Kefàli is an Italian singer, actress, producer and much else besides. She is an example of never give up, pursue your dreams and create your own destiny. She updated us with her current and future projects which have a clear common denominator: help people.
Hi Giorgia, it’s nice to hear you again. Since we already had the pleasure to meet you in October 2020, can you tell us what are you working on and your new projects?
My first single called “Ex” came out recently. I wanted to talk about the situation in which you find yourself having a crush on your best friend and then something happens, but you do not understand what it can be turned into. Then you start ask yourself questions, if it is what you really want or if it was worth it. And so, you find yourself in a limbo in which you do not know what to do. It was my first production with Cosmophonix Production. It is the first single of an EP that should be out by the end of this year. This project talks about self-acceptance, body positivity and women empowerment. All these topics are close to my hearth. “Ex” is the first song released and I didn’t expect such a positive reaction to it. I’m very happy that people appreciate it. It was the first song that I wrote in Italian with the help of Brenda Carolina, since it is a completely different way of writing songs compared to writing in English, but it was an interesting process.
“This project talks about self-acceptance, body positivity and women empowerment. All these topics are close to my hearth.”
I listened to “Ex” and I watched the video on Youtube. I think it describes a situation in which a lot of people personally found themselves. Are you satisfied? What are you expecting in the next days?
I am very satisfied with the feedback that was completely unexpected to me. I am always very critical on myself and on what I do. Until I have a feedback I feel anxious because I make myself vulnerable putting a piece of myself into my songs and I do not know if people will like it or not. Fortunately, it had a positive feedback. It is a sort of starting point for me. It helped me to understand what I want to do next with my future songs.
From what I read on your social media and articles I understood that there still is the desire to come back to US in you, am I right? What do you like about US and what about Italy? And what do you expect from these two countries?
I am thinking about it a lot since the beginning of the pandemic. In the US I grew artistically and as a person but sometimes it was hard. Coming back to Italy I found myself which I had lost in the mass since I was completely alone in a foreign country. I think that a step back may be necessary sometimes, even if not voluntary as in my case. Being at home helped me in refocusing my goals and I rediscovered artistically Italy since I have never had the chance to work in Italy. Being honest, I always felt negatively the idea of working in Italy because I do not meet Italian beauty standards. In the US I did not feel conditioned by my body image which is something about I suffered a lot during my life. American people say “speak my mind” when you say what you think without being conditioned by others and US helped me in this way. I hope to see a progress about physical, racial and disability inclusivity in Italy. I think that TV should reflect the society since it has a responsibility in setting beauty standards.
As you described before you try to transmit these messages through your art. Your future songs will talk about it?
I’m working on a song that is about these topics but it is still an embryo. I did a really important personal journey that everyone should do: understanding our reason why, why you do art, what messages you want to convey. My reason why is to help people to accept themselves because it was hard to me and helping others helps me as well.
“I did a really important personal journey that everyone should do: understanding our reason why, why you do art, what messages you want to convey.”
What are your future plans?
About the US everything is frozen because of the pandemic stop of visa. What I would like to do is working both in US and Italy. NY is like a second home and I miss it.
From an artistic point of view you are a singer, an actress, a producer etc. Is there one particular form of art that you like more?
What I learned in US is that you do not have to limit yourself, you can do more things together. I studied musical so I danced, sang and acted all together. I have a lot of ideas and I always try to do as many things I can, sometimes too many. I think you can do everything, do one thing at a time is important. Acting made me improve my empathy, placing myself in other people’s shoes which is something fundamental regardless of the fact you are an actor or not. In Italy I still see my physical aspect as a limit, and it pushed me in creating my work and my destiny because if you do not create it who is going to do it?
“Acting made me improve my empathy, placing myself in other people’s shoes which is something fundamental regardless of the fact you are an actor or not.”
From my personal experience going on the stage for dancing, acting or singing help in being self-confident. For this reason, I think children should experience it. What do you think about it?
I have never talked about a particular project publicly because it is not official yet, but I hope it will be really soon. I decided to found an onlus association for doing music in pediatric cardiac surgery departments since music made me feeling understood. I always felt uncomfortable because of my scars during my childhood so now I want to help children. Everything is harder than I thought but I will let you know.
Do you have other projects you want to talk about?
I’m writing a book about my life. It is a long journey. I care a lot about it and I hope it will help many people. It is about a friend of mine who saved my life teaching me to follow my dreams because we live only once so we have to make it count. Sometimes I think that I didn’t do enough comparing myself with others especially in the industry I work for, but I remind myself that everyone had different experiences. Nowadays it is particularly difficult to not compare yourself with others because of social media.
What do you think about social media?
I like social media; I like to share contents and my opinions. I speak my mind through social media. In my opinion, in Italy there is quite an obsession about influencers because the more followers you have the bigger will be the audience. I started sharing videos on Tik Tok in which I teach Italian and it’s going great. It is something not directly related to my work, but it is still another way of helping others which, I think, is the art key. You do art to express yourself to an audience in order to have a feedback, positive or negative doesn’t matter. What matters is to understand that people felt something through your art.
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Images provided by: Kefàli