The actress Sofia Panizzi debuts as a singer with the single «Diluvio». In the interview he talks about the song as a liberation from intrusive thoughts and the desire to keep theatre, cinema and music together.
Sofia-Panizzi-2026
Those who run with headphones know: when the heart accelerates beyond a certain threshold, even the fastest piece seems to go in slow motion.
Sofia Panizzi uses this image to explain Flood, the single with which she made her debut as a singer, released on October 16: a song about emotions that beat so hard that they leave us still, and about the rain that serves to unblock them.
Roman, 28 years old, Sofia went from the cinema to the stage of «Add a place at the table. It was the musical that made her discover the voice as an instrument, and brought to light the voice memos she had always accumulated on her phone.
We talked with her about rain and deliverance, about refusing to choose between acting and singing, and about two records worth saving on an ark.
In Milan it was pouring until an hour ago, in Rome it happened tonight. These are the right days to talk about this release. What does «Deluge» represent for you?
These are things you reflect on immediately after a song with a title like that comes out. Suddenly you think: how many floods do I know in my life? The most famous one also came to mind, the first, the universal one. «Deluge» is the first expression of a part of me that has always been there but which, in a certain sense, was the last to arrive. I’m not talking about importance, because it has always been important. I’m talking about a decision: saying okay, this part exists, let’s get it out.
The single tells exactly this. A rain of very strong, conflicting emotions, difficult for each of us to digest, which at a certain point we wish to release. Most of all it is a feeling of liberation from the intrusive thoughts that tire us and prevent us from being what we are, what we cannot find the courage to be. The song and this new musical adventure of mine have this in common: they are two liberations that herald a new beginning.
Was there a Big Bang, a precise moment in which you said: now I make music? Or was it a natural process?
For as long as I can remember, and as long as I have had a recording medium, which today is the telephone but before perhaps it was those recorders that you journalists used for interviews, I have always recorded melodies that went through my head, hummed lyrics. It has always seemed normal to me to cultivate this part alongside my personal and professional life, almost like a passion and that’s it.
Ever since I decided to be an actress I have always hoped that there were opportunities where acting and music could meet. It didn’t happen until I got into “Add a Seat at the Table.” There I said to myself: I am an actress, but I am singing, I sing in such a long and complex show, and for the first time my voice is the subject of enormous attention.
The light bulb went on there: but I always wanted to sing. Being on stage singing isn’t something I just do now, I’ve always wanted to do it and in some way I always have. Those recordings on my phone, kept there forever, became something I could no longer leave alone. I don’t say hidden, because there is nothing to hide, but left there as if it had no voice, no power over me. Instead he always had a lot of it, and the answer was: now. It was an emergency. That too was a deluge.
A deluge too, then.
Exact. Enough, now this thing has to rain. Rain is a symbol of many things, of purification, of cleanliness, like the asphalt after a storm, with that perfume, so shiny. This rain was needed, and it helped me a lot. I am very happy with this step, but I want to specify: it does not exclude everything else. I’m an actress and I want to be an actress. If I’m not asking too much, I would like all this to be part of my professional background and my life forever. I’m probably asking a lot, but my desire is to keep everything together.
The visual aspect takes shape in the video, with a contrast of faces, figures and different personalities. How did you find yourself on the set of a music video?
The video clip was shot with all the conditions of cinema. On the one hand for the people who worked on it, who all come from that world, on the other for the approach. We thought of characters who are the internal voices of a person. Voices so different that they have different, extreme visual identities, which however represent something very tangible, very real, at least for what I describe as direct experience: contrasts, overbearing and strong voices within us. When all these voices take up so much space in the head, and even become violent, we find ourselves paralyzed in front of our own life.
Yesterday I thought of a way to explain this feeling. It happens to many, when you do physical activity and your heart speeds up, to listen to music at the same time. Even a song with high BPM, if your heart is beating very fast, seems slow, as if it’s not going at its real speed, in slow motion. It’s the feeling I want to tell with this song. The heart beats so fast, the sensations are so overwhelming, that you are slowed down and unable to be there for who you are.
Who is Sofia today?
Who I am today, I hope I can prove it wrong tomorrow. The changes that have occurred within me in the last ten years have been many and fundamental. I often think of the little girl I was as a teenager and I am happy with the road I have come, which has been long. I’m not talking about professional satisfaction or goals achieved, I’m talking about myself: the desire to sand myself down and discover myself every day with greater curiosity, even with fear, because when you look inside yourself you often get scared. I would tell everyone not to be afraid, because the more you dig into yourself, the more you free yourself from many burdens, from many intrusive and toxic thoughts.
Today I want to continue to discover myself, even to change, I hope so, and bring everything I’m going through into my musical project. Continuing to be an actress, a performer, and now a singer. This year proves it: I just co-starred in a series for Amazon Prime Video and I’m continuing the tour of «Add a seat at the table». The desire to be on a stage, in direct contact with the public, is there as an actress, and now even more so as a singer and interpreter of my pieces. I don’t want to leave anything out of the equation. I hope it is a resource and not a claim. Indeed, it is not a pretension: it is a newborn, rediscovered enthusiasm.
Last question. The flood arrives and on the ark, instead of pairs of animals, we load a pair of discs. Which ones do you save?
The first thing that comes to mind makes me feel enormously fond of myself as a young girl. As I told you, I wasn’t an extroverted girl, despite what I always wanted to do, or perhaps precisely because of that: the more you want to expose yourself, the more you punish yourself and hide. I was twelve years old and I was at a school camp, several days out with my class, and I was excluding myself. I don’t want to make judgements, kids are very fragile and shouldn’t be judged, but I kept to myself a lot. In those days I did nothing but listen to the collection of Queen’s hits: «I Want to Break Free», «I Want It All», «We Are the Champions», all those songs there, gripped by even exaggerated sensations, the inadequacy, the revolt, the desire to expose myself without succeeding. I definitely bring that.
The other still looks to the past, because I’m nostalgic. As a child I danced very late at night, I went out at half past eight, nine, and my grandfather came to pick me up. He listened to Mina, she was his favorite. I would bring a Mina record.
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