Everything You Need To Know About Måneskin
By Ashley Diamantis
Image Kuba Dabrowski
Eurovision’s punk sweethearts
All across social media lately, it feels as if you can’t spend more than a second without seeing or hearing something about the Italian rock group, Måneskin.
To Western audiences, they seem as if they have just come out of the woodwork, almost out of nowhere, being the next mainstream foreign band to make it to the other side of the pond.
But to longtime fans and Italian locals, the band have been present for quite a few years, having garnered an extensive amount of success prior to their Eurovision win.
Before being swooned over on TikTok for their gender fluid styling, the group began their musical careers busking on the streets of Rome in 2016, leading them to compete one the eleventh season of X-Factor.
Frontman Damiano David, bassist Victoria De Angelis, guitarist Thomas Raggi and drummer Ethan Torchio’s performances on the show are still being viewed and listened to today, despite placing second at the end of the competition.
The song they performed at the finale, ‘Chosen’, ended up charting number two on the Italian FIMI Singles Chart, with the music video currently having over 24 million views on YouTube and counting.
Following this initial commercial success, in 2018, the band released their debut album, ‘Il ballo della vita’, peaking on the Italian Album Charts at number one.
In an interview with Rolling Stone Italia, the group stated that the purpose of the album was to provide listeners with “a message of freedom of choice, attitude, [and] style”, urging them to express themselves freely, which is something the band have been vocal about and embodied since then, and especially now.
In March of this year, Måneskin competed in and won the Sanremo Music Festival, granting them the opportunity to represent Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021, being the break the group needed into worldwide recognition.
For their finale performance, the group performed their song, ‘Zitti E Buoni’, a rock song described by the group to NME as “challenging prejudices” and “finding redemption”, in custom matching looks by the Italian brand Etro.
Combining the energy of the song with the charisma the bandmates had on stage together, it was no surprise that the group swept the competition, amassing the most votes of the finalists, leading them to win Eurovision, catapulting them into worldwide recognition.
Both the recording of their performance and original music video have respectfully gained over 50 million views individually, reaching the Top 10 on the Spotify Global Chart, capturing the attention of listeners everywhere.
Riding the wave of their success, the band have announced that there will be a new album released by the end of this year, as well as some upcoming dates for performances they have lined up later this year.
Merchandise inspired by their competition winning song is also available for pre-order on their website.
You’re going to want to keep an eye on this group, great things are coming.