Moà - Franca Viola and a Bouquet of Blues Flowers

With “Bouquet”, her first full-length album, Moa – born Martina Maggi, winner of Area Sanremo in 2021 with the song “Sirena senza coda” and of the Premio Bianca D'Aponte in 2022 (best lyrics with “Chiara”) – delivers a work born of both artistic and personal need: to rediscover enthusiasm, resist the instability of everyday life, and turn experiences, places and encounters into a deliberately eclectic set of songs. At the heart of our conversation is the decisive encounter with Massimo Moriconi, a great Italian jazz musician who has played alongside Enrico Pieranunzi, Bruno Biriaco and Renato Sellani, among others, and has been the bassist on every Mina record since 1983. But we also talk about Moa's relationship with nature, one of her main sources of inspiration.
Another recurring theme is provincial life, from her native Orvieto to the Alcamo of the 1980s in the beautiful, eponymous song dedicated to “Franca Viola”. Moa/Martina is a name to watch, for her skill and sensitivity as both a songwriter and performer. Hers is a path of daily, personal commitment, in which musical exploration proceeds free of formulas or genre constraints, guided instead by intellectual curiosity and a desire for artistic and human openness.

I'd like to start with the fact that “Bouquet” is your first album, even though you've been active for some years now and have already won some important awards. What was the main trigger that led you to record it?
I felt the need to stop and dedicate myself completely to my music. In a way it was also a therapeutic album, born from the will to resist everything that bombards us every day and throws us off balance. The first flower in the “Bouquet” was the poppy, a symbol of the Resistance. I had just taken part in “Musica contro le mafie”, where the song “Franca Viola” was born, and then came my meeting with Massimo Moriconi. I'd say that, to keep the metaphor of the title going, everything blossomed out of these events, which were important to me.

I wanted to ask you about Massimo Moriconi. Working with one of the favorite session musicians of the immense Mina must have been, to stay on theme, “a blow to the heart”. Can you tell me about the artistic ideas you developed playing and writing with him?
He's a musician, a mind, who knows how to give music beauty. I wanted that kind of creativity and experience. At our first meeting I was quite scared: I had a batch of material, written songs and musical ideas, but the actual record came out of the work we did together. So during that first meeting, sitting trembling on a chair in his studio, with images of Mina and Chet Baker behind me, I obviously felt inadequate. And yet, beyond a great working chemistry, a beautiful friendship was also born. By the very first day we had already arranged two songs. Everything unfolded naturally, spontaneously.

You also worked with a great pianist like Ettore Carucci and a top jazz drummer like Emanuele Tienforti. How did the creative process unfold?
Massimo Moriconi was the artistic director, but the wonderful thing is that nothing was ever imposed: we always met each other halfway, in terms of ideas, tastes and energy alike. One time Ettore arrived at the studio, Massimo put the part for “Palermo è un'altalena” in front of him, I sat down next to the piano and we tried it out right away. When the song was over, Massimo looked at me and said: “Shame we didn't record that”.

What ties you to Palermo?
Palermo is a city I lived in a great deal, during the best years of anyone's life, those around eighteen. I loved Sicily deeply, and I still do, and I left a little piece of my heart there. In the song I tried to capture the duality of the city, its richness and its miseries, its contrasting flavors and colors, the different rhythms of its neighborhoods. I lived through a love story in that city: from falling in love to the end of it. Sometimes life is like that. Some things come to an end.

Let's stay in Sicily. I've always considered Franca Viola's story one of the most important in Italy's cultural evolution, not just for women. A story of courage and self-determination that concerns everyone. Is the point of view in the song you dedicated to her a feminist one?
I felt I owed Franca a part of my freedom. So I experienced writing the song as a kind of exchange between sisters. And yet, even though it's a woman's story and, inevitably, a feminist one too, the courage with which an eighteen-year-old girl stood up to an entire system speaks universally to anyone. What amazed me most, as I read more about it and got deeper into the story, was how much even her father supported Franca's determination not to marry the man who had kidnapped and raped her. The consequences of her action were hugely important: they led to the abolition of Article 544 of the Criminal Code, the so-called “rehabilitating marriage” clause. I felt I owed her a song. 

You were born in Orvieto and live in the province of Rome. As a songwriter, do you feel the influence of the places you live in and have lived in?
Yes, absolutely. I grew up in a hamlet of about twenty little houses called “the village of Roses”, Rocca Ripesena, in the province of Orvieto. I often work in the city, but I always find it extremely hard to stay there once work is done, because I need to remain immersed in nature. Right now, for instance, I live near the sea, and that's also a theme that recurs in my songs. Blue is a beautiful color, because it doesn't represent anguish but melancholy, a sadness you can inhabit, one that leads you back to the blues and to jazz. 

The record isn't all introspective, though — it runs through different moods…
Right, I called it “Bouquet” precisely for its diversity. Musical contrasts are also at the root of its visual and descriptive side. We developed that together with Ana Pia Leon, a Venezuelan designer who's become a close friend. We worked with a natural bioplastic extracted from corn starch and sugar beets. It was important for us to use natural, eco-friendly materials, because the record, starting with its title, speaks to my loving relationship with nature. There was a whole female synergy at work that really clicked and led to the creation of “Cataleia”, a line of accessories inspired by the album.

Do you feel this album is a continuation of the things that came out of your forays into Sanremo, X Factor and so on?
Absolutely not. This is a very deliberate record, one I love madly, but it runs against the grain of the music industry's usual dynamics. We're promoting it heavily through theater circuits — in short, it's not a Spotify product. I'm very proud of that. Working with Massimo, watching a musician who made 40 records with Mina handle the harmony of my songs, was also a huge moment of growth for my own expressive tools. 

And how did the pairing with Gabbo and Squarta come about?
Fantastic, because they're clearly a pair of madmen. That's the kind of energy a truly great, open-minded jazz musician manages to gather around himself. Moriconi, Gabbo and Squarta also have a project together called Mamo's Gang, and obviously my record carries some influences from that world too. 

Do you feel in tune with what songwriters outside Italy are doing at the moment - people like Raye, for instance?
Her latest album, or Sienna Spiro's, pretty much the whole brit scene - it's a phenomenon that leaves you feeling hopeful. Who knows, maybe it could reignite interest in Italy too for that kind of listening experience, for a live show played by a full band with lots of musicians on stage. In short, for anyone who loves that world, it's an incredible light to follow. Like plenty of other colleagues - and I don't think there are few of us - I went crazy with joy watching some of those incredible performances with an orchestra and a live rhythm section, drawing on jazz and R&B. On my record there are strings arranged by Stefano Nanni, and that was an immense gift.

What do you remember about winning the Premio Bianca d'Aponte?
It was an extraordinary moment. For the encounters, for the atmosphere that fills the place. There's really something magical about it, a part of Bianca that has stayed there. And as a result it's a wonderful, genuine world, made up of relationships and people who, like me, prefer the strategies of networking, solidarity and small steps. That doesn't mean they can't take you a long way.

(September 20, 2026)

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