Succeeding unexpectedly and quickly seems like a dream, but it often turns into a nightmare. Lorenzo Fragola knows this well and, at a very young age, he won in X factor and, after a period at the height of the wave, he found himself facing an emotional breakdown. He said it today, that he finally managed to escape from this abyss.
Lorenzo Fragola and defeat after success
When Lorenzo Fragola arrived at X factor he was very young, had just finished school and had no professional experience: “I was making music, but I wasn’t one of those people who had moved up the ladder, played in clubs or went to a recording studio , I was doing it for me,” he told a podcast guest Stories of the offshore generation. Then the audition and the most anticipated call: “We were at the supermarket, we were shopping, they called me and I was excited, maybe she (the girl at the time, editor’s note) more than me. We were excited, very happy and on the way back we spilled the oil. I don’t know if it was a coincidence.”
And fame came even before the victory of the talent competition, in which Fragola was always the favorite: “I entered with a favorable prognosis, I didn’t feel it but the others continued to say it, as well the judges and the competitors. They loaded me with too many expectations, I felt responsibilities I wasn’t ready foralso because I had written a song and that was it.” But everyone was right, victory came and his life changed radically.
From his native Catania, Lorenzo moved to Milan, “there was a very cool music scene and I experienced the Milan of the cover, not the Milan of the off-site. – he confided – I didn’t experience it. I experienced that at professional events it was work and that’s it I thought: I hope I get to a point where I can leave. I started to carry with me the burden that Milan. forced me to perform.” An adult life: “I missed a part of my age, the most beautiful part, the part made of university, new friendships and other things. At 19, I had to become professional, I had a manager, and at that age it was complicated.”
Until it’s too much: “I collapsed mentally. I felt bad insideso I said to myself ok I’ll start again, I’m happy that music is my life, but I need to get back the things that I lost. I’m almost done with my ex, my manager and my brother. I took away all the responsibilities and the only one I took on was taking care of myself.”
The return to Catania and love rediscovered
After a difficult period, Lorenzo Fragola chose to return to Catania, the city where he was born and raised. “I reconnected with my father and let go of some of the responsibilities I had taken on to stand up for myself and start over.” And here love has also returned, like ten years agoof the young girl who accompanied and supported him in his rise to success: “We were lost for ten” but, as Antonello Venditti sings, some loves simply “take immense turns and then come back”.
And when it comes to his career, the singer-songwriter is calm: “Now I’m not afraid to stay out of the game. As you get older, you no longer want to play to be first, but to do well and be happy with what you do.”