doing it” explains Annalisa. And like all artists, she too finds it difficult to say that a song is good as it is. «I'm a pain in the ass and how much I resent them or stop to think I would always change some part of my songs. But at a certain point you also have to give up and say okay, come on, here we go and start fixing new things: the same thing always remains desire to improve.»

An approach to work that our international pop star also owes to his birth in Val Bormida and specifically to Carcare in the Savona hinterland. «A fortunate reality, where people feel good: you are in the countryside, surrounded by lots of greenery, near the sea and a stone's throw from the Langhe. Although it is a provincial reality, I realized while traveling and moving about how lucky I was to get there, because not all places have these possibilities.

A territory that grew after the war thanks to companies such as Ferrania, a factory where cinematographic films were produced, and the American 3M. «When this industrial reality arrives, all four of my grandparents who came from the countryside find work and thus a different possibility is created for my mother and father who are reached a higher level, compared to how they started”, explains Annalisa. «The same thing that my parents did with me: their commitment allowed me to start a little further ahead than how they started. I was able to study, take music and singing lessons, go to university. I have to thank them very much for this: it is the previous generation working for the next generation.»

It's a constant whirlwind, like the tour Everyone in the Vortice Palasport which is taking Annalisa to Turin, Milan, Bari, Naples, Bologna, Rome and Padua in April. But summer dates are also already available with Everyone in the Outdoor vortex in seaside locations such as Cattolica, Genoa, Forte dei Marmi and beyond. To find out the dates of the two tours you don't need to fill up with comments @naliannalisathe singer's official account on Instagram, just click on this link.

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