This article was published in issue 28-29 of Vanity Fairon newsstands until July 19.
There are tattoos that don’t need ink to be seen. The scar on the stomach of Fedez is one of them. “Look at her: she is now smooth and healed,” she tells us as she wanders around the set of this shirtless photo shoot. “She used to hurt, now it’s much better. In the days immediately following the surgery, I felt my organs adjusting themselves. The intestine on one side, the liver on the other. To operate, some were removed from my body and placed on the table, to export the tumor. Then they were put back inside, but without paying too much attention to order. Because, the doctors explained to me, it’s up to them to return to their usual position ». Fedez’s life also seems to return to the usual position. The music. The concerts. The family. Still, there is something new about this man who is no longer a boy. He is always hyperactive, determined, “the usual piece of shit”, he will say in this interview. But in Federico’s eyes a shadow, or a light, is profoundly changing Fedez’s face.
How are you, Federico?
“Good. Apart from the problem that after the surgery I always wake up at five in the morning. And it doesn’t matter if I go to bed late. It’s like a curse. “
Were you happy to go back to singing live in Piazza Duomo in Milan?
“It was crazy. Excuse me, I’m getting a blunder… ».
Everything is OK?
«Yes, now it passes me. I have to deal with this new phase. With medicines. The supplements. Pancreatic enzymes. Let’s go back to the concert. I was saying, he was crazy. I was afraid no one would come. That day, the weather forecasted thunderstorms and I spent the whole time watching the webcam in Piazza Duomo to see if it filled up ».
How did you feel going up on stage again?
“I was strangely serene. I do not know why. I just wanted to go up. In the lineup I was expected at eleven in the evening. But at four in the afternoon I was already there, I couldn’t stay at home ».
For the second year he is at the top of the charts with the song The sweet life. How is a summer hit born? How does it work? Is there a magic formula?
“After the last album I told myself that I only want to work on singles. I don’t know if I’ll make records again. I like to focus on just one piece because music goes very fast today. I realized that by doing one song at a time I can give it the right space, to tell it as I want. For the summer, with my boys we are continuing this trend of taking 60s songs and then rearranging them in a current key. One thousand he was a geghegé, The sweet life it’s more of a twist. Last year we involved an Italian music legend, Orietta Berti. This year, however, we have chosen two young people and a differently young one, who would then be me ».
“Differently young”?
“I’m not even 33 years old, I have white hair, two children and a tumor on my shoulders. I can say that I have lived enough lives to consider myself otherwise young ».
He talked a lot about his tumor. But how did he find out?
“The truth?”.
Yes please.
“Destiny. Fortune. Call it what you want. I do a general exam every six months. When the day of the appointment came, I had a fight with Chiara and I showed up two hours late. While they were seeing me, she passed by, by chance, a doctor who was not supposed to pass by. She looked at the monitor and felt that my pancreas was not quite normal. I owe my life to her ».
What happened next?
“I was afraid. But I wanted to know everything. All. The doctors were clear: from this operation you can get out alive, die in the following days, or not make it during the surgery. It lasted six and a half hours. But it went well and now I’m out of danger, let’s say, 99 percent ».
The disease, the operation … How did they change it?
“I think life always changes. But then there are events that make you change profoundly. Yes, I’ve changed a lot. And yes, things have happened to me that I would have preferred not to happen, but the epilogue makes me feel very lucky. I always touch my balls when I say these things! ».
Has he changed with his children?
“I haven’t changed only with them. I have changed with everyone. Above all, I understood how a waste of time it is to give the side to easy controversies. Once I was guided by the belly, now I have different priorities because the time we have on this earth is limited. And I don’t want to waste it anymore ».
Has it become more meek?
“No, no: I’m a piece of shit as always. Simply the utterances that I used to make in public now I keep them to myself “.
Let’s go back to his children: having a girl, for a father, is a great test.
“Look, everyone tells me. But Vittoria is atypical. They repeated to me: you will see how she will be tied to her father. She is actually independent, at the moment she doesn’t have a specific attachment to anyone. It is I who have a special attachment to her. Also to Leone, of course. With my daughter, however, I really feel the need for her, the desire to breathe her ».
What scares you?
“Now I’m always afraid of dying. My mantra is one: live long enough to be remembered by my children. I know, it’s a bit of a sad mantra, but it’s the only thing that really matters to me. The real fear is that I may have a relapse. But it shouldn’t happen. And it won’t happen ».
What has changed with your wife Chiara?
“When an event like this happens, you understand that your suffering is almost less than that of those who are by your side and do everything to keep it from leaking out, to hide it in order to support you, to give you energy. Such an event can only strengthen a relationship. I have no doubts: what has happened to us has strengthened our relationship in a granitic way “.
And with his mother?
“Idem. And if before we were more anaffective, now we are less ».
In the past he said he wanted to reach 200 million, now he has also changed his goals …
“But it’s an extrapolation from a two hour podcast! It was the answer to a trapper and trappers are known to like money. Let’s say that as an entrepreneur I had goals that may have changed. Having chosen to organize the concert in Piazza Duomo, for example, cost me over a million euros; and when I decided to do it I had no sponsor and I was willing to pay out of my own pocket because I didn’t give a damn: I wanted to play, to give my city a charity live to turn on a spotlight on Tog’s reality and activate a collection funds. It’s not that I no longer have goals as an entrepreneur, but I’m learning not to let them swallow me ».
You often fight for various causes. Where does this commitment of her come from?
«Look, I don’t fight. I just say what I think. Marco Cappato is one who fights. And fighting means dedicating your whole life to a purpose. I don’t do this. Cappato does it. Gino Strada did it. Cecilia Strada does it. I’m not up to them ».
What do you think of Cappato’s end-of-life battle?
«I am a great friend of Marco and as soon as I can I offer him my help, my platforms. I have a great respect for him and I don’t envy him because he has decided to sacrifice his life for others. This means fighting ».
What do you think of the American Supreme Court’s step backwards on abortion?
«A big mistake. But in this regard, I recommend returning to our country. I find it scandalous that the Vatican has taken the ball to enter the debate on the right to abortion. I always remember that the Vatican through the IOR has made investments in companies that produce drugs such as contraceptive pills. This shows how they profess ancient dogmas when they need to carry them on, but when the money calls, they behave exactly like any trapper or rapper. In the end, we’re not that different, are we? By the way, can I say one more thing? ».
You’re welcome.
“Since we have so much desire to go back in time and re-face discussions of the past, I would propose to the Italian state the celebration of the breach of Porta Pia, an event that decreed the end of the Papal State as a historical-political entity”.
Let’s stay in Italy. There is a lot of talk about the new value of work, of young people asking for higher, fairer wages. What advice would you give to someone in their 20s or 30s?
“I struggled to escape from the social class I was born into and today I live too far away to be able to give advice. I can’t do as a Briatore. I am aware of the privileged condition in which I live and the only thing I can do is to give back some of my privilege and my wealth into something useful. Instead, what I can do as an entrepreneur is to build a healthy company and I am proud of what I have built. At the moment we are almost thirty people and 90 percent are women. And I’m happy to add that five of these women got pregnant and had children. ‘
How is a company built?
“I have no idea. We need to create a good atmosphere and I don’t think I’ve always succeeded, honestly. I don’t believe in the tale of the entrepreneur of miracles. But I think I have always behaved correctly in terms of rights ».
What does the conquest of those who work with you?
«I don’t value school certificates. Studies and experience are useful, they are precious. But they are not enough. Because there are things that school or work paths cannot teach you. One of these is hunger. Only the way teaches you that ».
How will he teach “hunger” to Leone and Vittoria?
“Unfortunately they won’t know it.”
So what?
«We need to put our soul in peace and understand that the path of parents can never be the same as that of children. We must try to convey to them the values and above all remember how lucky they are, to make them understand the state of privilege in which they live. And then it is important to try to involve them: I want to take them to Tog, I want them to go and lend a hand when they grow up and to be an active part of the initiatives that their father will carry out ».
Who should thank today?
“There are many people to whom I must be grateful. Friends, because without them I wouldn’t be here. The doctor who discovered the tumor: she was present at the concert in Piazza Duomo, we hugged and we were moved. And then, the doctors who have operated on me and are treating me ».
She says it all depended on luck, fate. Do you believe in destiny?
«I don’t believe in God, I am an atheist. And I don’t believe in fate. What happened to me put me in crisis. It was really weird. I still believe that in bad luck there was a great stroke of luck. That’s life. You see, the month before the operation, I lost my aunt to Covid in a terrible way and I experienced it as a great injustice as for all the losses that can be had. She was a cancer patient who had a hell of a life and was always super careful not to get Covid. She passed away in a few days ».
How do you explain these events to your children?
“I won’t explain them to them because they are too small. Leone grew up in the middle of a pandemic, he didn’t get to know his aunt. But I have a wall full of photographs where the image of him stands out above and every now and then I remind him who that person is up there. But of course, they don’t realize. ‘
And did they realize your illness?
«Vittoria, no, she is one year old. Leo, on the other hand, knows. He knows that his father has a wound, that he has been operated on and that when we play on the Playstation he has to be quiet if he wants to sit on top of me ».
Last question. 2032, ten years from now, where will it be?
“We see. I will be 42 and will still do what I do today. But I would like other children, certainly at least one more. And then I would like maturity to bring me even more serenity ».
***
The protagonists of the hit The sweet lifethe most played and best-selling single already platinum, are together on the cover of Vanity Fair and they tell each other in three intimate interviews.
Beyond Fedez,
HERE to read the interview with TANANAI (“Life without Fomo”), made by Valentina Colosimo
HERE to read the interview with MARA SATTEI (“Nothing to declare”), signed by Stefania Saltalamacchia.
Source: Vanity Fair
