When it came out in 2019 Life reallyFulminacci was 22 years old, a debut album that would have won the Targa Tenco and «the performance anxiety that permeates this work, especially if you're into it like me». Today Filippo Uttinacci, this is his real name, is in his third Sanremo before the age of thirty (one as a guest in duets with Gazzelle), four albums behind him and a new chapter called Rubblethe album out Friday 13 March.
The biggest rubble that he has learned to manage in recent years, however, he explained to us is not the musical one but the emotional one: «Compared to my beginnings I have changed a lot on a human level, I am able to relax more. Before, I had a lot of anxiety facing every situation. Now I'm enjoying it, because I've been lucky and it's wonderful to be on stage singing the songs I write. I'm participating in the most beautiful game in the world.” And already in the word “game” there is the attitude that made him change: «I never expected all this. When the next album comes out I will be 30 years old and we can already talk about a small career. And three participations in Sanremo are a lot at this age, in fact I often reflect on it.”
Just as he reflects on why it happened to him: «Maybe I ended up in the right historical period, which allowed me to be appreciated and known as I wanted. Furthermore, I have an audience that listens to me with great passion and in a complete way, not that only knows the singles. It's the aspect of my career I'm most proud of.” And he gives sincere advice to young people: «To understand what you are strong in and what you are not strong in. He often underestimates himself, because maybe one has a lot of friends who always tell him well done. It's important that the people around you tell you the truth, otherwise you'll hit a wall. And it is also a waste of time that creates great disappointment and frustration. There is a need for more honesty and fewer circumstantial compliments”
The first Sanremo, in 2021, was an episode apart: pandemic, Ariston without an audience and an unreal atmosphere. But Fulminacci took advantage of the opportunity to learn: «I didn't believe that on TV, before performing, you had to wait for hours while you were eaten up by anxiety, with the song then lasting a second. Go out and ask: “Did it last that short?”. At first you feel like you're not enjoying the moment. Instead you have to enjoy it and give everything, otherwise the people at home won't get anything.”
It's a lesson he carries with him today, when he enters the competition at the 2026 Festival with Stupid bad lucka song that will be included in the new album and which upon first listening has received great acclaim among journalists and professionals: «I am happy and I arrive at Sanremo knowing that the song is liked by those who work with music. In this first step at least I understood that it's not just me who likes the song, which is no small thing. Then the public can change everything, because people don't think only from a technical point of view but with their hearts.” Does being one of the favorites bother him? Not at all: “I don't believe in superstition, you can say anything, whether I'll win or finish last.”
After the Festival the album awaits him, Rubblewhich already from the title sounds like an emotional reportage of the society that surrounds it. The album goes through farewells, escapes, unresolved relationships and desires that change shape, alternating irony and melancholy, between pop sounds, electronic details and acoustic moments. The production is almost entirely curated by Golden Years, who will accompany him as conductor on the Ariston stage, with a single exception in Nothing amazing entrusted to Okgiorgio. Inside there are also two collaborations: Franco126 in Fantasy 2000 and Tutti Phenomena in Mythomaniacs. «It is a world in which we must accept that there is rubble. And take on the responsibility of rebuilding and putting back together to create new handles to hold on to”, he told us. And the rubble is not only intimate, but collective. «A lot of terrible things continue to happen in the world. Even when good things happen, bad things continue to happen. We are witnessing dynamics that are not good, where humanity is put in the background. There is a tendency towards the dominion of ignorance and violence. Throughout history there has always been this tendency, it makes me sad that ignorant and violent people almost always win.”
He has not even escaped the controversies of recent weeks, such as the one involving Ghali at the Olympics, and underlined why he does not feel like a muzzled artist: «I have always been lucky enough to move in a circuit that has allowed me to exist as I am. I've always said everything publicly, there's everything in my records and those who listen to them understand very well what I think. Those who work with me have always allowed me to do as I please and my audience has always chosen me and understood me for who I am. And I will continue to do so forever.” While on Eurovision, in the event of victory, he has not yet made a decision like Levante who, however, if Israel were present, announced that he would not participate: «I don't think I will win, but if this luxurious problem were to happen to me I will face the Eurovision issue. I'm not thinking about it at the moment.”
Meanwhile, on the covers evening he will go on stage with Francesca Fagnani to reinterpret Words words of Mina. It was therefore inevitable to ask him what beast he feels like: «A raccoon, which is an animal I am particularly attached to. He freezes when he is caught red-handed stealing food, too nice. I recognize myself and it makes me very tender.” After Sanremo, his journey will continue in the sports halls with the Palazzacci Tour 2026, four dates between Rome, Naples, Milan and Florence which mark another step in his artistic growth.
