Ancora una Volta
in partnership with Versace Jeans Couture
Content Production Hyperlocal Photography Allyssa Heuze Styling Anna Carraro Casting Julia Asaro Actors Amadou, Andrea, Anna, Caterina, Cloe, Safa Set Design Leandro Favaloro 1st Photographer Assistant Emil Kosuge 2nd Photographer Assistant Marella Bessone Coach Massimiliano Balduzzi Hair Marco Braca Make Up Vanessa Icareg Nails Isabella Franchi Styling Assistant Caterina Tolo Hair Assistant Alessandro Pompili Make Up Assistant Carlotta Cantoni Nails Assistant Laura Gargioni
Text Robin Sara Stauder
When was the last time you did something for the first time?
When Britney Spears released her first single, it was one of those firsts that is hard to forget. Released in 1999, “Baby One More Time” was considered the best debut of all time, with over 30 million copies sold. Today, we must recontextualise not solely the (impressive) number that measured its success but also the unit of measurement, which alludes to a world that hardly seems to exist anymore.
What does still exist, however, is what that first brought with it: an indelible piece of international pop music history. The lyrics of the song, in which the word ‘baby’ is repeated 25 times, came to represent an entire generation, not to mention a carefree mood that today feels almost as anachronistic as ranking a song by number of copies sold instead of streams.
In Alla Carta 24, Britney’s anthem becomes “Ancora Una Volta” (One More Time), an ode to the purity of beginnings and first times.
“Ancora una Volta” is, first and foremost, an experimental performance created in collaboration with Versace Jeans Couture, under the gaze of director Luca Werner and photographer Alyssa Heuze and the careful guidance of Massimiliano Balduzzi. “Baby One More” Time frees itself from the musical component to become theatrical pièce, a choral track in which voices of all ages resonate.
Among these, five young people have sought out their own voices, giving Britney’s iconic song ever-new connotations. Anger, sadness, shyness, and fear alongside joy and enthusiasm. “Try to imagine it that way, one more time”. Until the last time becomes the first and, indeed, the only time possible (after all, everything contains everything that preceded it, which is what makes it happen).
“Baby One More Time” becomes a universal anthem within which all others converge; all the things Britney would have liked to say, along with what Amadou, Andrea, Anna, Cloe and Safa had inside: all that disappointment for the love stories that disappear without trace or explanation.
This is how we grow up, perhaps. By no longer believing or needing to know (“Tell me, baby, cause I need to know now”). But equally by no longer doing things for the first time, being brave or risking everything. But what if it were the cheesy desperation of 2000s love songs that made us feel a little more alive?
A part of me remains there, just to be on the safe side: “I must confess, I still believe”.