Rkomi: «Beatrice Quinta? Love has so many shades…”

When he agreed to sit on the judges’ bench X Factor Rkomi, at the registry office Mirko Martorana, he did it to be able to show something else about himself, which he couldn’t tell with music. Twenty-eight years old, already at seventeen she was recording his songs and who, without ever stopping, reached the Olympus of Italian singers, needed to put herself to the test. Because 7 platinum records are often not enough Taxi Drivera record that aims for diamond after being the best-selling of 2021, tours and songs always at the top of the charts are not enough, such as Broken bones, his latest release. When life changes completely before your eyes and you reach everyone’s ears, the desire to be able to get in touch with those who follow you more directly is there, especially if you don’t recognize social networks as an easy means of communication. And so he threw himself into a television experience, challenging his shyness and his comfort zone. The result is above all a personal victory, of a curious boy who draws inspiration from everything he does.

It’s time to take stock of the experience of X Factor.
«I can’t look at myself from the outside, I only know that I was the thing I would have liked to have, if I had been a competitor. I had to cherish to hold X Factor close to reality. My task there was not to be too good or pretend not to know things that will actually be part of the path of many kids. I tried not to give myself away as much as possible, trying to be a brother to those who worked with me”

What did you like and what did you not?
«When I enter a new world, which also applies to the experience of Sanremo, I need to gain confidence with the whole operating machine. I absolutely loved being in contact with young people. They took me back to the early days of my career, which are the best. I feel enriched by this experience, so much so that I can’t wait to start working differently than before. I relearned those natural, early instinctive ways, as if I had given a polish to these years of good things that happened. All this experience has led me to no longer have thoughts when I work on music. Instead, I didn’t love the television rhythms, I needed time to get into the machine. And maybe I’ve never quite gotten into it, but I need fleshy relationships when I work, with everyone, authors, stagehands, editors. In the end, I felt like family.”

How did it go with your table mates? We’ve seen some fights…
«Beautiful friendships were born with all three, despite the many defects that all four of us have. I have found great maturity in accepting the difference in age and character. In the studio we did what our hearts told us, going against each other, but outside we always remembered that our views on boys may be different, but they remain at the table. I really feel like a friend of all three of them.”

We have also seen her make judgments without a filter several times, observing, choosing with determination, without worrying about the consequences. Is he always so sure of himself?
“I really am like that. X factr in itself intrigued me to release things that with music would not have released. I’m not a big fan of the internet, I don’t hear my Instagram, stories… The program was a way to express who I really am, beyond the music. And I am this. An observer, above all. Even the thought of saying yes or no to a competitor bothered me. Burning someone’s way just for an audition, when I’m the first to make a mistake seemed like too much. I’m not a one-time man.”

Unsure of what?
“More than anything, I’m sure I’m not ready. As I get to a higher level, the horizon stays far away again. I’m sure I don’t know everything. And even when I start to know something, as with the study I’m facing of the piano for example or production, the further away is the status I would like to achieve»

Even when it gets that high, like with your recent music achievements?
«I live in an artistic flow. Now I would like to become a full-fledged musician and curate my own music, at least in the early stages. I’m not a pianist but I’m no longer afraid of the piano, I’m master of the theory, I can finally get my hands on my music. But I’m still far from what I want to be.”

If Rkomi looks at 17-year-old Mirko who dreamed of music, what does he feel?
“I don’t watch it. I have always lived, especially the first three years, so quickly, following what I wanted to express with such enthusiasm that I never realized anything. Taking music lessons was bringing me back to the fears I had. But the relationship with the boys of X Factor it fueled my wanting to go back and start working again in a really impulsive way. Because when you get to a certain level things happen, you collaborate with super artists, you really risk canceling yourself. Now I feel in a moment where there is no camera or person to scare me. I just want to have my say, in my own way, maybe making mistakes, but without fear».

How do you keep yourself grounded in reality?
«They follow you on the street, in the restaurant they prevent you from paying, they invite you to parties: it is very easy to feel omnipotent. But I can’t do it. I’m attached to the people who have always been part of my life, I divide work and personal life well, doing all those little things that remind me where I started from. And what I want to be. It’s easy to surround yourself with people who say yes, but I can’t seem to do it. I have new acquaintances and friendships, which I really like, but I know how to choose them. I’ve always been good at that.”

So is there room for personal life?
«It is very contaminated, my work is very personal. But I’m trying to find the time. I have my house outside Milan, a gym, my dog. I am giving myself a lot to sport. I started swimming about a year ago and I won’t stop anymore, I keep playing football, I climb. That’s another rule that keeps me grounded.”

He is in love?
“The heart always finds something, maybe that’s the problem. But I have to learn to better understand what definition I give to love with a capital A, because maybe I’m starting to question this too. Maybe I idealized it. I know what would be more right to be, but my job doesn’t allow me. I compare the me of once, who had much more time and a normal job, and if I think of the me in love then, I will always lose the comparison because the number one love right now will always be music.

With Beatrice Quinta so she was alone a gag?
«Relationships have a thousand nuances and those who magnify things do not get poetry. I’d rather not talk about it”.

Let’s talk about its competitors, i French saints. What struck her?
“They know how to make the most of situations. They already knew the television dimension, they had already tried Friends, have always known how to see the beauty of this experience, I found them very aware. This attitude pays off.”

Now that the program is finished what will happen?
“They have the situation in hand. A great relationship has been created, as with the other members of the team. They won’t need my professional advice, but if they want human advice I’ll be there, and they know it. I would like to see them well in the future. They deserve it”.

You won/you didn’t win.
«I would have answered the same way also in the opposite case. I also said it on the show, if you’ve lost in life you don’t know how to sit in the place of the winners. A victory or a defeat is worth nothing if not the satisfaction of having lived three months of hard work. But then we start again, we start again every day. There’s no gold record that doesn’t make you think you have to start working again. There is no defeat or album that goes badly that doesn’t make you restart».

How do you experience the races?
«I’m very competitive, but never in music. There have been times when my repertoire was more niche, in the last couple of years it’s been the other way around. But I can’t live off competition, it hurts. In the past I have seen the malaise of my colleagues who, because of this, have not been able to manage their careers and their present. But they are a lot in sports, in discussions, bullshit. I always want to win there.”

Did you explain why you like it so much?
“I don’t even know if I’m liking it that much. I never look at what is said, in the end it’s not good. Sure, I realize it on the street, I feel the affection».

It’s on the radio right now Broken bones. There he says, “The only thing you can’t change is yourself.” For real?
«My philosophy says the exact opposite, yet I understood that there are irreplaceable things about your character. It can change the reaction you have in situations, when you feel like you have a pulse, and given the experience, you change the way. But the point remains that you don’t really change. I’ve lost weight, but I lived my childhood as a chubby boy. I will always have physical shyness. Being on stage is still an agony for me. I need at least nine minutes to feel free. This is why Sanremo is not my dimension and sooner or later I will do it again, to be more ready in the initial part of my performances, musical and oratory. Only by tackling the problems, can one change».

Has anyone ever broken her heart?
«Not the heart, unfortunately not. There have been moments the heart has been strained, but I would love to. It will happen, as soon as I know how to really give myself, as I do in other fields, it will also happen in relationships ».

Meanwhile the curtain has fallen, what happens now?
“I plan to travel a lot. In mid-January I already have a trip planned, then there will also be business trips. I will spend long periods outside, in the meantime I study».