With their raw sound and glam look, Italian band Måneskin bring rock’n’roll back to the top of the charts. At the Montreux Jazz Festival on Tuesday evening, young Italians are raising the temperature.
Three days following a sold-out concert at the Circus Maximus in Rome, Måneskin arrives on the Stravinsky stage of the Montreux Jazz Festival on Tuesday. The stop on the Vaud Riviera is just one of the 72 concert dates of a tour that sees them play in the main festivals on the planet (Coachella, Rock in Rio, Rock Am Ring, Reading & Leeds Festival, Lollapalooza , etc).
Leather, long hair and eyeliner
At a time when rock is embodied by Mick Jagger or Iggy Pop, men approaching 80, Måneskin’s way of playing with the myth of ‘sex, drugs and rock’n’roll’ has at least something refreshing. Because Victoria de Angelis (bass, 22 years old), Damiano David (vocals, 23 years old), Thomas Raggi (guitar, 21 years old) and Ethan Torchio (drums, soon to be 22 years old) have not hesitated to appropriate the attributes of glam rock: eyeliner, long hair, bare torsos, tattoos, leather and glitter.
The young Italians, who won Eurovision last year in Rotterdam, managed to dethrone the Beatles and Led Zeppelin on Spotify. Young people of their age, more accustomed to rap, the current mode of expression of the transgressive – all you have to do to be convinced of this is to lend an ear to the dark Ziak in Montreux on Thursday evening –, listen (and watch) Måneskin without hesitation.
Honored by Iggy Pop and Mick Jager
Even the Iguana (Iggy Pop) was not mistaken. He did a cover of Måneskin’s ‘I wanna be your slave’, which itself was heavily inspired by The Stooges’ ‘I wanna be your dog’, which featured Iggy Pop as lead singer.
The king of rock Mick Jagger also dubbed them. Måneskin opened for the legendary band in Las Vegas last November.
Currently, the Italian group has nearly 5 billion streams on all digital platforms, according to information distilled by the Montreux Jazz Festival and their Sony Music label. Their latest single ‘Supermodel’ was released last May following ‘Mammamia’ in October 2021.
This last title is a snub to the rumors that had run regarding the singer, accusing him of having snorted cocaine during Eurovision. To deny the claims of the tabloids, Damiano had passed a drug test. Who had whitewashed him.
‘Zitti E Buoni’ – the song with which they won Eurovision, the two versions of ‘I wanna be your slave’ as well as ‘Beggin’, a cover of the Four Seasons, are among their most famous titles.
A cover band or the saviors of rock?
Are the Måneskin just a cover band or the saviors of rock? In any case, the group loves covers: they did not hesitate to play ‘Womanizer’ by Britney Spears at the Coachella Festival in the Colorado desert last April. A title that makes rockers choke.
Immediately reassured by ‘If I can dream’, a song made famous by Elvis Presley, which Damiano sings on the soundtrack of the biopic ‘Elvis’. The film has just been released on the screens.
In addition to their mega-tour, the rise of the young Italians last year was marked by the release of five singles. We still owe them two albums: ‘Il ballo della vita’ in 2018 and ‘Teatro d’ira’ three years later.
A concert in Zurich next spring
The group, created in 2016 in Rome by the bassist and the guitarist, chose to be called ‘Måneskin’ which means ‘moonlight’ in Danish, like the origins of the bassist. While they started playing in the streets of Rome, they took part in ‘X Factor’ in Italy in 2017 and won second place in tele-hook: Sony Music signed them in stride. Not even 20 years old.
After their first concert in Montreux on Tuesday evening, the Måneskin will return to Switzerland. They have already scheduled a concert at the Hallenstadion in Zurich on April 26, 2023.
/ATS
