After 31 years, Italy is once again the protagonist of the Eurovision Song Contest, the international music festival organized annually by the members of the European Broadcasting Union and which this year was held in Rotterdam. It was Måneskin, an Italian rock band composed by four young members in their twenties, that put Italy on top of the podium. It is the third time that italians win the European competition, after Gigliola Cinquetti in 1964 and Toto Cutugno in 1990.
Their song “Zitti e Buoni”, winner of Sanremo Festival 2021, brought an explosion of energy, freedom and desire for fun on the Eurovision stage. Already after the first performance, Måneskin’s song had conquered the public and the bookmakers, who considered them as favorites for the victory. “I don’t really know how to explain it, but it’s an incredible feeling. We feel like everything we’ve done since the day we met and the day we started playing on the street really makes sense and it’s worth it” said the band’s lead singer, Damiano David.
Måneskin’s victory represents the redemption of a generation of young Italians determined to overturn the rules of the past and rewrite the notes of the future: their rock in Italian is a clear sign that you don’t necessarily have to express yourself in English to write a good song, you just need the courage to do it in your own way. When they started, Måneskin were just four young guys full of passion and with the dream of rock and roll playing on the sidewalk of Via del Corso in Rome. And it is that same passion that brought them far, in Europe, passing first through X-Factor Italy and then Sanremo.
In such a complicated year, in which everything has stopped, Italian music could not hope for a better way to restart. “I think this event meant a lot to a lot of people because it gave the opportunity to work for many people who couldn’t do it this year and maybe it made some people happy by following us from home and transmitting the energy of a concert again from alive “, commented the bassist of the band Victoria De Angelis.
