I Maneskin on the roof of Europe. They won, dominating the popular vote, the 2021 edition of theEurovision Song Contest which took place in Rotterdam. They deservedly won, they are the “Next Gen Eu”, they embody it with their energy, their freedom, their passion and song, “Shut up and good “, clear and rock, it was undoubtedly the best of the long Dutch musical evening. And they have won everything there is to win in this 2021, the Sanremo festival a few weeks ago, the Eurovision Song Contest tonight.
Eurovision 2021, the Maneskin triumph: “Rock’n’roll never die”
“Rock’n’roll never die”. Rock and roll will never die. So Damiano, the charismatic Maneskin frontman, commented on the victory at the Eurovision Song Contest with Zitti e Buoni on the stage of the Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam.
In the final performance, with the trophy in hand, the band sang the song again, this time without censoring the bad words that had been removed as required by the regulations.
I Maneskin bring Eurovision back to Italy after 31 years: are the third Italian artists to win the European competition after Gigliola Cinquetti in 1964 and Toto Cutugno in 1990.
It was a fun evening, even if not “explosive” as in other editions: there were no particular surprises, the desire to “exaggerate” that has always characterized the European song show seemed a bit hidden in a show which in the post-Covid era, was decidedly more predictable, also in musical terms, oriented largely towards a standardized pop-dance and few have come out of the script. The final three, with Italy, Switzerland and France to compete for the final votes, was very tense and the victory of the band arrived, liberating to the applause of the whole audience.
Måneskin: “We are twenty and this time we really believe”
by Ernesto Assante
May 21, 2021
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How are the songs of the Eurovision Song Contest 2021? Cyprus focuses on the Lady Gaga formula with Elena Tsagkrinou, and her “El diablo”, Albania makes smoke and flames with Anxehela Peristeri and “Karma”, Israel with Eden Alene, very thin, a hairstyle that is not clear where the hairstyle ends and begins, if there is, a scaffolding, mainstream pop, with “Set me free”. Then come Hooverphonic, always a great pop band, to defend the colors of Belgium with “The wrong place”, not exactly with their best song. Maniza, from Russia, with a beautiful statement for women and a truly remarkable performance, steals the show from everyone, with strength, conviction and originality, mixing dance and Russian melody, protest and entertainment, very powerful. Immediately after from Malta, Destiny sings “Je me casse” and has a piece from the radio and charts, mainstream pop dance, very international.
Black Mamba, “Love is on my side”, from Portugal, are the first to focus on melody, even if bluesy and they do it very well. From Serbia, the Hurricanes with “Loco loco” do not leave their mark, despite a noticeable movement of hair. The show is fun as always, it is not a show made for those who want to go there and limit themselves to singing, and in any case even when some of the artists limit themselves to the essential, the lights, the inventions of the scenography, the fumes, the fires , lasers, widely lend a hand to raise enthusiasm. It is an “inclusive” show by definition, precisely because the Italian conduction of Malgioglio and Corsi focuses on irony, sometimes it works, sometimes not and accompanies the images between one performance and another. We move to James Newman’s England, with “Embers”, a forgettable, cute and useless piece, maybe good for a summer evening on the beach and nothing more, then Stefania arrives from Greece with “Last Dance”. Ironically, the title recalls dance and she really does not know how to move much on stage, not even helped by the song that leaves the time it finds. The Swiss Gjon’s Tears chooses to sing in French, he is good, has an almost perfect falsetto and has a piece that makes him look very good, even if substantially boring, while the Icelanders Daði Freyr Pétursson, with “10 Years” offer us the first real first moment of satisfaction for those who see the Eurovision Song Contest to see performances at the limit of the surreal.
They do not have Will Ferrell on the team, but with their electropop they are not doing badly. Blas Cantò, with “Voy a quedarme”, super mainstream sung under a giant full moon and an expanding universe, but it is not destined to reverse Spain’s negative streak, while Natalia Gordienko with “Sugar” sings better than the Britney Spears it seems. want to imitate. I don’t feel hate, “I don’t feel hate” is the song by the German Jendrix, who plays the ukulele and is accompanied by a hand and sings in glee against discrimination with a piece that has playful verses and a hard chorus, who knows why. We can say that the future of German music shouldn’t be in his hands either.
But the message goes strong and clear like all the others who start from the stage, in many languages, with a mixture of cultures, genres, colors, sounds (from the most melodic ones to the self-defined “violent pop” of Blind Channel , with “Dark Side”) which is the daughter of a Europe that in the evenings of Eurovision appears decidedly more united than is perceived by politics: take Barbara Pravi, Italian stage name, Iranian mother, Serbian father, who competes for France and do the math. Victoria from Bulgaria with “Growing Up is Getting Old”, sings in the middle of a virtual sea while snowing stars, while The Roop from Lithuania with “Discoteque” focus on an ironic choreography and a super electropop, and the Ukrainians Go_A, invoke the spirit of nature with “Sum” in one of the best performances of the evening. From Azerbaijan, Efendi mixes oriental and dance harmonies with “Mata Hari”, while Tix with “Fall an Angel” does not fly Norway out of the more obvious and trite mainstream despite its white wings. The hosts bring on stage Jeangu Macrooy, who with “Birth of New Age” sings for the first time at Eurovision also in the language of Suriname, and has one of the most successful pieces of the entire evening. But the Maneskins surpass all, they are powerful, rock, young, beautiful and they play. No tricks and no deceptions, just rock, bass, guitar and drums, and the voice and presence of Damiano, who conquers the audience of the Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam and we can say that they have won in any case, given the welcome and the performance. The last two songs are the Norwegian one, Tusse, with “Voices” and the one from San Marino, with Senhit and the collaboration of Flo Rida.
The funniest part of the evening is the long and often surprising “carousel” of connections with all European cities where there are juries who vote for the songs in the competition, which begins after a long series of performances to allow all of enlarged Europe EBU to televoting.
Suffering, one country after another, with the votes coming or not, and the Maneskins who say, without volume but you can read from the lip, a barrage of swear words, of enthusiasm when it goes well and of anger when it goes wrong. At the end of the voting, the juries are much less sensible than televoting, which rewards decidedly less traditional pieces than those of Switzerland and France awarded instead by the “quality” juries. Jury and televoting were completely in agreement only in delivering the lowest position, with a total of 0 votes, to Great Britain. When, after a very tense wait, the Maneskin win is a real explosion, Europe voted for the four boys of Rome, for their music, for their energy, for their strength. It is a great satisfaction, it is a new Italy, a young, electric and rock Italy. One cannot fail to be happy to see a group of Italian twenty-year-olds, who started playing in the street in Via del Corso and arrived in a few months to triumph in Sanremo and Rotterdam. And to have fun, in the replica of the song after the victory, Damiano sings the text, awarded as the best text of the event, including the bad words they had avoided singing, to respect the rules of Eurovision.
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