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Styled By: @roxanne.katherine.
Giorgia Bortoli is a Dance Pop singer, songwriter and artist from Liverpool. With super catchy lyrics and deep bass beats she mixes positive affirmations and her experience of growing up in a marginalised body to spread body positivity and self love to all. Giorgia has been compared to such artists as Lizzo and Kylie Minogue. Lizzo is a big inspiration to Giorgia, proving that loving your self at any size and spreading that love through music can be accepted by mainstream society in so many ways. She has also found inspiration in artists such as: Marina, Miley Cyrus, Dolly Parton and Nina Simone, who use their writings to tell stories and invoke social change. Giorgia is a brand new artist who has been busy expanding her following with performances all over the Merseyside region and beyond. Notable performances include; All in The Same Boat at Bloom Building with @wherearethegirlbands, Soul City in Manchester with Rebel Riot Records, Fresh on a Sunday in Rochdale at The Empire, Support act for Patrick Saint James' UK Tour at Jimmys Liverpool and First on Weekender at Birkenhead’s Future Yard, as well as many more, including charity events. Giorgia's debut single Summer Body will be released June 2022, a perfect tune for the summer about accepting and loving your body exactly as it is.
"Ditch the fear, embrace yourself and love the skin you're in!"
Thank you for taking this interview! How has the New Year been for you so far as an artist? Thank you for wanting to interview me! I have been working super hard to put myself out there since the new year. I started gigging and sharing my music with the world just before Christmas and have since spent time performing in different venues across merseyside and beyond. I have been working on redoing my demos so they’re ready for release, I’ve just finished my first single 'Summer Body' and I am now planning photoshoots and video shoots to accompany it. I am so excited to share it properly with the world! Can you tell us how you've transformed from the beginning to now as an artist? I have been writing songs and poetry since I can remember, I started putting them with music when I was 14/15 years old but I have never been happy or felt like I could fit into a genre or had anything of any importance to say, till now. I lost a lot of confidence in my abilities and myself, I have spent the last few years working on my self worth. As someone who’s grown up in a fat body I had to work on my body love as well. Over the past few years I have been getting more into body positivity taking part in @the.realcatwalk in London to show all bodies are worthy and from there I started plus size modelling. I never thought that my journey could be something I could explore through my music till last year. I used to write a lot of acoustic dream folk but as someone who always wants to be unique I always felt like there were too many other artists out there doing the same thing. I started to experiment with more synths, beats and loops to create a more dance pop, disco sound and I feel like a lot of independent artists aren’t into that kind of sound. How did you come up with your latest project? Last year I took part in some zoom workshops around body image/positivity/neutrality run by my friend @khrystyana the founder of @the.realcatwalk and we spoke about a lot of things centered around the way we view ourselves and our body. Also how we can creatively find a way to shift the negative narrative we create and society creates. We talked a lot about imposter syndrome and how we are our own worst enemy and how to find ways to stop that negative voice in our heads. From these workshops I wrote a song called 'Beauty Lies'. This song is meant to be sung, like a mantra, and I hope it will be used to dismantle the toxic beauty standards we have within our society. After writing this song, I knew this was the path I wanted to take in my writing. This collection of songs which will be released later this year is about my experience with fatphobia, body positivity, love, loss and hoodoo, mixed with a beat you can’t help but move to. My aim is to uplift and inspire all who listen to realise their true beauty and worth. Where are you from originally? I am half Venetian (Venice, Italy) and half Scouse (Liverpool, UK) aka Venetian Scouser. Born and raised in Liverpool with Venice being my home away from home. Where do you live now? Still here, in my Liverpool home! Do you think where you live impacts how your music is made? Yes! I have grown up in a council house with a single mother who is partially disabled. We have struggled economically since I can remember and still do. Everything I’ve created has been DIY and on a really low budget. I scrimp and save my pennies so I can buy equipment and time in a studio. It's hard but I think doing it this way I have had to learn a lot, like, how to do lots of technical and creative things myself, how to work on a small budget and how to rely on myself. Musically, I have been brought up with a lot of different genres spanning from rock, country, jazz and folk but I have to say Liverpool is known for its nightlife and club scene. The indie music scene is still going but what’s been getting bigger over the years is the dance music scene, mainly with DJs and I hope to reach dance music and pop lovers through my original music. What was the inspiration to make music your career? Ever since I can remember I have always wanted to sing. There has never been another option. My mum always sang to me, my family would get together in my nans and would all sing together in the living room. My mum said that when I was about 4 months old I hummed twinkle twinkle little star to her as she fixed my star mobile on my cot, so singing has always been a part of my life. A few years ago I would have settled for being a cover singer in bars and for events, I actually still do this with my 'Jazz with Giorgia’ act, which I love to do and is a way of earning money doing what I love singing great songs, but also allows me to invest in myself and create the music and lyrics I actually want to be known for. I don’t think it was until I heard Lizzo that I actually thought a plus size girl could be a ‘pop star’. She definitely gave me the confidence to go for it and showed me that telling my story through music could help so many and still be accepted by the mainstream media. How do you want to shape your career? I want to continue to make music that can spark change whether that’s social change or individual change. I want to continue to expand my community of people who are mainly plus size, disabled, LGBTQ+ and POC. Individuals who wouldn’t fit into society’s expectations and offer opportunities in the creative field. Whether that’s as a dancer, producer, MUA etc. I want to lift others as I rise, and have my music be recognised and reach people all over the world. Do you work on a tight timeline always or do you go with the flow when it comes to your music? I am very go with the flow type of gal. When it is necessary I stick to a timeline but I won’t beat myself up if I don’t finish the tasks. I think that it's hard to be creative when you give yourself restrictions, usually the best stuff comes when you’re more relaxed and it's like a spark where everything just feels and sounds right. How did your latest title of your music come to be? My debut single ‘Summer Body’ was the 5th song I wrote for this project. I wrote it while sunbathing in the garden, I created a simple track and the lyrics just flowed out so easily, I love it when that happens. Hot summer days, where I’m out in nature, really inspire me and get the creative juices flowing. I wanted to write something about the sun touching my skin and it turned into being about embracing your body exactly as it is, especially in the summertime. We all get fed this narrative by the media that if you’re over a certain size you “shouldn’t” wear a bikini, crop tops, shorts etc. but that should not be the case. This song is meant to empower those that listen to wear the bikini, go and enjoy yourself on the beach. Don’t shrink yourself and hide away because life is meant to be enjoyed at every stage and in every body. I decided that ’Summer Body’ would be my first single, I worked with a female producer to re-record my demo and it is now ready for release. ‘Summer Body’ is out 09/06/2022 on all streaming platforms. Is it hard to let go of the music when it is done? Yes! It’s really hard for me to let go because there’s always a part of me saying it's not good enough and people won’t like it but, that’s just the little devil on my shoulder making me doubt myself. This is why this is my first time actually releasing something because I’ve always given in to that voice but, I’m not doing that anymore. I’m learning to let go and evolve. Do you feel an emotional attachment to your music? Yes, it’s a part of me. I always think of songs like a story and these are my stories, my friends stories, my families, my communities and my peers stories. So it’s hard not to have an emotional attachment, even when it’s not my story, it eventually becomes mine. How would you describe your music in one word to someone who hasn't listened to it yet? Dance-y Where do they go to listen NOW? From Thursday 9th June 6pm on all streaming platforms! What has been the best fan reaction to your music? I write my songs to be sung and danced too so it’s always amazing to hear people singing the lyrics back to me and dancing around! I love it after a performance when people come up to speak to me about my music and tell me that they love it and where they can listen but I have to tell them that they have to wait to stream it, I’ve been keeping them in suspense for long enough now I think. Is there anything exciting coming up for you? My debut single ’Summer Body’ is out Thursday 9th June! I’m also working on a music video for this single with my troupe of plus size dancers, as well as shooting some promotional stuff sponsored by a brand that I can’t really say anymore about at this point but it's all very exciting! Are you performing the song anywhere LIVE? I won an open mic not so long ago and won a performance in Liverpool Arts Bar on 24th May which I am really looking forward to. More gigs in the works and to be confirmed. I’m working on getting some performances booked in London ASAP, that would be amazing so I’m manifesting that too. Give us all your socials and links so fans can link up with you! https://www.instagram.com/giorgiabortoli https://www.facebook.com/GiorgiaBortoliMusic/ https://giorgiabortoli.com/home/