Maybe you don’t recognize all of their faces, and maybe you don’t know a lot about them, but I am sure you have already heard one of Maneskin’s hit songs on the radio or social media. And they are once again coming to Brazil!
The band that sings “Beggin”, “I wanna be your slave” and “Zitti e Buoni” is touring worldwide after the release of their newest album Rush and, of course, they are paying a visit to Brazil. It is already next month! There will be two concerts: one in Rio de Janeiro, at Qualistage, on November 1, and another one in São Paulo, which is sold out, at Espaço Unimed, on November 3.
It is their second time in Brazil. Last year, their Loud Kids Tour also came to the country. One of the gigs was on Rock in Rio, arguably one of the biggest festivals in the world. They played on the main stage alongside Guns and Roses and Offspring, classics and well-established rock bands.
Maneskin plays hard rock, a music genre that has been progressively losing its once really important place on the mainstream to pop and rap.
Rock’n’roll has been one of the main musical genres throughout the decades, starting in the 60s all the way up to the 90s, with bands like The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, and Nirvana. With time, it has become more of an alternative style.
Some might even say that rock is dying, being kept alive only by the older bands and their fans. However, just like the Maneskin’s vocalist, Damiano David, said: “Rock ’n’ roll never dies”. And they are proving that!
They are part of a new generation of rock that is now being formed, bringing the genre back to the top of the charts. They are not saving rock music, they are proving it was never dead, it was just not as popular as it was in the past.
Some rockers may argue that Maneskin is not rock enough, and consider them pop. It is more of a personal opinion, however, it is undeniable that the band is marking their presence in the rock ’n’ roll industry. Their hit song “I wanna be your slave” has a version with Iggy Pop in it and, in 2021, they were the special guest in a Rolling Stones concert, in Las Vegas.
But their success didn’t come from anywhere, and they only became famous worldwide after building a career in Italy, their home country.
from busking in ROME TO PARTICIPATING in X-FACTOR
Maneskin had to climb to the top. The bassist Victoria de Angelis and guitarist Thomas Raggi were friends in high school and both loved rock music. They decided to form a band and invited Damiano David to be the vocalist. After posting on Facebook that they needed a drummer, they found Ethan Torchio. The band was put together, with the name Maneskin, which means moonlight in Danish, since Victoria is half Danish and speaks the language.
In 2016, recently formed, they won their first prize, in the Pulse competition, and performed at the Felt Music Club & School. To get more recognition, they started busking on the streets of Rome.
In 2017, they participated in the Italian version of X-Factor and got second place. There, they performed their first original single, called “Chosen”, which, just like most of their songs, is in English. The single was number two on the Italian charts.
They made quite an appearance on the program, playing rock music with strong vocals and bold performances. It was just the beginning, but their personal brand was already being formed. Sexual elements are part of their music. For example, on their performance of “Kiss This” (covering The Struts), Damiano sang while dancing on a street pole and, in the middle of the performance, ripped his shirt off.
At the end of the same year, they released their first album: Chosen. It had 7 songs, and 3 of them were originals. The other ones were covers that they performed on X-Factor, but, of course, in a version with their style. One of the covers was the song “Beggin”, which became a major hit on TikTok, 4 years later. Only one song was in Italian.
CONSOLIDATING THEIR MUSIC AFTER X-FACTOR
They released their second album in 2018, called Il ballo della vita, a title that Damiano has tattooed on his chest. This album was important to consolidate their sound and characteristic way of playing: a piece of energetic music that explores beyond the rock stereotype. This album has ballads, popish songs, and even rap – and it all makes sense with their brand.
Making the album was a challenge and all the members faced a lot of creative pressure, which we can see in their documentary This is Maneskin. They were all still adolescents, under 20 years old. But, even with stress, they proved that they took music very seriously and wanted to be much more than a momentary phenomenon on X-Factor.
The album was a success. It has more songs in Italian rather than English, “Morirò da Re” became very popular and the ballad “Torna Casa” reached the top 1 song position on the Italian charts. Its music video has 171 million views on YouTube. On their album tour around Europe, they even opened an Imagine Dragons concert. They were starting to get famous.
What makes Il ballo della vita so good is also its lyrics. Throughout the album, some songs mention someone named “Marlena”, making the listener wonder who she is. In reality, she is the embodiment of the band’s message and their love for music, as they described it, she is a “message of freedom”.
WINNING EUROVISION AND BLOWING UP ON THE INTERNET
In 2021, they dropped the album Teatro d’ira – Vol. I, which is their masterpiece. It has only 8 songs and each one of them stands out on its own, both lyrically and rhythmically. It is the youthful, rebellious, and sexy energy that rock’n’roll has been needing. It is bold, soulful, and has personality.
Shortly after the release of the album, the band participated in the song competition Eurovision, where countries are represented by an artist or a group that performs an original song. Just like other famous artists, such as Céline Dion and ABBA, Maneskin won the competition, which gave them great exposure to the world.
They won with the song “Zitti e Buoni”, from their newest album, and it rapidly became a hit. But it wasn’t just this one song. They started to blow up all over the internet. Videos of Damiano singing “I wanna be your slave” were being shared everywhere and the cover “Beggin”, from their first album, was trending on TikTok. 7,8 million TikToks were made with the song’s audio.
They made an immediate impression on the music industry, reaching positions that no other Italian band has ever reached. They were the first Italian band and the first Eurovision winner to have two songs in the Top 10 single charts of the UK at the same time. “I wanna be your slave” was on number 5 and “Beggin” on number six.
It had been 30 years since Italian songs reached top positions in the UK. It was remarkable not only because they play rock music, but also because they are Italian.
Simultaneously, they also blew up because of a scandal on their Eurovision victory. A video started being shared of Damiano leaning down and supposedly sniffing something during the broadcast of the competition. If he was, in fact, sniffing cocaine, the band would lose their prize.
This started a huge mess on social media and people were analyzing the video trying to prove that Damiano wasn’t doing drugs. He later said that he was actually looking to the floor to see the glass that Thomas had broken.
RUSH: THEIR LATEST ALBUM AND TOUR
After the huge success of Teatro d’ira – Vol.I, Maneskin got really famous. They were at every award and interview. They even starred in a Gucci campaign and toured worldwide in 2022.
They are now an important name when it comes to mainstream rock music. Duran Duran is making a cover of “Psycho Killer” with Victoria, and their bassist John Taylor classified her as “the most important electric bassist out there right now”.
Their fame got much bigger proportions, and with that, their career changed a bit. They are conforming to the US mainstream industry, which prefers profitable English language singles rather than albums. They now drop singles from time to time, such as “Mamamia” and “Supermodel”.
But, finally, this year, they released the album Rush, which includes the singles they have been posting since 2021.
However, Rush hasn’t been well received by the critics, who (mostly) didn’t hate it but were just expecting more. The songs are short and mostly in English, which makes some say that they are losing their Italian identity. The lyrics are also not as profound as the rest of their work. The songs are a little faster and shorter.
Nevertheless, they are now touring worldwide again. Even if Rush wasn’t the Teatro d’ira – Vol. II that some people wanted, Maneskin is still selling out concerts all around the world.
The fans are as excited as ever: the Brazilian fan base is organizing an action for the public to bring roses and paper hearts to raise during the songs “The Loneliest” and “Honey (are you coming?)”, respectively. Missing the Italian songs, the fan clubs are also trying to blow up a hashtag asking for Maneskin to play the song “Vent’anni” (#playventanniinbrazil).
This article was edited by Larissa Buzon.
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