The country of pasta, pizza and gelato: welcome to Italy, often associated with good food and warm summer days, but also; music. Italian music has gained global recognition over recent decades- who isn’t familiar with the often-covered ‘Nel blu dipinto di blu’, better known as ‘Volare’? Even U2 has recorded a version of this song! On top of that, surely no one has missed out on the sudden stardom of the rock band Måneskin after they won the Eurovision Song Contest 2021. On this list, you will find five more surprising modern Italian artists that deserve your attention. 

This list has to start with the band who released the Italian song of last summer, ‘ITALODISCO’: The Kolors. A pop and funk rock group from Naples, they have been around since 2009 and consist of vocalist Antonio “Stash” Fiordispino, drummer Alex Fiordispino and synth player Daniele Mona. The band sings both in Italian as well as English, even having released an English version of their previously mentioned smash hit that got them on the international charts for the first time.  The band also cares a lot about fighting injustice, with Stash having said that “when you see that someone needs your kindness and someone else deserves your violence, act.”

The Kolors have participated in popular music festival Sanremo – which has been taking place since way back in the 1940s – twice: in 2018 with ‘Frida (mai, mai, mai)’ and earlier this year with the funky ‘Un ragazzo una ragazza’, which even has its own choreographed dance. Between their debut and 2017 the band released three studio albums fully in English, but have since mainly released songs in their native language. Standouts in their discography since are their collaboration with famous Italian singer Elodie, ‘Pensare male’, the immensely catchy ‘Cabriolet Panorama’ and their latest single ‘KARMA’. The trio has really managed to find their own sound, and here’s to hoping they’ll release a new studio album sooner rather than later.   

Andrea de Filippi, known professionally as Alfa, is an indie pop singer from Genoa. Only 24 years old now, he has been making music since he was 17. Originally, he wanted to be a doctor, then enrolled in university to study economics, but eventually dropped out to pursue a full time music career. Since then, De Filippi has released three studio albums: Before Wanderlust (2019), NoRD (2021) – which includes the alternative pop rock song with Rosa Chemical ‘SnoB’ as well as several other collaborations with well known Italian artists – and his latest, Non so chi ha creato il mondo ma so che era innamorato (2024). The incredibly long title translates to “I don’t know who created the world, but I know that they were in love”.  

De Filippi is inspired by folk as well as pop music, especially seeming to be a big fan of Taylor Swift. In 2023, he released ‘bellissimissima <3’, an adorable little love song. A non-album single, it did not make it onto his third studio album, unlike the song he participated in Sanremo with earlier this year, ‘Vai!’ In this song, the folk influences are heavily noticeable, more so than on the rest of his album. Other songs that must be highlighted are ‘Vabbè ciao’, his latest single that combines pop and rap into a catchy summer hit, and ‘Dove sei?’ De Filippi makes music perfect for the summer, mixing rap, pop and folk to create the perfect blend.  

Moving on to the Italian pop star of the moment: 23-year old Angelina Mango from Maratea, daughter of the late Pino Mango. With her father being a pioneer in the Italian music industry, fusing several genres including rock and world music to create his own style, Mango has grown up in an immensely musical environment and learned to sing and play several instruments at a young age. In 2020, she released her first single ‘Va tutto bene’, which talks both about her love life as well as the start of her music career. Set to a catchy beat, her soft vocals in this particular song make it really unique.  

Angelina Mango participated in Amici in 2023 and then in Sanremo earlier this year, winning the entire contest with her song ‘la noia’ which translates to “The boredom” and talks about this phenomenon as something to be appreciated as a valid emotion in and of itself. The singer also participated in the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest with this song, immediately after which she released her debut album poké melodrama. Besides ‘La noia’, it includes her other amazing singles ‘fila indiana’ and ‘che t’o dico a fa’, which both sound almost like they were inspired by a Western movie, and ‘uguale a me’, a beautiful ballad sung as a duet with Marco Mengoni. Angelina Mango has been praised for her heterogeneity on this album, mixing several music genres throughout the entirety of the record. In the fall of this year, she will be taking her album tour to several European cities, after having performed at the Isle of Wight Festival recently. 

Tananai is the stage name of Alberto Cotta Ramusino, born in Milan in 1995. The singer and rapper started making music in 2017 at the age of 22. His first album, To Discover and Forget, was fully in English and released under the name Not for Us. Since then, he has changed his artist name and has moved to writing and releasing music in Italian. In 2019, he released ‘Bear Grylls’, an effortlessly cool rap song about a past hook-up.  

In 2022, Tananai participated in Sanremo Giovani, a televised competition where new and upcoming artists would be selected to participate in Sanremo. Tananai was one of three selected artists, and ended up participating in Sanremo with ‘SESSO OCCASIONALE’, which translates to “Casual sex” and turned into kind of a joke amongst viewers, partially due to his poor vocals throughout the competition. However, Tananai has gained a lot of followers as a result and has heavily improved both in his performances as well as in his songwriting. He released his debut album RAVE, ECLISSI later that year, which includes the beautiful ballads ‘ABISSALE’ and ‘CAMPO MINATO’ – a collaboration with singer ARIETE – as well as multiple rap songs, including ‘BABY GODDAMN’. While Tananai’s songwriting has very much matured since his first release, he still occasionally goes back to his roots by incorporating rap in his repertoire. 

In 2023, Tananai was again selected to take part in Sanremo, this time with ‘TANGO’, a song he wrote about the war on Ukraine. Here he sings about a couple loving and living in times of war. “Amore tra le palazzine a fuoco” he sings, which translates to “love between the buildings on fire”. Since his participation in Sanremo he has released several other singles, including ‘Ho fatto un sogno’ with Madame and Rose Villain, and his most recent ‘STORIE BREVIE’, a beautiful ballad in collaboration with famous singer Annalisa. 

As there have been several solo artists mentioned, it is time for another band to be introduced. LA SAD is a punk rock band, formed in Milan in 2020. The band is composed of Matteo “Theø” Botticini, Francesco Emanuele “Plant” Clemente and Enrico “Fiks” Fonte. All three band members rock brightly coloured hair in green, pink and blue – although they do occasionally switch out whose hair is which colour. The band debuted with the song ‘SUMMERSAD’, an intense rock song about getting into drugs to forget about the sadness felt as a result of a break-up, and released their first album in 2022, called STO NELLA SAD. The album includes their hit ‘TOXIC’, which has over 22 million streams, and ‘LA SAD ITALIANA’, which is a real emo anthem talking about walking towards death in a dying world. What really stands out in LA SAD’s songs is the difference in their voices, with Fiks having immensely raspy vocals that are immediately recognizable.  

LA SAD was selected to participate in Sanremo by the show’s host Amadeus for 2024. Alongside them, punk band bnkr44 also got to participate, with whom LA SAD released the collaboration ‘MEMORIA’ at the end of 2023. LA SAD performed ‘Autodistruttivo’ on the Sanremo stage – and similar to Tananai, they also became a meme because of the way the host pronounced the band’s name, as well as their iconic way of performing, running in circles around each other on the stage while shouting out their song. ‘AUTODISTRUTTIVO’ speaks up for suicide awareness, a theme the band talks about quite often. After their participation they released their second studio album, ODIO LA SAD – which translated to “I Hate The Sad” – which features both ‘MEMORIA’ and ‘AUTODISTRUTTIVO’ as well as several new songs, including ‘FUCK THE WORLD’, which might be the band’s heaviest song and sounds like the Italian rendition of a Sum 41 song. The band has said this album was made not just for themselves, but for all of the people who suffer at the hands of violence and abuse.