Tra Country cousins, Paola and Chiara and Gianluca Grignani, at the Sanremo Festival did you miss something fresher, younger and more modern? Well, Rosa Chemical – real name Manuel Franco Rocati – is here to serve you. With her Made in Italya song with electronic sounds, the 25-year-old artist brings a breath of air to the Ariston stage freshness.
For the artist it is «an infinite emotion to be at the festival and I thank everyone for the opportunity and I can’t wait to show everyone my world and my thoughts». But it is not her first time at the Ariston: in 2022 she had a duet with Tananai in the evening cover with the song Making love begins you by Raffaella Carrà.
«I have often performed on different stages, in front of different audiences“, has explained. However, the Ariston is «another thing: i am very anxious. Last year I wasn’t in the race, yet I was about to pass out. Because of this, I planned a psychologist, singing lessons and yoga».
The song, as Rosa Chemical himself said, «is a song that serves to eliminate all the wrong Italian stereotypes that exist in this country. Puts in front love, sex, freedom, equality, respect».
It was born, he continues, «to give a word to everyone who thinks like me, to give a voice. It’s not an easy song because it is not easy to tell Italy that there is another type of thought compared to what is rooted in our society.
The song is filled with «Italian emotionlaid tables, parents, grandparents, relatives who debate and have their say on the performances, on the message and on the artists’ look», he explained.
Rosa Chemical is «for the constructive debate, I try to learn from what is different from me. I think Italy with this song needs reflect and open your mind».
Initially the artist had proposed two pieces, which were rejected, «but I was asked to send another one, that it wasn’t a watered down Chemical: they really wanted me. I thought about Made in Italywhich I had already composed, renewing it in sound».
It is a piece «that was not born specifically for Sanremo, but to talk about things that touch me and for lay my soul bare. Although it may seem like a piece at first dancergoing deeper it can be identified that I’m talking about sexualitybut also of topics such as confidence”».
On the cover night, however, Rosa Chemical will duet with Rose Villain in the song America (Gianna Nannini, 1979).
The career of Rosa Chemical
Rosa Chemical – the nickname derives from the union between the mother’s name Rosa (to which it is very close: “I had a mom, not a dad. I don’t know what it’s like to have a traditional family») e My Chemical RomanceAmerican emo-rock group that forged it stylistically – releases its first single Kournikova in 2018.
In 2020 his biggest hit, the single, is released Polkain collaboration with Thelonious Bwhich anticipates the first album, foreverreleased on May 29, 2020. «Polka is the song that he was the most successful of all and that most represents me,” he said. “IS special».
The passion for music began when he was a child. “I think it’s a dream matured since childhoodI always been immersed in music and, even growing up, I always listened to a lot of them».
Being a lot «empatheticI reflected in many song lyrics: I decided that I no longer wanted to be the user of other people’s emotions but what created them. Even when I was doing graffiti this was my intention, but the scope of my message was limited to a wall».
He hears of «always been an artist, even before picking up a microphone», he said about his beginnings. «I come from hip-hop, I came to music through a creative ladder: I shot jams, I did writing, I painted and I was a tattoo artist».
Rosa Chemical in Sanremo youth 2022. (IPA)
The thousand “plans B” of Rosa Chemical
Then, when he moved to London to study graphic design, he had his first contact with the trap. “I have met music during my stay in London“, has explained.
After two months, however, «I had ran out of money and spent my savings to buy equipment to make music. I felt I had something to say. There I conceived my first EP, Okay Okay!!. When I returned to Italy I started to get into gear».
With no money, he had to look for work in London. “To keep me, sI was hired by a butcher. But I lasted three days. The second day I was already seriously injuredI became a vegetarian and realized that no job could do for me. I realized that I should have find a way to support myself with art».
In 2019 he began collaborating with Greg Willen, with whom he released the single Overturned. Follows another successful song born from the collaboration with Radical, Tik Tok – in the top 50 most played songs – and then the second album, forever.
Sanremo, 72nd. In the photo Tananai with Rosa Chemical. (IPA)
Fashion lover
Former Gucci model, Rosa Chemical said that fashion «is always been an obsession for me, one more way, beyond art and music, to tell those who look at me that I have style, that I’m different even in this».
He always tried totake the rules to break them at will, since the days when I was feeling gabber and looking for the most stylish Australian blouses. Or, in the phase metalheadI wanted longer studs, the coolest trench coats, the blackest eyeshadows».
A metal look by Rosa Chemical. (IPA)
Now go through moments when «I feel more feminineand therefore I look for a bag by Valentino or a jacket by Prada, to others in which I perceive myself more male and dress “full” Saint Laurent or go with a Maison Margiela look. I am a lover of everything what brings an innovation».
Today, if «I have to go shopping I have to go out all full of glitter. I can’t help it, I’m an exhibitionist.’
However, his eccentric looks as a kid did not go unnoticed. At the start “it was a bit difficult, because in any case I grew up in a small town with 16,000 inhabitants. I was a bit there black sheep, with long hair and dressed as a woman».
Rosa Chemical said he was «teased very often. Now the same people who they bullied me they write me in DMs on Instagram “Hey hello! Do you remember me?”.
Rosa Chemical and ambiguity
For the topics covered and her over-the-top looks (with colored nail polish, skirts and make-up), Rosa Chemical has always had around her an aura of ambiguity. Even at the level sexual.
“For me there is no distinction between hetero, bi, homo or trans sexuality» he said. «Okay, traditional love And heterosexual. But if I told you that you can love several people at the same time? They are possibilities that I myself live».
“I’m in an open relationship”
On her skin: «I have one open relationship with my girlfriend, she can have sex with others, just as I can. The true treason is to betray trust. I would never be in a monogamous relationship, one person is not enough for me».
Regarding sex, «no one will ever know what I like. It’s my business. I do not hide that i like to have sexI’ve always done a lot of it.”
The reality, he explained, is that “i feel differentbut what bothers me and made me think is that feeling different I didn’t feel wronginstead people have the habit of judging everything that is different as wrong».
The future of Rosa Chemical
But what will be the future that Rosa Chemical imagines for itself? First of all, «thanks to my past, I think I having given life not only to songs, but to a charactera world with a coherent aesthetic».
Then, more pragmatically, it was given «ten years in musicand in this period of time I would like to work in the field at 360 degrees. Getting on televisionperhaps through the cinema signing soundtrackscurate the artistic projects of important brands, work with fashion or produce other artists».
In a nutshell, «I would like to do like football players, earn a lot in a short time». When you find out how to do it, Rosa Chemical, maybe pass us the recipe…