The country of pasta, pizza and gelato: welcome to Italy, often associated with good food, warm summer days, but also: music. After already introducing you to five Italian artists in part 1, we are back with five more for you to hopefully enjoy.

Singer, rapper, producer and DJ Dargen (real first name Jacopo.) D’Amico has been making music since way back in 1997. He started as part of a rap trio that disbanded in 2001 as a result of arguments between him and one of the other members. After that, D’Amico decided to go solo, releasing his debut album in 2006, and a total of eight albums since. His latest album was released earlier this year, called Ciao America. D’Amico describes the genre he works in as “emo rap” and is known to use personal themes in all of his music. 

Stand-out songs in D’Amico’s earlier discography include the Eminem-like rap song ‘Arrivi stai scomodo e te ne vai’, released all the way back in 2008; ‘L’Italia E’ Una’, which talks about political tensions in Italy, a topic still relevant to this day; and ‘La Mia Generazione’, a haunting song about being scared of the future, set to the piano and electric guitars. D’Amico participated in Sanremo twice, in 2022 with ‘Dove si balla’ – which is about his love for dance music and can be found on his album NEI SOGNI NESSUNO È MONOGAMO – and in 2024 with ‘Onda alta’. The latter is a modern anti-war anthem that mentions the refugee crisis. Throughout his participation, D’Amico has specifically spoken out against the situation in Gaza. The track can be found on his 2024 album, along with ‘Energia Electronica’, which talks about climate change, and ‘Check-In’, in which D’Amico specifically mentions that he wants to talk about the issues in the world, including the aforementioned ones of the refugee crisis and climate change. 

What makes D’Amico such a great artist is both how he speaks up for situations close to his heart as well how he’s constantly growing in his artistry. He has been working in the music industry for quite a while yet manages to continuously evolve – his music is not stuck in the early 2000s, but moves with the times. 

Marianna Mammone is an Italian songwriter and rapper that performs under the name BigMama. She picked her stage name as she was often bullied for her weight as a kid, but has never let this stop her. Instead, she has turned it into her biggest strength, writing songs about body positivity and female rage. Mammone started making music in 2016, encouraged by her friends who recognized her talent as a rapper. In 2019, she released her first single ’77’, a very short yet intense track. Since then Mammone has released several singles, including the club banger ‘Bloody Mary’, where she talks about being a bouncy and powerful woman, while the losers are still “body shaming”. 

Mammone took part in Sanremo twice, once as a guest in 2023, performing ‘American Woman’ together with Italian singer Elodie, and once with her own song in 2024, ‘La rabbia non ti basta’. The title translates to “Anger isn’t enough for you” and is a real female rage anthem. After her participation, Mammone released her debut album Sangue. Mammone identifies as bisexual, and part of the songwriting for this album was inspired by her relationship with her girlfriend Ludovica, who she often has to miss when they are living in separate parts of the country. Other themes mentioned on the album are the sexual abuse Mammone suffered as a child, as well as the chemotherapy treatment she had to undergo in 2020. In ‘Cento Occhi’, for example, Mammone speaks out about being ogled by men on a daily basis and feeling scared, feeling the need to start walking faster just in case. Furthermore, in ‘Ragazzina’, she speaks out even more clearly about the abuse she has endured. It’s a beautiful yet haunting song about what she has had to go through, mentioning in the chorus her rage and how she hopes “his tongue will kill him one day”.

As Mammone has quite a lot of important things to say, she not only released her debut album, but also an autobiography about everything she has gone through at quite a young age. Speaking up against fatphobia, sexual abuse and other social issues, Mammone also participated in a charity concert to help female victims of violence earlier this year. A real role model, especially for young girls, Mammone is an artist one can only admire. 

While a huge chunk of this list has appeared on people’s radars due to their participation in Amici and/or Sanremo, there’s obviously also a lot of artists that have not been on these televised stages (yet). One of them is alt rock duo PEAKS! who began their musical journey in 2020. The duo consists of Luca Del Fiore and Lorenzo Mazzucchi, who are joined in their live performances by drummer Dan Hunder. 

Unlike most Italian artists, PEAKS! exclusively writes and releases music in English to get their important messages across. In 2021, the band released their second single ‘Fired Up’ which talks about mental health, specifically about building up walls to protect yourself and your sanity from everything happening around you, and was dedicated by the band to everyone struggling. After only a few singles and an EP, PEAKS! already got invited to support K. Flay on tour and perform at The Great Escape in Brighton. Since then, the duo has released the extended plays Futurephobia in 2022 and Modern World Survivors in 2023. Both EPs feature songs about being scared of the future and your own death, especially during intense situations such as the COVID pandemic and rapid climate change. The duo’s discography is full of relatable, heavy bangers that are especially perfect to jump and mosh too. Last year, they supported American rock band Dead Poet Society on tour – and it’s only a matter of time before PEAKS! go on their own headline tour across Italy and the rest of Europe. 

Stage name of Alessandro Mahmoud, Mahmood is a mix of the pronunciation of his surname and the English saying “my mood”. Born in 1992 in Milan to an Egyptian father, Mahmoud not only speaks fluent Italian but also Arabic, which he incorporates in his music. A songwriter and singer as well as rapper, Mahmood is one of the most listened to artists in Italy. Even outside his home country, you will probably have heard of him because of his double participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. In 2019, Mahmood entered with his autobiographical song ‘Soldi’ – which includes a line in Arabic and talks about his life without his father, who left him at age 5 – and in ‘2022’ he collaborated with fellow rapper and singer Blanco on the ballad ‘Brividi’. Both songs were first performed on, and ended up winning, Sanremo, in which he also participated in 2024 with the hip hop banger ‘Tuta gold’, which is seemingly about a queer relationship. While Mahmoud does not label himself, he has in the past spoken out against discrimination, specifically homophobia and transphobia, as he has suffered homophobic bullying himself. He has stated that “there is no need to explain our own preferences, until homosexuality will be perceived as a normal thing, which it is”. 

Mahmood has released a total of three studio albums, with his 2024 release NEI LETTI DEGLI ALTRI being his latest. His musical journey has been inspired by the great Italian artists as well as international artists such as Frank Ocean and Beyoncé. It makes sense, then, that all three of his albums feature only masterpieces. Tracks that one must listen to include ‘Remo’ from his debut album, the hyperpop banger ‘Klan’ from his second, and the beautiful ‘STELLA CADENTE’ from his latest. Mahmood’s discography also includes several astounding collabs, such as ‘PERSONALE’ featuring Neapolitan rapper Geolier; ‘SEMPRE /JAMAIS which he wrote together with Belgian singer Angèle and is partly in French; and his collaboration with French artist Woodkid ‘Karma’, which is partly in English. 

And finally, for the last artist – or rather, band – on this list: Fast Animals and Slow Kids. A rock band that has been around since 2008, they have never made it to the Sanremo stage – despite that, however, they have made it to the stages of several music venues across Europe. The band consists of singer, guitarist and percussionist Aimone Romizi, drummer Alessio Mingoli, bassist Jacopo Gigliotti and guitarist Alessandro Guerci. The band has released six albums throughout their career, the last in 2021 – as they have since taken the time to tour and perform their discography live. 

Despite the fact that the band has been making music for over fifteen years, they did not break through to the mainstream audience until 2019 when they released their fifth album Animali Notturni. Their concert in Rome later that year had a total of 50,000 people in attendance; a huge number for the formerly underground group. Fast Animals and Slow Kids – often abbreviated as FASK – are known for their intense sound and interesting lyrics. Stand-out songs in their repertoire are ‘Radio Radio’ – which talks about using your voice within the music industry and getting one’s songs out there – ‘Fiumi Di Corpi’ and ‘Come Un Animale’. Their latest single, ‘Come no’, described as “not a love song, but the meaning is the same” was released this June and is a catchy pop rock anthem. In December of this year, the band will again be going on tour – only in Italy, for now, but hopefully the band will be back in other European countries soon.