Fiammiferi translates to "matches". It's an evocative word that stands out because of its specific imagery and the powerful metaphor it creates.
In the song, the lyrics
"Storia del mio corpo" ("Story of My Body") is Michele Bravi's reflection on the uneasy relationship between a person and their own body.
He treats his body almost like an object apart from himself: something he dresses, sets aside on a chair, or folds up like a letter in an envelope. It carries a story of fear that keeps resurfacing no matter how he tries to put it down.
At the emotional center of the song, his body cries out to be lived in fully, to be seen and called by name. But the chorus keeps pulling back to the same instinct: to stay hidden inside it rather than let anyone in.
It's a song about the distance we can feel from ourselves, and how hard it is to break the habit of hiding, even when a part of us is begging to be noticed.
Michele Bravi is an Italian singer-songwriter born on December 19, 1994, in Città di Castello, a small town in Italy's Umbria region.
He first became known in 2013, when he won the seventh season of the Italian version of X Factor at just 18 years old, standing out for his delicate, emotionally raw voice. His coronation single, "La vita e la felicità," written by Tiziano Ferro, went straight to number one in Italy, and his debut album followed in 2014.
Since then Bravi has built a career on intimate, introspective pop, returning several times to the Sanremo Music Festival and writing openly about identity, vulnerability, and mental health. His songs often explore the uneasy relationship between the self and the body it lives in.