“Everything is fine, mom is here with us” Thus begins Ghali, having just gone on stage at the Teatro Manzoni in Milan. In the audience there are women, patients and former patients, of the European Institute of Oncology, gathered for the usual meeting wanted for the first time by the oncologist Umberto Veronesi and now a consolidated tradition that continues even after his passing, albeit with a new name: no longer ‘Ieo for women’, but ‘Ieo with women’. It is a way for the rapper to exorcise “emotion”. , he explains, immediately declaring his feelings shyly, when he talks about his mother Amel’s illness – a breast tumor – at the beginning he talks about it as “that thing that happened”.
“I was thinking of preparing a little speech, but you can’t prepare for some things,” he smiles. It’s a story that “started many years ago – he says – and over the years I have also noticed the difference in how it is dealt with now. I went through this thing for the first time in 2001. It was another time, other treatments, also another moment for me and her. But, once we got over it, everything changed for the better. Many things changed in me, in us, in our lives.” Amel’s illness came at a difficult time. Ghali was a child, he attended elementary school. “In the meantime they had evicted us, we had no home. But it was crazy how, as soon as I got over it, everything got better. A light entered our lives, they gave us the house, I started living in the neighborhood that then raised me and that gave us so much creativity and strength: Baggio, my neighborhood. Faith entered, I started to believe a lot in God. My passion for music was ignited. We came out great.”
Then, however, continues Ghali, “after many years we thought we would leave it behind us, but during Covid it came back. And we were lucky enough to be followed by incredible and fantastic doctors who saved us once again, I thank them and I applaud them. I have so much admiration for you, you inspire me so much and you are also an example. My mom always wanted me to become a pilot or a doctor“, he admits, sparking the audience’s hilarity, also underlined by the comment of the actress Lella Costa, next to him on the stage: “Thank goodness you didn’t listen to her”.
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