coming out

After Heckling Italian Pop Star Tiziano Ferro, Vanity Fair Italy Finally Gets Him To Come Out

Tiziano Ferro, the 31-year-old Italian pop singer who’s sold millions of records, is coming out on the cover of Vanity Fair Italy. And just four years ago, he was all in the closet with the mag.

“For a long time I haven’t felt good about myself
and after many tough years
I’ve come to the conclusion that I want to live better,” he tells the magazine. Ferro has previously been tied to MTV’s TRL Italy host Giorgia Surina, but says he hasn’t been dating dudes: “They said I was living a double life, that I was with a man. I would get very upset because I wished I had a boyfriend, but I had no one.”

Curiously back in 2006, VF Italy also published an interview with him — alebit a cagey one. Relays the blog Una Vita Vagabonda:

“Why Tiziano Ferro is a Man Alone,” reads the headline.

Okay, so Vanity Fair in Italian is no less insipid than the English-language version, but the article is still surprising. That A-Gay slime mold and VF contributing editor, Kevin Sessums, pretty much made his career out of interviewing queer male actors, singers, and other celebrities and (a) pretending that they weren’t queer and/or (b) asking them why they weren’t married, but this VF interview with Ferro from 29 June 2006 (conducted by Sara Faillaci–are we sure that name isn’t made up?), is so retro it’s practically Reagan Era

The interview went like so:

SF: Nowadays you certainly don’t lack for other people’s attention.

TF: The problem is that I wanted the attention of a couple dozen people and I find myself with the attention of millions. I lost control of the machinery. The result is that I don’t trust anyone anymore and, when I’m with someone I like, I become morbidly jealous. I want my friends all to myself and if I can’t have their total devotion, I become insufferable.

SF: And women?

TF: Absolute zero.

SF: And yet your songs are about love more than anything else.

TF: Yes, but not love the way you’re thinking of. Universal love.




SF: People have written anything and everything about you: that you’re gay, that you’re bisexual


TF: The truth is that I’ve never experienced love completely. I’ve lived under a glass jar since I was nineteen years old, never a relationship, never a woman. I’ve surrendered to the fact that this is the price that has to be paid if you’re a person who has a sensibility like mine and who lives in the spotlight. Success has dried up my emotional life and suffocated all my interpersonal relationships: I can’t have a relationship with anyone anymore.

Don't forget to share:

Help make sure LGBTQ+ stories are being told...

We can't rely on mainstream media to tell our stories. That's why we don't lock Queerty articles behind a paywall. Will you support our mission with a contribution today?

Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated