“TANA” is Angelica Bove's first official album. A record that was born as a space of subtraction even before that of affirmation: a mental and sonic place in which to take shelter, observe, take a breath.
But it would be reductive to read it as a simple debut album. TANA is rather a threshold, the point at which a human journey sedimented over time finally finds a public, exposed, shareable form.
Angelica's entry to the Sanremo Festival 2026, among the New Proposals, with Brick it is not the outcome of a strategy, but rather the natural consequence of an expressive need. A song that functions as the symbolic foundation of the entire project: building starting from weight, transforming fragility into structure.
Curated in the artistic direction by Federico Nardelli, who signs the nine tracks together with Matteo Alieno and Angelica herself, TANA rejects superfluous ornamentation and chooses essentiality as a political and emotional act.
In this interview Angelica Bove talks about the need for solitude as a form of self-defense, the conflictual relationship with judgement, the urgency of bringing only one's own story to the stage. Without generational poses, without spokesperson ambitions. Just a voice that exposes itself, aware that every “den”, sooner or later, becomes a place from which to escape.
THE INTERVIEW
This is your first recording project. Where did it come from and what type of path does it represent for you?
This first album was born from two years of very intense journey, both human and artistic. I asked myself many questions, hopefully the right ones, and I met the right people.
For me this album is the summary of fundamental meetings in my life, in particular those with Matteo Alieno and Federico Nardelli.
The first real magic of the album, in addition to its being autobiographical, was precisely the human union: we found each other, there was warmth, familiarity, a feeling of home.
All this then naturally translated into music.
How decisive was the musical harmony with them?
Very, very much. There was immediately a very strong human connection with Matteo, we have known each other for three or four years. Federico arrived later, but it was he who put the definitive point on a musical harmony that already existed. In the studio we immediately felt at home, also because we are all Romans, and this created a very natural, almost familiar atmosphere.
In the live show you open with “Mattone”. Why exactly this song?
Because as the ending of the song says, a brick is used to build. For me that phrase contains the whole meaning of the human journey which then became music. “Brick” is the first brick of this project, but above all of my life. It is the weight that becomes the first step in building something.
You defined this work as totally autobiographical. How did the writing of the songs come about?
It all started before the recording studio. It was born from a thousand chats with Matteo, who, in addition to being an author I respect enormously, is my best friend. He was the container of all my emotions, of that whirlwind of thoughts which then, almost by chance, turned into songs. From there Tana was born. This album is made of outbursts, stories, pieces of life.
“Antipatica” is one of the most emblematic songs. Where did it come from?
“Unpleasant” is not something personal in the strict sense, it is more the symbol of the judgment of others. In my 22 years I have understood that judgment is often nothing more than personal taste. The song tells my way of dealing with it: with irony, with lightness. I walk away from it, I cut it off, as they say in Rome. It is a self-deprecating response to those who live following very rigid rules, to those who need everything to be perfect and planned. I am the opposite, not very disciplined, and for this reason I have often been judged in the past.
The theme of loneliness often returns in your lyrics.
Yes, he is a constant presence. Mine is a sought-after but also suffered solitude, I have a conflictual relationship with her. I still don't know if I need to fix it or if it's okay. In the songs I also talk about my need to look for someone to fill the gaps, often a man, a lover. These figures almost always end up being the mirror of what I need in that moment: a refuge that I am looking for and that perhaps I no longer have.
From a sound point of view the album is very contaminated. What were the musical references?
More than precise references, it was a natural flow of needs. Mine was to sing my story, I needed to express myself like this. Federico, with his enormous musical culture, instead had the need to build a certain type of sound. When he told me about it the first time I trusted him completely, and I did well. That sound immediately became my home, even though it was totally new to me. For musical references, I risk confusing you, but I really listen to everything. I start from meditative frequencies, 432 Hz, ambient music to calm me down. Then I move on to techno, pure chaos, drum and bass – especially in the morning, to remind me that I'm alive. There's also a lot of English pop, rock, soft rock, but I admit that I'm not very good at categorizing genres. 99% of the music I listen to is instrumental, not sung. Maybe everything except what I sing. A top 3? I don't have it yet, I need to take time to think about it.
Looking back, what did your first major experience on stage leave you with?
The most important question I've asked myself over the years has simply been: who am I? At 22 years old I think it's inevitable to ask yourself this. I still feel like an emotional teenager, but at a certain point I felt the need to understand what kind of person I wanted to be and with what intentions. The answer was: a human being with the best possible intentions. Everything else started from there. When you visualize what you want to become, you almost scientifically do everything to build it. The first time on stage was very educational, as well as beautiful.
A strong generational restlessness can also be felt in your lyrics. Do you feel invested with a responsibility in telling it?
I don't know if I feel like giving myself the role of spokesperson, it's too great an honor. I still have to figure out what to do with myself. But it is an enormous privilege to be listened to. If someone, listening to my songs, feels less alone in their pain or anxiety, it is an honor for me. It makes us human, it brings us closer.
This album seems to have been designed above all for live performances. What should we expect after the release?
This record was written to be sung live. There is no other plan. Expect live, especially live. Everything else, for now, I don't know yet. But yes, absolutely.
THE RECORD TRACK BY TRACK
1. HIM
It talks about the weight of loneliness and the need to invent someone to have next to you, an imaginary man to fill a huge void. However, going deeper, that figure takes on another meaning: the man who searches for himself in solitude has the face of someone who no longer exists. What remains is an even more unbridgeable void and a feeling of loneliness that seems to have no end.
2. GOING AROUND WITH THE CAR
It tells of the light chaos of relationships and of a mind that never stays still. It is the portrait of the constant transition from boredom to distraction and vice versa, using irony to cover continuous mood swings, the desire to escape, to play, to provoke, but always without taking oneself really seriously. Between everyday situations, thoughts that suddenly strike you and phrases said in jest, the song moves between the desire for connection and the desire to disappear, between the need to still feel small and the dream of an island of my own. It is confused, spontaneous and imperfect, just like certain bonds that I experience and like me.
3. UNLIKEABLE
It's about refusing to fit in and pretending to be nice to someone who experiences everything with heaviness. I distance myself, with irony, from those who judge, from those who complicate things and from ridiculous rules. Tiredness isn't just physical, it's emotional: the need to turn everything off, unplug, laugh instead of arguing and disappear for a while without explanation. While the world argues, I turn up the music, lock myself in a bubble and get out of it. It's the use of sarcasm as a form of defense and levity as a choice: today I don't feel like it, and I don't have to justify it.
4. DEN
It tells of the desire, sometimes distorted, to disappear from the world and remain at peace with oneself, even just for a few hours, in one's own den, and dream. It's a song about emotional tiredness, about the sense of uselessness you sometimes feel and about relationships that die without even a clear reason. Between irony, self-sabotage and the desire for isolation, each of us closes ourselves in our own den, takes space and allows ourselves a holiday from the outside world.
5. GOOD LIKE THIS
It speaks of finding oneself and losing oneself, of bonds that end precisely in the moments when everything seemed most fragile. It's a song about accepting the end, about the pain that accompanies breakups and how fate always chooses the worst moments to make them happen. Amid confusion, sudden farewells and emotions that slip away, there remains the awareness that certain bonds leave indelible marks, even when everything seems over.
6. HOLY
Between irony and discomfort, he talks about isolation as a form of defense: people who hurt you, the paranoia that sticks around you, the difficulty of “fixing yourself” as you always promise yourself. Between chaotic thoughts and ups and downs, the awareness remains that nothing goes right and that's okay.
7. JOKING LAUGH YOU STUPID
It talks about how quickly we are capable of falling in love with someone and how, at the same speed, we are capable of forgetting them, about the games of distance and closeness that love brings with it. It tells of the desire to fill the silences of the other, to say in his place the words he doesn't dare say, together with the desire to provoke him, to see how small he can be in the face of his own feelings. Between kisses, playful arguments and reflections on the heart as an elastic muscle, the awareness emerges that love can be sweet, complicated and fragile at the same time.
8. BRICK
Mattone represents the unbearable weight of two deaths that marked my life in a tragic and definitive way. It is the story of the discomfort of living with a pain bigger than me, within a system that I have always perceived as incapable of welcoming it. A pain that made me fragile and helpless in my relationship with the world, with myself and with loss. It speaks of an impotence which, at the beginning, tore away my voice, but which over time rewrote it, making me die and then reborn.
9. YOU WILL FIND ME BACK
It talks about letting go, about wishing the best to those you love, even when your heart would like the opposite, because perhaps this is precisely the most authentic act of love. It tells of the pain and tenderness of a bond that resists only in small corners of the universe, between memories to be rewritten and worries to fight.
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