Mahmood, something has changed. But little

A little secret concert, announced via social media only shortly before Mahmood went up on stage. A Friday afternoon in early summer. It’s hot, you can smell the weekend in the air. We are in a garden in the Colonne di San Lorenzo area, in Milan. “I think it’s the closest concert I’ve ever done. From the windows I see that church there ».

The showcase of the two-time winner of Sanremo comes at the end of the Levi’s Week, a week linked to Design Week and characterized by a rich program of events in the brand’s new Milanese Pop Store, to which the singer has been linked for years, in via Capelli. The proverbial icing on the cake.

We meet Alessandro before his performance. Eat a banana; she wears an off-white denim suit, under a top that leaves her belly uncovered. I immediately understand that he is not very different from the boy, perhaps a little shy but aware of having a great talent, whom I met before the extraordinary success overwhelmed him. I understand this from his sincere spontaneity, from the looks, from the lack of filters. It is a pleasure to discover how you can keep your feet on the ground even when flying very high.

He probably won’t remember, but I interviewed her for the first time in February 2019, before she went to Sanremo with Money and that his career took off. Then we talked about everything; this time I would like to deal only with very light, superficial topics. It’s a hot Friday, we’re here to sing, to have a beer. Do you like it if we talk about fashion and clothes? Things that some consider just bullshit …
“Look, I know everything. I know everything about bullshit. “

Helmet well, then. How much has it changed since 2019? How much has his life changed, and how much has his style changed, if his style somehow represents his life?
“The great thing is that my lifestyle has actually changed simply because I work a lot more. I am busier. But when I am free, my life is always the same. Habits do not change, landscapes, views change. After Sanremo I had the opportunity to rent a house, I no longer live with my mother… that has changed, that’s it. But basically I don’t have a house of my own yet, I don’t have a car. I live on music, this has changed: it’s cool, it’s very beautiful, very stimulating ».

And the style? Today brands are competing to dress her …
“Yes, I have many more clothes, that’s true. Now there is my poor mother who no longer knows where to put them when the envelopes arrive at home: “I can’t take it anymore …” (her voice becomes high-pitched) ».

Does this also mean a little bit of having arrived? Can we consider it a yardstick for success?
“He says? As lucky as he is now, he knows that maybe, but … now I say a blasphemy for all the brands that give me clothes and which I thank … but before it was different. Before when I went to buy that pair of shoes that I looked in the window, and I waited for months for the moment to be able to buy them … well I gave them a different value. This is something that I have sadly missed. Now the value I give to clothes is related to work, because now for me they are basically a vehicle of artistic expression. I no longer dress to be cute and go dancing, I dress to “represent” myself in a certain way and go on stage to sing, or to shoot a video. Yes, their value has unfortunately changed for me ».

But they’ve always been a form of communication for her, haven’t they?
“Of course always”.

What do you want to communicate about her today, with the clothes she wears?
«The message is always different. It depends on the context and what I’m doing. Every now and then I want to communicate peace, every now and then war. It depends”.

When you say war, do you mean that you also like to provoke?
“Exactly. I like”.

In one word, how would you define your style at this stage of your life?
A long pause. Then Alessandro laughs. “Wait, I’m deleting all those things I can’t say …”.

But no, just tell me those.
Another pause, even longer. «Mhm… There is a transition in this period. I realize that I want a style on me, but after less than a month that style that I thought already bores me. I get bored very quickly. What can I tell you? My “periods” are getting shorter and shorter ».

He gets bored quickly.
“Yup. Even the Sanremo look, long skirt and tie, I also wore it on tour, I liked it a lot. But already now it seems to me something gone, past ».

Musically, too, is he – shall we say – restless?
“Musically I don’t know, I’m still doing the tour three years ago. I don’t have time to write. I’m storing experiences, I’m traveling ».

I return to the first question. Do you know that, compared to 2019, it seems to me much more reflective and less impulsive?
“But no, it’s just that at the time I didn’t know how to speak, I didn’t know how to do interviews.”

As a percentage, how important is what she wears in the overall success of an exhibition?
«I notice on the third song if it works. When I put on an outfit that goes, I move even better. When the outfit isn’t perfect, I feel stiffer. Clothes have their own power, I feel it. It is what conditions the impact they have on people, and also on myself ».

Do they ever criticize her for her looks?
“Well, yes.”

And how do you take criticism, in general?
“You can’t please everyone. We have different tastes, some have taste and others don’t. But then fashion is like music: it’s all extremely subjective. Not everyone can like what I wear, God forbid. The important thing is that I like her! (Laughs) If I like her, everyone likes her. And if they don’t like it, it’s because they haven’t seen well. “

But artists don’t feel this constant, basic need: to please, please the public, to have their consent?
“Maybe that’s also why I won two San Remo in a row? I also like the outfits I wear! ».

The coolest stage look you’ve ever worn?
“In Paris, a Burberry full of crystals. I shone, mom how I shone. In that concert I felt like Michael Jackson ».

Kill.
“You liked it, It means!”. He laughs.

No, in the sense: it must be crazy to hear Michael Jackson. Is it a style icon of him?
“More Prince. But that evening I felt like him. “

In Uramaki sings: “You can keep my blue and white sweatshirt.” Have you ever held onto the sweatshirt … or something else … of someone, as an emotional reminder of a person, of a situation, of a love …
“Yes, at home I have a basketball jersey, from an old relationship of mine.”

And it keeps it….
«Yes, every now and then I wear it. She is cool, vintage ».

A somewhat melancholy attitude.
“No, it depends on your relationship with that person. I always try to maintain good relationships with people in general, with those I have loved. Those with whom I had a sincere relationship. Then there are more frivolous relationships and … well, it’s not that I’m keeping sweaters of dogs and pigs (laughs heartily) “.

Are you a fetishist, do you have obsessions or obsessions with clothes?
“I was when I had my four pairs of shoes. Now I actually throw myself in the closet and go out. Yes, I have lost some sense of the single piece, of the special garment that you keep with care, unfortunately. I am sorry”.

Remember a particularly expensive, bizarre, eccentric or useless purchase …
“I still have my all time favorite piece. A vintage leather jacket. I bought it when I was 24. It was the day of “everything for 5 euros”. I still wear it, I also put it in Los Angeles a month ago. Look. She’s gorgeous”.
He shows me his Instagram account.

Is there a garment that makes you feel really cool?
A very long pause. Alessandro is always looking for the right answer, the true one. He is not satisfied with just giving you any.
«There was a sweater I had worn once … a brown sweater from Magliano, all with holes in it. I felt very sexy. ‘

And a type of garment that you just don’t like and don’t wear?
“Mhm. My hats are bad. I have a weird head. It seems normal, but then I put on a hat and it looks strange… ».

We are here at his showcase surprise thanks to Levi’s. The Levi’s Music Project – born to support the musical training of young people – made its debut in Italy in 2020 in partnership with her.
«For me it was one of the most beautiful and exciting collaborations made in the past, on a human level. A beautiful contact with guys who came from where I came from, with the same dreams and aspirations that I had. We tried to give everything we had stored in these years to them, and they were happy ».

Levi’s is synonymous with casual. How is the most casual Mahmood, the one we do not know?
«He is dressed in dark jeans, black tank top and white stockings…».

Alessandro in a relaxed version, away from the stage, how can we imagine it?
‘At home on the sofa? In his underwear”.

I mean: as a person, in private, is it very different from what we see on stage?
“When I’m among my friends, I think less about what I have to say, it’s obvious. In the family I shoot a lot more bullshit. And consider that I already shoot many in public too ».

Has he become more attentive to what he says? Do you feel a responsibility?
“It’s just that after a while you get used to it, and you learn to speak well. But I always try not to button myself too much. Because I wouldn’t want to lose the truth of who I am, who I am. The truth is, I try to be in front of people as I am in front of my friends. I think this is the secret to getting more things to those who listen to me ».

When I interviewed her in 2019, I also asked her if she would call her father in case – and it seemed very remote – she won. And she said yes. Did she call him?
“What weight, did I say so? We met, but I don’t think I called him right away. ‘

Something has changed since then in the complicated relationship with his father, therefore.
“Mhm. Yes and no”.
A long pause. Alessandro looks me in the eyes, smiles, and makes a discreet gesture with his hands, as if to say: that’s enough.
“Yes and no”.