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Meet Numa– the Italian singer of self-empowerment.
16 Plays7 days ago
Numa, defined as the singer of SELF EMPOWERMENT, is a multifaceted and eclectic artist engaged in humanitarian and animal rights activities.
Singer, songwriter, producer and artistic director, she has released several successful musical singles, (in Italian, Spanish and English) and, in combination with the message of "positive thinking", promotes her music all over the world.
In this episode of the Abeceder work life balance podcast Rest and Recreation, Numa and host Michael Millward discuss how Numa started her career and how it has developed to include collaborations with major artists.
Numa also discusses the inspiration for her ‘I Choose Love campaign which encourages people to think and act positively and gain self-empowerment by living authentically.
This episode of Rest and Recreation is ideal listening for anyone who is interested in a more positive way of thinking or just needs a burst of positivity in their life.
Discover more about Numa and Michael at Abeceder.co.uk
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Transcript
00:00:05
Speaker
Made on Zencastr. Because Zencastr is the all-in-one podcasting platform that really does make making podcasts so easy.
Introduction to 'Rest and Recreation' Podcast
00:00:15
Speaker
Hello, and welcome to Rest and Recreation, the work-life balance podcast from Abyssaida, where we don't tell you what to think, but we are hoping to make you think.
00:00:28
Speaker
I'm your host, Michael Millward.
Meet Numa Parma: Multi-talented Artist
00:00:31
Speaker
Today I am meeting Numa Parma, a singer, songwriter, producer, artistic director and TV commentator who is also known as the singer of self-empowerment.
The Ultimate Travel Club Benefits
00:00:44
Speaker
Numa is based in Rome, a city I have been fortunate enough to visit. Next time I go, I will make my travel arrangements with the Ultimate Travel Club because that is where I can access trade prices on flights, hotels, trains, holidays and all sorts of other travel related purchases.
00:01:02
Speaker
You can also access those trade prices on travel by joining the Ultimate Travel Club. I have put a link with a discount code in the description. Now that I have paid some bills, it is time to make an episode of Rest and Recreation that will be well worth listening to, liking, downloading and subscribing to and also worth sharing with your friends, family and work colleagues as well.
Numa's Music Passion and Influences
00:01:28
Speaker
Now, Hello, Numa, how are you? Hello, ah nice to meet you. Thank you for having me. I'm fine. It's brilliant. I am intrigued. After watching your videos, listening to your music, you've got a new fan. i have to say I love what I've been listening to. But I'd like to know about how you got into the music industry and it seems media industry in general. So how did it all start?
00:01:53
Speaker
This is a tough question because it comes from so far. So in short time, I can say that I'm born like that. Like Lady Gaga says, I'm born in this way. So I remember me singing and dancing on the bed of my grandmother when I was five years old. And from there, I mean, a lot of those things happened because probably was so determined, so driven by this passion and this love for music communication and give something to people through music or through the art in general. And then actually work, but you know, I mean, we are so privileged say that it's work. It's also work, but it's a mission towards me. I mean, my idea. My father in very early days a very important agent and manager of very famous artists in Italy. We took, it was another input to having home someone that was taking me in a most important concert or the most important singer at that time.
00:02:50
Speaker
which wasn't the reason, but was the inspiration, a plus, to make me understand that was really, really what I want to do in life.
Exploring Creativity and Artistic Focus
00:02:59
Speaker
It sounds like you had the sort of experience that i once had when I went to my first proper concert with my mates from school.
00:03:07
Speaker
but there was the It was a university hall and it was Adam and the Ants. Ah, yes, I remember. But I can remember watching Adam and the Ants on stage and thinking, I'm having a great time down here, but I'd have so much better time if I was up there on the stage. Really sort of like, oh, I want to do that. But unfortunately, there's the wanting to do it and the writ then the realization that you haven't quite got the talent that those people up on stage have got it.
00:03:35
Speaker
You know what, we're all artists, we're all so creative people. That's, I mean, something that people need to discover. We're all so creative people. Human beings are creative, born creative. We need to understand in which field and which direction we we do our best creation. In my case, I mean, i remember myself, there was a five years old, seven years old, just already putting together some kind of play for, you know, for the school kids. And then, I mean, of course, growing with my age and my experience, start to be a writer for single songwriter, and then I became myself single songwriter, and then I started to put on my music, and then then then I started to play instruments, and then I started to dance, and I started to act.
00:04:18
Speaker
And people say, that all this stuff together. Yes, because you know what? The art is a... an inner soul expression. And it's okay that you challenge yourself and you measure yourself in all the fields. And then eventually you understand which one maybe is the one that you feel more comfortable. But in the end of the day, you see also the most famous singers, they're singing and they're acting, they're talking, they do everything. as They present, they they deliver. The art is 360 degrees and I want to be like that. 360 degrees is an interesting thing for you to say.
The Story Behind Numa's Music Releases
00:04:54
Speaker
Because I think you've had at least 20 singles. 24 now. 24 now, 24, right. so even no Even no more. You know, I was calculating. I just, and obviously we're having fun with our audience that listen to us. But I think that now, because now I'm releasing Dream New, I will touch 27. I was joking, we play with it with the numbers, but our real numbers. And you know what? The efforts that all singles, there is a reason why. Because ah any single song is a chapter. It's an entire chapter, actually the kind of book, even I can even say. That's why i am focusing on one single, because then there is the video, then there is the story, then there is there is the message, then there is the the the mission. And that's why I divided all my songs in this single, so
Music as Inspiration and Empowerment
00:05:42
Speaker
to quote like that. Yes, because looking back over your catalogue, there's a time when there's an element of the conventional sort of
00:05:52
Speaker
music as you're as you're establishing yourself and and discovering your style. And the more recent music is much more inspirational and as really cements, I think, this reputation that you have as the the singer of empowerment?
00:06:07
Speaker
I mean, grew up together with my music and then i developed ah the best way to to be myself ah in in doing music, which means that growing and making an experience ah and and I understood how much it was important to deliver a message that can help people to feel better, to be positive, to express their self, to give them some kind inspiration, just a point, I mean, a space to make a think about it about their self and and the best version of their self. So which means, in a few words, that the music can do a lot. And the words that you choose, the sound that you choose, the message you choose, the images that you choose, ah it's ah all metaphoris, all catiple. don't know if it's right to say in English, I don't if picking up the right words, but... um I think that we're suggesting something that has to be after given a a resonance to what people are inside to to take them out the best of themselves. So the being even even more precise, by growing myself, I was growing in my music, growing my and and focusing better and better and better on the kind of message I want to deliver to people and in which way I want to impact the the world. and leave something, i mean, do something in my little own.
00:07:21
Speaker
And then that's when my music changed and become um deeper and deeper and deeper regarding the the meaning, but also listen lighter, lighter, lighter, lighter regarding the delivery, which people can listen easily, pop music. dancing music or even simply ballads, but people have to relax, be happy and understand very easily, but at the same time, deep and meaningful. And that was, i mean, my path, and this was my efforts, this was my growing towards um my way to make music. Yes. I want to always wanted to be myself, not follow the trends, not want to copy someone else. You've definitely not copied anyone else. You have a very individual style. For me, important to say that I was not falling in any kind of um trend because otherwise i would be trapped by marketing and not be real.
00:08:09
Speaker
That's true. The authenticity of your music and your style is very important. But one of the things that I think as a British person in the UK, I start to realize when I have the opportunity to talk to artists like yourself is that we don't get to hear enough of the music that comes from other parts of the world.
Collaborations with Renowned Artists
00:08:28
Speaker
And yet the people that we do know here in the UK people who are quite significant in our pop culture here in the UK do know about artists like yourself and have actually worked with you and you've worked with them and so I suppose This is my invitation for you to do something that you probably really don't want to do, but to drop a few names of the people that you've worked with.
00:08:50
Speaker
What I can say that before to drop the names and they say something nice to what I mean, ah to to give justice for many artists that sometimes they worry that they will never they would be never heard that who will never share important collaborations. I noticed that the more they're more um the more they are focused on the quality and not from the the bragging or, you know, the trend or who you are, how many followers you have, all this stupidity. So... um
00:09:22
Speaker
When i I had the chance to work with people that has an incredible career behind their shoulders, even, and of course, bigger than mine, they had the kind of, you know, when you're very big, you have nothing to have nothing to prove anymore. You just want to share your space and time with something that you like. and create something good. That's what they told me. And that's why i had this incredible chance. I wrote some songs with Alan Clarke from Tire Straits, for example. It was an incredible experience because Alan Clarke is the keyboard and also the arranger for in many, many songs. um
00:09:58
Speaker
with Mark Knopfler for many years ah and he still and has an amazing career. And yes, we did some songs together and it was an a amazing moment because he was just a musician that was loving to make music with with someone that in that moment, which was me in that moment, to give him some kind of probably inspiration inspirational moment. And it was inspirational for me too.
00:10:20
Speaker
And you know what what else? They don't have these kind of things of women, men they we that we have in Italy, for example. Some kind of, the if you're woman, seems that to you that you cannot achieve a certain kind of top, but you know, positions, profile, because you're woman. It is a problem that we have in Italy. I didn't find this in America, neither in England, for example. That's why I've been working with Phil Palmer, still Diaz Trace, but Phil Palmer, also George Michael, Robbie Williams and Tina Turner.
00:10:50
Speaker
I mean, it's a legend. And we did a lot things together as well. And he was incredible teacher for me because, of course, the intelligence is also being able to listen, learning and, you know, be like a sponge and learn as much as you can when you are close by these people. That in the same time, they allow you to express yourself and give them something back. which is amazing. They have to prove how much they are big because once again, I repeat myself, have to prove nothing. They want to enjoy the process and even them get some inspiration with someone that maybe is younger and less experienced but maybe more instinctive and so it can bring something on the table.
00:11:33
Speaker
can bring something on the table I have a big fire, not a big creativity, so I have something to bring on the table. And that was an interest interesting sharing. Or I don't know if I i mentioned Trevor Orr.
00:11:46
Speaker
It's happened because he's accepted to do an incredible production with ah a very super famous artist in Italy, which I was ah involved the production too.
00:11:57
Speaker
That's why I find myself to work with him and he's in entourage. It was ah just amazing. And one day he gave me this incredible gift that gave me his bass line, bass work. He's a bass player as well. won on a song that I was really i was really loving and was very important for me, for the meaning and for the promotion and for the idea of the song. and any and he did it because he believed it, he liked it. And once again, he's nothing enough to prove. So if he likes these big people, if he likes something...
00:12:32
Speaker
and they mean something for them, they're doing it. And it's up to us to be able to to learn, to be grateful, and and be on point, to be ready to convey this opportunity in the best way possible. That's why...
The 'I Choose Love' Philosophy
00:12:48
Speaker
I became ah an international artist as well, also because I delivered my music in Spanish, in English, ah all around the world. and people, ah you see, once again, people embraced it, loved it, even before to make the the X-ray on my career, to see how much I was famous, are which I'm working with, or how many followers I got.
00:13:10
Speaker
I've been able to break the system, to which means to go with the with the truth, with the power with the power of the other determination, the passion, the fire, the quality the power of the quality, with the power of the message, and go beyond all this horrible system just based about appearance and not quality.
00:13:30
Speaker
And that's why i conquer i i conquered somehow the trust of so ah such as such a people. Amazing, super famous compared to because they they probably appreciate it.
00:13:41
Speaker
the quality and the fire, you know what i mean? And the message more than the appearance. Yes. And that's always always been an incredible school. And this has to be the school for everybody listening to us. They maybe feel powerless because they have a good ideas, talent, and fire, and they feel more overwhelm overwhelmed by the system. But I tell them that we are the system and we and we made it and we broke it. Yes.
00:14:05
Speaker
It's like talent attracts talent. I tell you, yes. we we made the system and we break the system, I can promise you. Yes. You're breaking the system in quite a lot of ways, though, because when people talk about you being the the musician, the singer, the artist of empowerment, that's not just in the lyrics of the music that you produce.
00:14:25
Speaker
You've also created a method of personal growth and creation of a successful life based upon your your own approach to life, which is called I Choose Love. Can you tell me a little bit about what that is, how it works, and how people can benefit from it?
00:14:41
Speaker
Yes, there's nothing more powerful to use my same life as a tool ah to help the other one. i mean I mean, I've been through so a lot, so lot, so so much. I mean, I have problems with my family, problems with my father, problems with my childhood, problems with the every woman that wants to do and wants to be be successful, especially...
00:15:02
Speaker
in ah in ah in a show business, ah which would get abused, it ah get blackmailed, I mean, all the the dirty that that this life from often offers you, when you just want to put your head out, you know, how out.
00:15:17
Speaker
You know, how I mean, we know how sometimes can be tough this this this life and this and this work ah and in any field. So which means that I refuse to complain, refuse to be a victim, refuse to repeat to what everybody else repeating, you know what i mean?
00:15:32
Speaker
Refusing to follow in the common, you know, common thinking that, oh, the world is horrible, everybody are horrible and I never succeed, you know, this victim rule, no? Yes. Yes. And I believe in myself. I was the fan number one on myself. I was the manager number one on myself. I was the producer number one on myself for my ideas. When I didn't have money, I found the money. I didn't have the money, I didn't find the money. I did anyway because I found a quality way to do it even if I didn't have amazing resources. You know, never give up, never give up, never give up. And then putting the songs. mean, the songs never give up. I mean, the songs stronger.
00:16:10
Speaker
I mean, the song, I believe in the fairy tales. There was, I mean, the, you know, the messages and I was being through in that moment, putting the music, putting the words, because I thought to myself, if I make it,
00:16:25
Speaker
other people can make it. If people see me at my age, mean, be woman, didn't accept any blackmail, didn't accept any abuses, didn't have much money, didn't have a super top producer, didn't sleep in bed with nobody, and I'm still here and I made a difference in the world, just and only because I'm a stubborn, so, you know.
00:16:47
Speaker
ah And so the term to to to to make an impact impact in this world, everybody can do it. And that's why I created a method and I chose a slogan because it's not just a slogan. I said I choose love. You know why I choose love? Because you can do this just with the power of the love. You cannot do with the power of anger. You cannot do with the power of the, of the or you know, of the revenge or the power of
Authenticity and Personal Integrity
00:17:09
Speaker
the... What you're reminding me is Michelle Obama. We were at the height of one of the election campaigns where she's being attacked.
00:17:17
Speaker
Her husband's been attacked. Her family is being attacked. And she came out with just a few words which resonated with me so much and ones that I remember and you're reminding me of them is that the lower they sink, the higher will soar.
00:17:33
Speaker
And when you are faced with People who are negative and want to highlight the things that aren't going well, have to go, fine, it isn't going well, but I'm capable of so much more. I'm capable of so much better.
00:17:47
Speaker
It's a learning experience. I will come back from this. i will soar again. The way in which you're describing it just so reminds me of that type of approach is that when you are surrounded by negativity, choose love.
00:18:00
Speaker
when you're surrounded by hate. Choosing love. Choosing love means that decide firmly and strongly that we don't want to become nasty, ugly, revengeful, full of judgment. We just want to choose love means that we choose the love for life, the dignity, the beauty of what we the beauty of our heart. And we decided to don't become dirty, but protect our inner integrity. And this is choosing love. So I refuse to get involved by talking terrible, horrible about something or someone. I refuse to stay hours and hours and become energetical being or friends or someone that just want to throw on my neck all the complaining, all the problems, because no, thank you. It's not because I'm selfish. It's because I'm not an energetic being or anybody else, because then they lower my energy.
00:19:05
Speaker
What I want to choose is just speaking well, good, find the best things in everything, and when there's nothing to find, nice and good, I just move on. I just i just i just move, I just go somewhere else. But ah if I get trapped by my anger, by by by by the wish, the compelling wish to say something better about but something, I just lose my power,
00:19:31
Speaker
losing my energy and losing my time. So this means choosing love. It doesn't mean that everything is okay and I forgive everybody and even if it's horrible, say, oh no, fantastic, I don't care, peace and love. It's not there.
00:19:44
Speaker
It's about to choose the integrity and choose us, choose the ah the best of us and and and try to make our best. And when we say, okay, I'll make an example. I'll make an example, I'm vegan, okay? Many people are not.
00:20:00
Speaker
So I don't say that people have to become vegan. I don't care. I just care what I'm choosing and and and to be consistent and and honest towards my values. So which means that when I ah that when i choose something and and people telling me, but OK, but nine million people, nine billion people are not. So you will never change nothing in this world. so why are you doing it?
00:20:23
Speaker
Because I don't ah don't mind what nine billion people doing. it The only things that I can mind what I do. What you're talking about is being an example of the person that you want to be and living your values.
00:20:38
Speaker
I mean, when I die, the only people that is accountable is me. You know mean? So I cannot think about what nine p other 9 million people do in it because ah the only things that worth on my life, it was I think what I say, what I do, what I'm leaving behind or what I'm living during my during my life. ah So it's so stupid to keep saying that.
00:21:03
Speaker
I do this, but nobody's doing it. Or why do I have to throw the plastic on on the floor if everybody's doing it? Who cares? and If what I'm doing, is if I put a plastic on the on on the sea or not, if I kill some animals, or if I did or or if i did something that...
00:21:20
Speaker
but regarding me is against my principle. So this is the way that we choose love. This is the way that we change the world. Imagine, imagine if everybody in this world taking their own responsibility or their own action, much we can be powerful.
00:21:36
Speaker
But we live in a separation. we're always thinking about what the other doing in it instead of thinking about I doing it on some matter or another one. And we lose power. yeah you're painting a very positive picture of being an individual we all have to decide how it is that we choose to live we all have to decide what our personal values are and we have to live those values with integrity and i think what you're saying is that we once we've decided what our values are we shouldn't then compromise those values in order to fit in with a particular group or fit in with what a marketing expert says
00:22:15
Speaker
It doesn't matter what's important when we're finally at that point where we can look back on our lives and say, I was authentic to myself, my values, and I didn't compromise those values but the for money. I didn't compromise those values for acceptance.
00:22:34
Speaker
I knew what was important to me. Exactly. Compromises, lies. I mean, always it's a common thought. Everybody thinks the same because everybody wants to belong to some brand, to some ideas, so that you feel to belong to someone. So you feel comfortable, you feel protected. Instead, you're losing your power, losing your identity. The positive thinking is not that everything is fine when it's not fine. positive thinking, and when we decided we don't want to speak dirty, we don't want to believe that everything is horrible, that we want to believe that everything is violent, that everything is abusive, the positive thinking means that we determined that
00:23:18
Speaker
to focus ourselves in a different energy and make our best to create our personal field positive, which means that we are respectful, genuine, honest, truthful, connected with our inner voices, child voices, child voices.
00:23:35
Speaker
Mainly. and And our dreams, ah our best, ah don't compromise, don't don't accept the halfway where we can have all everything. You know what mean? i accept this, it's not really what I want, but you know that I cannot do better. a and I don't accept that. This is the positive thing. give us back the power. And when we become powerful, we start to be affected in a nice way people. And that becomes, we resonate with people like us, and we're going to find out that we become many. know we we we don't feel alone anymore on on on this path. Because we just change, shift the energy. So perhaps there are some people that will not join us anymore because they prefer to, you know, to to stay, you know, in a community that is a blind and deaf and everybody have the same color, the same words because they feel safe in that way. and Probably we will we will join different people. So, you know what I mean? That will resonate with that with this different power. Yeah, I know what you mean. We shouldn't aim to gain acceptance. We should as aim to be authentic.
00:24:43
Speaker
With my HR professionals hat on, I will be very often end up dealing with someone who's striving to do something that they don't really want to do, where they're doing it to impress people that they don't really like.
00:24:54
Speaker
Exactly. And what they have to do is say, okay, I'm not looking to be accepted. I'm not looking to impress. I'm looking to be authentic. Once you are being authentic, you will attract other authentic people who will value you for your authenticity and your uniqueness rather than being the same.
00:25:14
Speaker
I agree with you, but I was like this, you know, I like this when I was a little girl, when I was the kind of, you know, when you start to be an adolescent, adolescent, is it in English? Adolescent. Adolescent, and what happened? It was a kind of 11 years old, 12 years old, 13 years old, that all the group of the school or the class was going in the bathroom to smoke. Yeah. Was the time, you know, every kid started to smoke. I remember myself, that I was like 12, 13 years said to myself,
00:25:42
Speaker
Why I should do that? Why have to go in that bathroom with 10 people, coughing and smoking, and they're killing themselves with a horrible smelling thing? Because I have to belong to what?
00:25:58
Speaker
to I mean, why? Why i should wear the same coat everybody's wearing? Why should wear the same jeans everybody's wearing? Why i have to follow the fashion? Why if I don't like the color, i don't like the model? Why should listen to that music that I don't care, I don't like it in the slightest because I want to feel to belong to someone?
00:26:16
Speaker
I belong to what I like. I belong to myself. And I do my own trend and I do my own clothes and I do my own makeup and I do my own music eventually. And if my music sometimes ah can remember and be close to the to the music all the time,
00:26:33
Speaker
It's okay super welcome. i'm happy not because it's my choice, not because i had to do like that. Yes. And that's it has been the the trend of my life, which pay me back for all my life long. And I tell you what, yes, sometimes I be lonely. Sometimes
Finding Genuine Connections
00:26:50
Speaker
I've been lonely. But then I found the right people to me.
00:26:55
Speaker
So I found the best team in the world. i but i found the best collaboration in the world. i but i found the best friends in the world because they chose me because they knew that was authentic and there was no surprise behind the show, but but on the on their back, behind the show, the never. Yeah. And I have the best people of my life around me because the wonder resonated with me. So yes, there's been a moment that i've I've been quite lonely because I was shifting. You know what I mean? I was rejecting, rejecting all there was i mean the common things around me. I said, no, no, no, no. no And when i start and my mother was my grandmother was preparing me ah meat and fish ah on the table and I was feeling sick just looking at that body bleeding on on on on on the dish. I was feeling sick. even You know what?
00:27:42
Speaker
It was not even connected with with with the love of the animals because I was too little to understand that that was actually a murder, of murder animal. I just didn't didn't like that piece of that meat bleeding on my own my own on my own my dish. And I started throwing it in the toilet.
00:27:58
Speaker
Just like that. And then I find out that I was vegan and blah, blah, blah, and all that it would with the meaning behind, you know what i mean? I just follow what my heart was telling me. We are deaf and blind because, you know, people say that, because people don't like that, because someone would judge me and, they you know, I know guys. We're losing just power and we give away our power and we give away our joy and we give our away our real dreams because we even don't remember anymore which are our dreams because we are too focused to to do what the other thing wants
Conclusion: Staying True to Oneself
00:28:29
Speaker
us to do. it Guys, please awake. It's a very powerful message, Numa. It's been very interesting.
00:28:36
Speaker
wish you lots more success. You've certainly made me think. really do appreciate your time. Thank you very much. And I thank you very much for your space and your time and I hope that people will join my music. ah Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
00:28:50
Speaker
I am Michael Millward, the Managing Director of Abbasida and in this episode of Rest and Recreation, I have been having a conversation with Numa Parma, a singer, songwriter, producer, artistic director and TV commentator, also known as the singer of self-empowerment.
00:29:08
Speaker
You can find out more about both of us by using the links in the description. I'm sure that you will have enjoyed listening to this episode of Rest and Recreation as much as Numa and I have enjoyed making it.
00:29:21
Speaker
So please give it a like and download it so you can listen anytime, anywhere. To make sure you don't miss out on future episodes, please subscribe. Remember, the aim of all the podcasts produced by Abbasida is not to tell you what to think, but we do hope to have made you think.
00:29:38
Speaker
Until the next episode of Rest and Recreation, Thank you for listening and goodbye.