From our special correspondent in Liverpool (UK)
If there is a candidate for Eurovision 2023 who is not worried, it is certainly Marco Mengoni. The Italian is a star in his country where he collected seventy-one platinum discs in not even fifteen years of career. The passage through Liverpool this week for the song contest is only an aperitif before the tour of the sold-out Italian stadiums which awaits it this summer. And then, Eurovision, he already knows. He represented his country exactly ten years ago. Singing The Essenziale, he finished seventh. “Seven is a number that brings me luck, I would like to finish there again,” he told 20 minutes at the end of April in Paris, a few hours before his concert at La Cigale.
After this confidence, he told us that his staff, behind our back, opened their eyes wide. As if he had stated an enormity by not imagining himself at the top. “Winning doesn’t interest me. What I want is to do well and be satisfied with my performance,” he insisted. Marco Mengoni is all the same aware of the expectations on the other side of the Alps: “During my first participation, Eurovision was not very followed in Italy. But, in recent years, people have started having house parties to watch it, this renewed interest makes me happy. »
The victory of the Maneskin group in 2021 has indeed helped to rekindle this flame with the public. It also showed transalpine artists that it was a valuable springboard for expanding their international audience. This ambition, Marco Mengoni keeps it in the back of his mind, assuring us that he would like to take French lessons to sing in our language and that he would even see himself doing a duet with Aya Nakamura. In the meantime, he enjoys a certain notoriety beyond the Italian borders. His European mini-tour of the last few weeks, passing through Paris, Brussels, Frankfurt and Zurich, was sold out each time, packing an audience made up largely of compatriots expatriates and fans from elsewhere conquered during his first participation in Eurovision . This fall, he will be back in the French capital for a concert at the Zenith on October 25.
“I use music to suffer less”
When asked how he would introduce himself to someone who didn’t know him, he let a long silence settle in. He finds the exercise “difficult”. We suggest that he talk about his relationship to music. He bounces back: “I don’t know if I would start there. Music is my passion, but more surely a means that allows me to free myself and heal my wounds. I use it to suffer less. »
Since winning the Italian telecrochet X-Factor in 2009, his fans know his tortured, anxious, tormented temperament. former obese, he revealed to suffer from dysmorphophobia and having a hard time accepting being called a handsome guy. He is sorely lacking in self-confidence. “It’s one of my characteristics, it’s part of me, he assumes. It’s a strength that helps me better feel my surroundings and a weakness when I can’t manage it. In the eyes of others, it may seem like a flaw. »
He is also not comfortable with star status. “I always repeat to myself: ‘I am Marco Mengoni, I come from Ronciglione, a small village near Rome. I was brought up by my grandfather,’ he continues. I have friends who do jobs different from mine, it connects me to normality, even if I don’t like that word. »
Seven years of psychotherapy
His seven studio albums have all reached at least second place in the best sales in Italy. In three participations in the Sanremo Festival, the mythical meeting of Italian song, his prize list consists of a third place and two victories, the last of which last February, which earned him to participate in Eurovision. Is he afraid of failure? “I believe I have already known some in my career. I’ve released records sometimes and it didn’t turn out the way I hoped. I often found it difficult to say no to things which led to frustration. On some songs, I failed to convey the message that I wanted to convey to the public, ”he lists.
Marco Mengoni regularly takes refuge in meditation and introspection. Seven years ago, “after a difficult time”, he started psychotherapy. Two years ago, he resumed university courses in psychology. “Everything about dreams fascinates me. During the day, our mind controls our thoughts by trying to make us suffer as little as possible, by hiding the things that hurt us the most, while at night, the unconscious brings everything out, he explains. I’ve often struggled with that and sometimes not, because that’s where certain truths come out. »
It is this intimate “relationship” that he wanted to describe in Due Quickly, the song he will perform at Eurovision and which is already a platinum-crowned card in his country. This typically Italian ballad seems to speak of a romantic relationship, but it should rather be understood as a dialogue between the artist and his unconscious. “If this song is the very last one and then the moon explodes, I’ll be there to tell you that you’re wrong, that you’re wrong and you know it, the music doesn’t reach this far. (…) All the leaks, the slaps, the mistakes you make when something shakes you. I know very well that you never sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep,” he sings in the chorus he will sing in Liverpool on Saturday. Without worrying too much. Or almost. “It can never be ‘too easy’ to participate in Eurovision. It is a test where you are sometimes against yourself. This time, for me, I would say it’s exciting. »