Cristina D’Avena: “I’m not old enough”

Asking Cristina D’Avena why the public loves her so much means taking a one-way ticket to the season we remember most willingly, the one in which our only concern was to find the gift under the tree that we wanted to unwrap on Christmas morning : childhood. «Going on stage and performing for my audience is something indescribable. Seeing how good music is for people is something magical. In the front row I often see kids getting up from their wheelchairs to sing the theme songs with me, and this is fantastic», says Cristina while sipping a coffee in the Warner Music studios in Milan where we have an appointment. She’s dressed in black, she rubs her hands every now and then like the villain of theInspector Gadget and indulges in the best memories of a career – one of the few – that has not gone through any storm because Cristina D’Avena has always remained steadfast in her status as a star of Italian pop. For forty years of activity you have decided to give yourself a gift: a deluxe album entitled 40 – The dream continues in which she proposes new duets as well as the iconic songs that brought her success.

Together with an unpublished work written for her by Niccolò Agliardi and Bungaro (“A classic piece dedicated to Christmas, a beautiful love song”), in fact, unpublished collaborations such as those with Cristiano Malgioglio, together with which Cristina D’Avena duets on the notes of Calimero; with Elettra Lamborghini (Mew Mew winning friends); with Orietta Berti (The gnat’s waltz) and Sunrises (Tasmania). In the middle, the enthusiasm of a 58-year-old woman whom some still consider an eternal child and who is told sincerely in this interview. Exactly like the cartoon heroines that aired on Bim Bom Bam whose abbreviations we still remember by heart.

Do these 40 years make themselves felt?
“I would say no. I am very bubbly, like a little girl anxiously awaiting the event that will upset her. This job makes me feel good: when I sing and get involved I like it, as well as the response from the public, even if I always have to improve myself and improve».

Do you consider yourself a perfectionist?
«Yes, I like to please myself and the public. I am an artist who addresses children and not: I speak to all those who want to listen to me».

Do you like budgets?
“They make me a little anxious. I always try to be balanced and luckily I don’t have huge swings. In my concerts I always say that, in a somewhat fast-paced world, every now and then you have to stop and talk and listen».

Stopping as it is for her?
«When you give yourself a break, it’s fine, but it can’t last forever. I’m a busy person: when I stop I have to do it for a just cause, otherwise I live it badly. I always have the light at the bottom waiting for me».

Does boredom scare you?
“Much. In fact when it comes, I try to do something else. Boredom makes me nervous: when she arrives, she means that something is wrong.’

And how’s sleep? I read that during the lockdown she went to sleep very late.
“Even now. I don’t go to sleep before 4 or 5 in the morning.’

Why so late?
«I relax, I take stock of the day, and then I start doing the things I like».

For instance?
«I order my wardrobes in my own way: removing and putting on relaxes me a lot. Then I watch TV, I write: it depends. I’ve always been like this, even as a kid.”

How many hours do you sleep per night?
“Six hours. I don’t wake up perky in the morning, on the contrary: I need time to understand what I’m doing».

Your typical morning?
«Reading the emails on my phone while I’m still lying down, and then having breakfast with 11 Pavesini – as the nutritionist indicated to me – and 3 snowdrops that I allow myself. After a shower, I usually go for a nice walk.’

Alone?
“Yes, I’m very slow. I allow myself long walks in which I think back to my days. Then, of course, I also go to the gym where I am followed by a personal trainer who grooms me because I’m very lazy».

Do they recognize her on walks?
«Yes, even if I wear black glasses. I stop with everyone, I’m certainly not a Hollywood diva».

Were you also hyperactive as a child?
“A little less. I was very lazy, but quite energetic. As I grew up I had to learn to compete on my own. My sister Clarissa does a hundred things at once, I can’t do it».

What did he want to be when he grew up?
“The doctor. I wanted to be a doctor like my father, so much so that I enrolled in medicine to become a child neuropsychiatrist. The mind fascinates me a lot and, in some ways, I managed to realize this fantasy of mine even without being a doctor, given that music allows me to get in touch with people in an intimate and surprising way”.

People who come to his concerts have grown up with his songs. What songs did she grow up with?
«With a lot of Disney – I went to the cinema with my parents to see the same film even five times – and with the music of Zecchino d’Oro. Growing up, songwriters like my friend Lucio Dalla arrived: I still sing his songs continuously today. However, I also like new music, from rap to trap: it’s right to keep up with the times».

Disney cartoons have changed, given that Prince Charming is now increasingly mistreated.
«Poor thing indeed. In the end, we fend for ourselves: if the prince’s kiss arrives, it arrives, otherwise patience. The world has now become emancipated, each of us says that at a certain point it is no longer worth waiting».

Speaking of princes, I’ve read that your father was very jealous: how did he do with sweethearts?
“He always caught me. Even if I arrived slowly on a Vespa with a friend, she noticed it. His was a healthy jealousy: think that he pretended to accompany me to the disco on Saturday afternoons even though I would have preferred a thousand times to take the bus. He also accompanied me to school making me feel embarrassed, but in the end I thank him for doing it ».

Did you taste a little independence when you moved to Milan?
«Not at all. I always had with me a former carabiniere on horseback, Signor Giuseppe, who reported all my movements to my father: I tried to bribe him, but there was no way. But if I could, I would go back and do it all again. Now girls are much more emancipated and smart than us, but in my opinion they should enjoy their age more. I’m sorry to see young people burning their stages, they feel grown up and lose a slice of life that will never come back”.

Maybe that’s why many teenagers suffer from panic attacks early on.
“There are so many. If at 15 you want to be 25 and you put too much weight on your shoulders, you eventually collapse because you don’t have the experience to hold you up. We need mistakes, messes ».

Do you still have your fears or have you overcome them?
«I’m still afraid of flying: I don’t take planes and I go by car. Since I’ve been closed in the lift for two hours I’ve been very afraid of closures, I lack air. In fact, I don’t go in the lift and in the places where the door closes».

When she’s forced how does she do it?
«I don’t take the elevator at all. When I was doing radio on the 17th floor I used to take the stairs: I arrived half dead, but then I was super perky».

Have you ever tried to face these fears?
“I should, but I don’t.”

Because?
«Because I’m lazy, and maybe I don’t care about overcoming the fear of flying: I know I can take the car, and that’s okay. At the moment this does not cause me a limitation ».

In the end it is because of his fear of flying that he has never participated in theIsland of the Famous: Will we ever see her as a competitor for anything?
«Not of reality TV. Having one eye watching you 24/7 would make me uncomfortable.”

I think of your friend Marco Bellavia to whom you, after his bad experience at Big Brother VIPdedicated a very nice message.
«I love him infinitely, but the Big Brother it’s quite challenging on a personal level. When you go there you know you’ll have to live with people you don’t know for a long time, and it’s not easy.”

Was there a moment in your life when you felt like an adult for the first time?
«When I moved to Milan. I was 20, already a bit hailstones».

Lately it seemed to me that she wanted to demonstrate, also thanks to her shots on Instagram, that she was a woman and no longer an eternal child: is that right?
“I’m a big, vaccinated adult, not just the little girl who sings to the kids. At concerts I put on a cute little dress, very feminine: I like to show this side of me. I’m not 20 anymore: I’m a woman who wants to be. I don’t hide my femininity because I like it even if, when I show it, all hell happens».

There is no interview in which they don’t ask her why she hasn’t had children: is she tired of answering?
«It is normal that they do it to me, but yes. I didn’t have a problem: it was simply a choice-not-choice. I’ve dedicated my life to my work: I found myself in it when I was very young, I’ve done a lot of songs and broadcasts and, when you’re inside an assembly line of this type, you simply don’t think about it. I didn’t realize the time was passing, perhaps because I had to make too many decisions if I stopped. I don’t know if in a few years I will have a regret. I don’t have it right now.”

What do you answer to those who say that a woman who is not married and has no children is incomplete?
“She can be just as complete, even if she’s not married and has no children. Unlike men, we have a biological clock, and I don’t find it fair that a man can have children up to 80 and women have to stop. They should do it too, otherwise there will be grandparents with the children, and it would become a form of selfishness».

Are you afraid of time passing?
«A bit yes, but it depends on how you are and how you live your age. For me it is not the registry that counts, but the years you feel».

How many do you feel?
“Twenty-five, no more. It is something that is also reflected in clothing: why should I buy a suit if I feel like wearing a more particular dress? I am this”.

She’s very private, but I know she’s been engaged for many years: does a little jealousy ever arise at home for the attention of fans on social media?
“It depends on what they write (laughs, ed.). When they go further I smile, I enjoy it. When they offend, and luckily it happens very little, I’m sorry».

In a warehouse on the outskirts of Bologna you have crammed all the clothes, costumes and video material of your career: what does it feel like when you go back there?
“Extremely beautiful. I immerse myself in the memories of the life I’ve had – there is also the wooden horse with which I entered the Zecchino at the Waltz of the gnat – and I can’t not say thank you for everything I’ve had».