Cinzia Tedesco, the jazz star tells her story: "I love living my dream"

Meeting Cinzia Tedesco, the international jazz singer was a stroke of luck. I knew that she was much loved in Italy and abroad, but I didn't know her life, her projects, her dreams. And that she lived in Rome, in my neighborhood. Young, pretty, elegant, she is always traveling around the world, where she has been recognized as the musical personality who has received the most recognition and awards for her work. We cite some: "Ambassador of the International Peace Center in Assisi (non-profit organization recognized by the UN), International Award for Italian Excellence awarded in Washington by the E-Novation Foundation, Ambassador of Federitaly in the world for the diffusion of Italian musical culture. But she has remained simple, she is someone who hasn't let it go to her head, this is the quality of intelligent women who know they are important, without needing to show off. We meet her with an appointment made a few days before and after a coffee, we begin our chat.

Cinzia has achieved many successes abroad too. But being a woman today is not easy, how did she manage to win in a world that increasingly belongs to men?

“It wasn’t easy, but when you value a constant, strong and incisive commitment that you believe in, it gives you the human and emotional energy to keep going.”

In fact, women today have courage, they win like this too. The public in Italy and abroad agrees with you, and loves your voice: do you consider it a privilege?

"There have been years of sacrifices, of sleepless nights, of worries to get to this point. But, when I go on stage I am happily consumed, I seek an almost physical contact with the audience, artists live for this. There is no economic return that can compensate for this type of emotion, I love living my dream".

Speaking of dreams, at what age did you start singing?

“Since I was a child. My father, who sang with his band, noticed my voice. He liked it, he helped me and made me study. I did very well in school, but I was bullied, because I weighed a few kilos more, it was terrible. I wondered how I could overcome those moments, find a way to improve myself, to be myself. Being on stage helped me a lot, there I forgot everything because I had a competitive nature. I continued to study and in addition to singing I got a degree in Computer Science with top marks, obeying the canons of life. I felt like a young woman capable of fighting life”.

Those were difficult years, but something new was starting to arrive...

“In fact, things had changed a lot since the years of my grandmother and my mother, difficult years in which women were not free to emancipate themselves.”

I think many things have changed in the music field too: can you give us an example?

"The context is in the logic of business. Today there is a tendency to often give space to men and women who are not only artists, but also characters. We look at a young world that is not educated in beauty, in the ability to put oneself on the line, with courage and sacrifice. Nothing happens by chance, you have to believe in it."

Like it happened with Bob Dylan. There's a movie about him in theaters, and while it wasn't planned yet, you anticipated the idea by doing a show about him, right?

“Yes, “The Voices of Bob Dylan”, a multimedia show to tell the story of Bob Dylan. Theatrical moments and live dubbing are intertwined, curated by Angelo Maggi (famous voice, among many, of Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington in the film Hurricane and who on stage gives voice to Dylan). I sing Dylan’s famous songs and lend my voice to Joan Baez, a woman who had everything and who also became the icon of a wrong love in which she believed. She speaks of her Dylan with affection unchanged by the passing of time. We have been on tour from Milan to Rome and Naples, and on March 1st we will be at the Teatro Orfeo in Taranto, my hometown, where I hope, here too, to have a sold out”.

Love is a feeling that you never forget. You are writing new songs, one about Paolo Borsellino: was it difficult in this Italy with a short memory?

“Yes, but for this project I have already received the Patronage from the Paolo and Rita Borsellino Study Center for the song I titled 'Alle Cinque', a number sadly evocative of the tragic attack. It also recalls Borsellino's habit of waking up at five in the morning to 'screw the world two hours early,' as he used to say. The lyrics are written by me and Giovanni Soldani, the music is mine and the arrangements are by me and maestro Roberto Guarino”.

In a different or realistic light?

“We looked at Borsellino not only as a man of the institutions, but also in his way of simply being Paolo. Obviously, I sing these songs with respect and emotion”.

Cinzia, before closing, is there anything you wanted to do that you didn't do? You don't seem like someone who gives up, who leaves a project she believes in pending. Am I wrong?

“No, not at all. Never give up is my motto. After the tour in Brazil, Norway, Germany and Bulgaria I would now like to bring my music to the Universal Expo in OSAKA and then I would love to return to Milan, a city where I have always been welcomed by an enthusiastic, cultured and affectionate audience”.