His arms are milling, his ball at zero nods, his voice galvanizes at all costs. Gianfranco Bruno is Italy’s most elated chauffeur. Three years ago, he reached his professional Grail: watching over the applause meter of the song festival which is held every end of winter in Sanremo, a seaside resort on the Ligurian coast. Since its creation in 1951, the competition, broadcast by RAI, the transalpine audiovisual giant, has obtained stratospheric audiences. Unlike other musical ceremonies, here the artists present only unpublished compositions. Suffice to say that Gianfranco Bruno plays a crucial role. It is he who is the first to feel the crowd quivering, directing its clamours, directing its favors.
When he took office, in 2021, the ambiancer did not have to force his talent when an Italian rock group called Måneskin (“moonlight” in Danish) tumbled onto the stage. “The enthusiasm of the spectators was immediate, among the young people of course, but also among the older ones, remembers the 34-year-old Neapolitan. We felt that they were equipped to go far – their first place did not surprise anyone. »
Since this triumph, Gianfranco Bruno has seen the quartet, who sings both in English and in Italian, return to the next two editions of Sanremo, with growing magnetism. 1is February 2022, the group was given a standing ovation, crowned with their victory nine months earlier at Eurovision. Rebelote, February 9, 2023: the artists performed a potpourri of their greatest hits, most of them taken from their third album, Rush !, at the top of international sales the week of its release, at the end of January.
In barely two years, Måneskin has acquired a planetary dimension. Their resumption of Beggin’ (2021), created in 1967 by the American band The Four Seasons, is a hit on TikTok, the favorite teen network. All platforms combined, their songs now accumulate 6.5 billion streams. An impressive figure for a group whose first album was released in 2018. Their 2023 tour, which is already sold out, will pass through the biggest European venues, including the Accor Arena, on March 13, in Paris. The promotion of their new album has been carried out almost exclusively from Rome, where the quartet grew up before meeting in high school. Filtering its communication as much as possible, the group did not provide any interview to Sanremo.
Undeniable efficiency
To talk to them, you just have to make a call on Zoom. Dressed in very chic 1970s ocher-coloured costumes, seated on a large sofa, the young artists offer polite answers and smiles. On screen: Damiano David, the hoarse-voiced singer who adores audiences on social media; Thomas Raggi, guitarist; Victoria De Angelis, the Italian-Danish bassist, who gave the group her name; and Ethan Torchio, the drummer.
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