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by Antonella Alba 13 June 2020A week ago the demonstration against racism in Piazza del Popolo in Rome. Hundreds of protesters, especially young people, artists and students, who wanted to make their voices heard despite the threatening presence of Covid, respectful of safety distances and wearing a mask. ' Silence is violence' 'silence is violence' one of the slogans chosen - among the key concepts of Martin Luther King - to say no to racism and to join the protests ignited all over the world after the death of African American George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of a white policeman, on May 25th. 'I cant breathe'the words of Floyd before the asphyxiation, which gave the name to the protest considered among the most heartfelt and violent in recent years in the US, also due to the coronavirus pandemic that has brought the country to its knees and especially the most fragile layers of the society. A disturbing paradox is that of not being able to breathe because of the violent hand on civil rights and in the same way because of an unknown virus which, in its deadly race, however, makes no difference between black and white.We met Sherol Dos Santos 23 years old, a singer of Cape Verdean origins born in the outskirts of Rome, the success at the European Music Contest, the Pope also heard his voice, which was the revelation of X Factor in 2018.
She was in Piazza del Popolo last Saturday?
No, I was not able to go for work, but I saw it later and it was beautiful, I saw many people, many young people. I read that in Rome alone there are 1,500 cases of racial violence per year. I was pleased to see that an event dedicated to George Floyd has also been organized in Italy, it cannot be a protest linked only to the Americans, but it has the urgency to be a protagonist all over the world.
Do you think something can change?
I am confident, I see a perspective of change that leads us into a future in which these things no longer happen or at least that the episodes of racism and racial hatred are drastically reduced.
After years of civil rights struggles, racism is still so dramatically alive.
When I saw the video of George Floyd's death I was obviously shocked. Afterwards, with a cold mind, I thought it was only the last of many. Racism has existed since before I was born, if we think of Martin Luther King or Mandela about what they did to black people, it is absurd that as Obama said it still happens today in 2020. For me it is like a crime against the whole of humanity, a crime that goes beyond everything, abominable. I come to think that he, George Floyd, has made yet another sacrifice for others so that this revolt may have arisen and put an end to this injustice, to this fear. For me it is unacceptable that a black person lives with the fear of not being able to go home alive, we cannot feel inadequate for the color of our skin. Is absurd.
You have traveled around Europe with your voice
Even in Europe, in England, France, Belgium there are these forms of racism, unfortunately. I was the first to suffer racism in Italy, at school for example, in elementary school, they would throw me things in the canteen, they would say 'ah monkey', I remember that my mother gave me a colored doll to make me feel proud of my origins and I remember one day that I took her to school with me as that doll was ruined by some of my peers, they destroyed it, it was just a doll, but it meant a lot to me. Even as an adult I sometimes felt almost innocently ask "Are you from Cape Verde? why don't you go back there It's so beautiful "or" Madonna how do you speak well "," how many years have you been Italian? ". During X Factor I heard "with all the Italian girls who are there, do we have to bring in a foreign and colored girl?". You see I was born in Italy, but I repeat I think those questions are 'innocent errors', today I don't take it anymore, but before I felt wrong, then everything changed with age.
What has changed?
I waited so long for citizenship which then turned 18. At the registry office you have to prove that you were born and raised in Italy and then they have to evaluate if it is okay. The problem is that up to 18 years of age you don't know who you are, so you wonder 'maybe I'm Italian or maybe not? ". Now I know who I am but I believe that the underlying growth principle doesn't help, it's wrong.
How important is the suburbs where it grew up?
I grew up in San Cleto which is not exactly San Basilio, it is a more unknown neighborhood near San Basilio. There I found my desire for redemption, even though I found myself well and I respect the place where I come from because my family is there.
Did your parents agree with your desire to sing?
They supported me immediately. My mother. It was she who took me to Santa Cecilia to enroll in the chorus of white voices I was part of, then the Gospel choirs came from professionals. At 8 I was singing in the parish, he understood that I knew how to sing. But it was clear: I also had to study, that was our deal. I attended the scientific high school and at the same time I created a band, after X Factor (2018 ed) I continue to study Communication Sciences at the University. And if I make a choice, I carry it all the way.
How was your passion for singing born?
From my mother and father, she sang and he played the piano, but not professionally he renovated houses, while she worked in a nursery. Then my father went to live elsewhere, I was 10 years old and my brother 6. When I was a child I tried to imitate the singers I listened to. In particular, I liked an aria from Mozart's 'Queen at night' played by Luciana Serra.
Have they compared his voice to that of Beyoncè and Aretha Franklyn, how do you respond?
I can't answer, they are my idols, I have always admired their emotional charge, being compared to such sacred monsters is an honor, I don't feel like this but I want to do more, but I don't know if I will go that far .
As a soloist, how do you define yourself Pop, Rock, Jazz?
I have trouble defining myself because I like so many different things, even though I understand that I should choose one to go more targeted. I like to experiment, maybe I'm a little Pop a bit Are & Be, even Rock, I do everything to not make a decision (laughs)
She played an all-Italian 80s cult film signed Raf, a success, because that's what ?
It is a song that I have always liked and with my producer Marco Del Bene we had fun twisting it in a Rock key, for me it was a duty to make a cover of that song, it gave me a crazy charge, I am glad I returned it to who listened to it.
The pandemic had a different impact on artists, there are those who have closed and failed to create and who reacted instead, how did it go?
I reacted both ways, I didn't publish much on social media, but I tried to keep in touch with the people who follow me. Then together with my producer we made 'Resilienza 2020' an all-instrumental album of about twenty songs, in which I sing a piece entitled 'Codogno', one of the cities most affected by Covid, a very exciting song.
During isolation I tried to write my own songs a Rock and an Are & Be.
Tell us more.
One is called 'Dimensionless'. In this pandemic I found myself living in a world as 'dimensionless', a world that is no longer the same as before, at any moment we all stayed inside the house without feeling the normalcy of the first, living in fear of being infected or to infect in our turn, the whole text is attached to a love speech, I think you will hear it soon.