Orietta Berti: “We were born to love”

Here is an extract from the article published in number 1 of Vanity Fair, on newsstands until January 4, 2022

The subtle magic of Orietta Berti lies in reconciling worlds that had been considered split up until that moment, very distant: the bel canto of the past and rap, sequined blouses and trapper tattoos, the more traditional family and feminine freedom, the reassuring image and useful twists in generating streams of memes. Everything about her resonates with an exceptional normality and it is perhaps also for this reason that, after years of relative distance from the eye of the media storm, Orietta is back more glittering and in demand than ever: Sanremo 2021, then Mille with Fedez and Achille Lauro, lots of TV and recently a new single fruit of the collaboration with the Machete gang of Hell Raton, just before leaving on the road with Mara Maionchi and Sandra Milo for a Sky project.

I met her at the edges of the set whose sparkling results you can see in these photos, among her vintage dolls and the fluorescent wigs with which she used to dress up at the parties of the LGBTQ + community in Los Angeles that she loved to attend before the pandemic restrictions, to evoke what has been and above all will be. A long time jump back up to Cavriago, the town in Emilia where she grew up, famous for the square with the bust of Lenin at the foot of which red flowers are still carried today. «I remember the processions with my dad: I always went to mass with him, his closest friends were all priests. My job was to keep the baskets full of flower petals and scatter them on the street. Even if I had more fun going to political demonstrations with my mother Olga, a fervent Communist, where the band played cheerful music ».

What were your models as a child?
“I was a tomboy. I had more friends than friends, I took the form of those who seemed stronger to me, bullies. I wanted my first bicycle as a boy. They took it from me: there was little money going around. I always fell, ditches, canals, the female bicycle was easier to manage. Several times I risked drowning in the village canal. I had a childhood full of dangerous games ».

When does the music arrive?
«I started studying singing at the behest of my father: he wanted to be a tenor but he couldn’t, for economic reasons. He sent me to lyric singing school and everyone told him to let it go: “Mr. Galimberti, look, the girl has no voice”. I was very shy: at thirteen, in front of the teacher who was playing arpeggios for vocalizations, I was paralyzed. But my father insisted and we started with competitions ».

Then there was the accident.
“My dad died when I was eighteen. He was on a moped, a friend of his called him and a fruit truck didn’t see him. He hit his head, he died instantly. The trauma in me never went away: I became anxious, even as a wife and as a mother ».

(The article continues in issue 1 of Vanity Fair, on newsstands until January 4th)

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