Here is the latest single from Italian singer-songwriter, one-woman band, and writer Elli de Mon. Timeless and cinematic, Strange Fruit is deeply haunting and beautifully unsettling. The focus is entirely on de Mon’s impressive, resonant voice, which twists through ethereal melody, rising and soaring before descending, dropping to almost-whispered lows. Though a cover of Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit, this is a song that Elli de Mon inhabits fully, transforming it into her own spiritual meditation. The language is already evocative, but in de Mon’s voice and striking delivery, it feels altogether new and impactful. Adding depth and transporting us somewhere else entirely, de Mon moves seamlessly into a performance of an ancient Venetian funeral song halfway through. Entitled Picola Mora, this song within the song is dedicated to children who have passed on too soon. The video, shot by Emilio Torreggiani, reinforces the song’s introspective, sorrowful feel as we see de Mon deep in reflection in a variety of dramatic locations.
She explains: “For a long time, I thought Strange Fruit was a song I shouldn’t touch. Then I realised that I wanted to listen to it all the way through, and to do that, I needed to sing it. It’s a song that continues to challenge me because it manages to hold within it both an almost unbearable beauty and a horror that cannot be tamed. It offers no consolation and asks for no identification. It asks only that we remain present, that we accept that there are pains we cannot fully comprehend but that concern us nonetheless. That’s why I chose to sing it in a church, even though I’m not Catholic. I was looking for a place where silence was still possible. Today, words are worn out too quickly; they become empty and dangerous slogans, piling up until they turn into noise, and that noise ends up drowning out precisely what makes us most uncomfortable. I needed a space where listening itself would speak. At the heart of my version, I’ve woven Strange Fruit together with an ancient Venetian funeral song, in which a father mourns his dead daughter. It is an image that, in recent months, I have seen relentlessly resurface before my eyes, in the bodies of the children killed in Gaza, in the grief of the fathers and mothers forced to bear what no parent should ever have to bear. This choice was born from that resonance. That is why this performance is dedicated to the children of Gaza.” This is a powerful statement to accompany an equally powerful performance.
de Mon’s forthcoming album and book, Wild Women Don’t Have the Blues, will be released on 20th November 2026 on Area Pirata Records. The album has been preceded by the release of an accompanying book, written as Elisa De Munari, the real name that de Mon uses as a writer. Both the book and the album take us on a journey through the lives of forgotten voices of black women from the early days of the blues. These marginalised women turned their pain, anger and sorrow into powerful music. Elli de Mon interprets their songs, conveying their courage and resistance through her own voice. It’s an emotional collection that feels intense, political and important – absorb yourself in these stories.
