A Stunning Career Kickstarted by a Phone Recorded YOUTUBE Video

Luca Chikovani is a Georgian born singer who has been living in Italy since his early childhood. In the late 1990s, living in the newly formed independent state of Georgia posed a lot of difficulties for many Georgian citizens including Luca and his mother. This hardship forced them to seek greener pastures and Italy offered them a good chance at a better life. The future at that time held faint promises for Luca that he couldn’t have imagined that his name would become famous in a foreign country in a matter of years. As fate would have it, Luca broke into the spotlight among Italian internet users in his teenage years and he became a sensation a few years ago. The video which was the beginning of an incredible journey for Luca, was shot by the singer using his own smartphone. It garnered 300,000 views on YouTube in just a few hours and signaled the beginning of Luca’s music career. After his successful music debut, Luca started to make appearances on MTV and then signed a contract with Universal Music shortly after. Luca also bagged his acting debut recently as he looks to fully cement his place in the entertainment industry.

In this interview with Diplomat Magazine, Luca talked about his success in the entertainment world and he touched on other interesting topics.

Luca, in one of your interviews, you mentioned that you’re a Georgian who has been adopted by Italy. What role did Italy play in your life and career development? Also, how important is Italy to you?

I was born in Georgia, Tbilisi in 1994 but I came to live in Italy with my mom when I was around 5 years old. I had all of my schooling here and grew up here in Italy but never lost my contact with Georgia. I visited Georgia every 1-2 years to see my Grandma in Borjomi. I grew up here in Italy so I took on many behaviors common among Italians but I have always felt Georgian. My grandma was a really big lover of our county and she taught me what it means to be a Georgian, she taught me to be proud of Georgia and to honor and respect women, so I feel really lucky that she taught me that. Italy really helped me a lot and Italians were the first to believe in me, as I started my career from nothing and worked really hard without knowing anyone and without anyone’s help, but Italy really supported me in a lot of ways. I feel really lucky to know these two different cultures and to be able to enjoy a mix of them to deliver the best.

The video you recorded on your phone made you popular when you were still a teenager. Tell us about it.

That’s right. I started recording with my phone and webcam when I was 14 years old. I observed that many singers were becoming popular via this new platform called YouTube and I thought why not me? So, I started uploading videos of me singing in my room and slowly the views began to pick up. Then I started going on tours around Italy with some other YouTube creators and with the support of MTV and Gibson, I gained new friends with time. I don’t like to call them fans because they are the reason for my little success so, they are completely part of my team and I don’t like to just call them fans. Then Universal Music discovered me in one of those concerts and asked me to sign a contract with them just one week after. I released my first album called START with them and it recorded unexpected success because it became the 3th most sold album in Italy and all the journals and TV channels talked about this. It was big issue because in that period I was the first artist who was noticed on YouTube and signed by Universal Music so, it was something new for the media.

You have been a very famous and successful singer in Italy for several years now with Universal Music but Georgian viewers are getting acquainted to your work now. Why do you think this is happening now?

Really famous is a big word. I don’t think I’d like to use that word. I’ve always done music because I want to share my ideas with my people and slowly the idea has become accepted by a lot of people. This is the reason I’ve never asked anybody in Georgia to promote me or my music because, I always thought that Georgia was going to know about me without me telling or asking them. I’ve always wanted to make Georgia and Georgians proud but I didn’t know Georgian language well and felt really embarrassed because of this, but last year I decided to focus and started learning Georgian. I had really big help from friends in Georgia especially from one girl who really cared to make me study Georgian so I could speak and write in Georgian language. Women can make you do incredible things. I never cared to be popular or famous, I just wanted to share my music and ideas with the people, because sometimes with music, you can help a lot of people. That’s my goal, to do something for the people.

You had a movie debut recently, tell us about this movie and what place do you think the acting profession would take in your career?

I had really great luck if I have to be sincere. The director of the movie Alice Rorwacher, was watching MTV and she saw my music video. She immediately gave my agents a call and they agreed to cast me so, I went for the casting and it was actually terrible. I was really scared but she believed in me and wanted me to play this lead role in the movie so, she chose me. The movie was a huge experience for me because I got the chance to work with one of the greatest directors in the world and it wasn’t easy, but I had the best training even while working with her. In the movie, Nicoletta Braschi, the wife of Roberto Benigni (Life Is Beautiful) played the role of my mother. She was adorable throughout the experience and I also met Roberto during the Cannes Film festival. The entire experience was incredible but I felt a little bit broken in my heart because my grandma who was the biggest fan of Roberto and Nicoletta, unfortunately passed away a few years ago. You cannot imagine how much I wanted to make her know that I’ve worked with her heroes, to show that I’ve made a movie with Nicoletta Braschi. I cannot imagine how happy she will be but I’m sure she knows now from paradise.

What are your future plans for music and acting? Are you planning to do some projects in Georgia?

This year I visited many countries around the globe to present our movie Happy as Lazzaro to film festivals and more importantly, I was able to proudly represent my country Georgia. We started with winning the Cannes Film Festival and then many other festivals also in China, Korea etc. I’ve thought about furthering my acting career because I really liked the experience and it’s another way to express yourself differently from music. I always wanted to portray other characters sometimes and many other people do too but, I think we kill our possibilities majorly because of our Ego, and our personality. I’m a collector, I collect personalities because they give me experiences, I’m a really fluid person and, when I’m with different people, I pick on their accents and their movements really easily and, all of this makes my experience in life bigger. My experience in life is unique because I know life differently. I think it’s really important to be open to change your mind, our humanity has become really proud and sometimes this ego creates problems for us. From the movie, I also learned many things. I completely lost interest in materialism because I see that our society is getting really far away from humanity. We are becoming machines just in search of money and fame and this is really bad for our future, as we think that our happiness is determined by the new iPhone or new clothes or new car. We need to wake people up. They are blowing up your mind with this material things so, we need to open our eyes and understand that real happiness has nothing in common with material things, we should go back to love people, to feel emotions and not hate others. We are always judging people, and we need to stop because this will only make you feel bad and never happy. The only enemies you will find is in our mind and we should understand this. So, this experience really made me think that acting can increase my person and every role can give me something more and this is why I really want to continue this career. I’m trying to reach the big heights in Hollywood, I want to work with music and films in the USA so as to let them know about Georgians. My biggest dream will be to gain some money and then create scholarships for talented Georgian kids who needs all the help they can get. I will do all my best to reach this goal. As for my music, I’m working on a new album and it will be really experimental. I’m not going to say more because I do not want to bore your audience. Thank you so much for talking to me and to your audience for patiently reading my interview. I hope they were not bored and I would like to send this message to Georgia – Mikvarkhar Sakartvelo (I love you Georgia)!