Serena-Brancale_ph-Thom-Rever-2026-
Serena Brancale returns to Ariston for the 76th edition of the Sanremo Festival with Here with me an intimate and powerful song that marks a new stage in the singer's artistic journey.
After the echo of Anema and Corand in the last edition, Serena presented herself at the festival with a song that combines the strength of her vocality with the depth of personal memories, confirming herself as one of the most original and recognizable performers on the Italian musical panorama.
We met her during her approach to the Festival.
THE INTERVIEW
Serena, you will bring the song to the stage of the 76th edition of the Sanremo Festival Here with me. In this project you show a different side of yourself, even in your look. What is another aspect of yourself that you have always wanted to show, and why now?
I think this new side is a part of me that has always existed, but that I hadn't yet had the courage to fully bring to light.
Reflecting, I realized that, outside Italy, fifteen years ago, I took my first steps to understand what it meant to live and eat music, the first Sanremo was a sort of unconscious but necessary initiation.
Last year it was a party, my second Sanremo after ten years, and I brought with me a part of joy, of lightness.
This year, however, the awareness is different: I want to sing with sincerity, give space to my voice as the absolute protagonist.
The dress and the whole creative context are important, but the heart of the stage is the song and what I want to tell.
You are visibly excited even now. What kind of pressure do you feel about singing such an intense song, both vocally and emotionally?
Here with me it's a piece that tells something deeply mine: a memory of traveling with my mother.
It took six years to find the right words, because music also lives in silences, in breaths. I don't wear any mask, I don't play with colors, I want the voice to tell the truth, and this truth already excites me.
This morning, while I was watching the video clip, I felt even more strongly how much this song is part of me.
It is not a performance to entertain, it is a dedication, a memory that continues to hurt, but which I have transformed into happiness and sharing.
How do you imagine your performance in Sanremo? Are you afraid that pressure could play a trick on you?
I want to focus on one point, on the voice, not on the body. I don't want forced gestures, nor useless movements; I want every gesture to be natural, like a singer, like a dedication.
I thought about how to tell the piece without artifice: the voice close to the microphone, pure, with measured and sincere gestures.
There will be personal emotions that will accompany me, memories of my mother, my father, my brother: I don't have to pretend, I just want to sing with truth.
The performance will be simple but powerful, because it starts from who I really am.
How close do you feel to your mother during this experience?
I feel it every day, in my hands, in my smile, in my voice that becomes similar to his. It's not just faith, it's daily observation, it's living what she taught me. Every piece of advice he gave me can be found in my way of approaching music and life. For her, singing is continuing a dialogue, a bond that never ends.
What do you expect from this Sanremo, considering your artistic and personal growth?
I want to bring myself, without filters. The festival changes every year, but I don't want to be part of a game of colors or styles: I want to tell a story, my story. I don't set myself limits or fears regarding criticism: my concentration is on the performance, on the truth I want to convey, and on everything I've experienced to get to this moment.
THE LETTER
Every time I stop to think about what happened, a strange confusion comes over me, the kind that makes your head spin, like when you take a step convinced you'll find ground under your feet but no, emptiness.
Because, you see, I still can't figure out a real reason, the kind that settles inside you and you don't think about it anymore: that this thing happened to us.
I'm not saying this to complain, but because the head, sometimes, gets askew and doesn't want to understand, and the heart, unaware, goes after it.
Over time I have learned to live with it, no, because certain things are never fully accepted, even if we wanted to. But you live with it, yes, because life continues to move forward and you, like it or not, have to stay with it.
And I'll tell you something, which maybe will make you smile, like you did: I still feel you. I feel you in everything I do, even in the little things, the ones that don't count for anything, and yet do. I feel like you are an accomplice, as if you were giving me a half tip, a knowing look, without the need for words. Sometimes I think this is how you would do it. And then I feel calmer, as if I weren't really alone.
After more than five years, mother, I have decided to write you this letter.
I don't know if the letters reach where you are, nor if they need stamps or silences; but I entrust it to the air, with a song, with my voice, which the air, after all, knows how to find paths that we don't see.
I just wanted to tell you that I always think of you and to stay calm.
That I know, and I know with that certainty that needs no proof, that you are still “Here with me”.
Serena
WEB & SOCIAL
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