Fiorella Mannoia: “Mariposa” – 6.5
It is Latinized in rhythms and uses rhetorical art to identify women who made history, like Joan of Arc, or stories of everyday women struggling with patriarchy and machismo, like “dress too short”: in short “a hundred thousand.”
Dargen D'Amico: “High Wave” – 7
With a military marching rhythm and gym class BPM, he manages to ironize the prejudices against migrants and then plunge us into the tragedy of a stormy sea towards Malta with waves that you can only pray against.
Geolier: “I p' me, tu p' te” – 7.5
Naples is groove again and not just neo-melodic tradition. The trapper with the most listened to album of 2023 tells a love story, wrapped in the atmosphere of a nighttime drive on the highway. The text is entirely in Neapolitan, with the exception of one sentence
Emma: “Apnea” – 6.5
Electro-pop confessions from a relationship, the apnea of the title does not cause fear, on the contrary, the rhythm is playful and Emma places more emphasis on control than on explosion when interpreting it.
Fred De Palma: “Heaven doesn’t want us” – 5
Amusement park magic, cold hard cash and everyone kicking their asses for the former rapper and former reggaeton senor's gritty atmosphere (like The Weeknd). The text remains linked to images and basic vocabulary
Angelina Mango: “Boredom” – May 7th
She is like that: happy, fresh, carefree. And so it is this cumbia that gives a Latin American soul to a chorus redolent of Mediterranean tradition. Summer comes early to the Ariston stage. The handwriting of Madame and the handwriting of Dardust are noticeable, but do not cloud the personality of the winner of Amici 2023.
La Sad: “Self-Destructive” – 6
Signs of a self-destructive youth, told without giving too much emphasis to the torments and the dark side, but as a sign of feeling alive. Light punk pop in autotune sauce. Provocations are to be expected on stage: will they drive the song forward or slow it down? Authors include Riccardo Zanotti of Pinguini Tattici Nucleari
Diodato: “You move” – 7
The winner of the 2020 edition fills the singer-songwriter box: orchestral elegance and Nordic soul for a story that has come to an end, but is still moving and moving within.
The three: “Fragile” – 6
The unusual rapper (no foul language and toxic machismo in his repertoire) focuses solely on dance and a memorable chorus. Everything is very thin, there is a risk that it will break before impact, but if it resists…
Renga and Nek: “Crazy about you” – 5.5
They compete with voice and melody, they exaggerate a little with the orchestra and you feel the experience more than the feeling. However, on stage, experience brings additional points
Sangiovanni: “Finish me” – 6.5
A confession, in a classic ballad version, a collection of mistakes and lies that ended a relationship: he asks her to end it, but also to understand it.
Alpha: «Go» – 6.5
Singer-songwriter fleeing the coolness and social trends that first gave him popularity. The arrangement rediscovers the banjo and international folk between Ed Sheeran and California. Be careful, the whistle and chant are contagious
Il Volo: “Masterpiece” – 4.5
The three try to modernize themselves, the direction is that of pop, but they remain true to the rhetoric of opera and bel canto. The text gets lost in the banality of clichés, from “sailing on the open sea” to “flowers in the desert”.
Alessandra Amoroso: “So far” – 6.5
A ballad that oscillates between rhythm and drama and tells the personal story of a difficult time (“You don't know that I'm sick”) full of self-confidence. In the text he quotes the iconic phrase from “L'odio” (So far so good) and “Sally” by Vasco.
Gazelles: “That’s all” – 7
It is the calling card of the indie singer-songwriter: the ability to write phrases that can be used in memes, the melody and feeling with the underlying melancholy, the search for the serenity that he speaks of in the lyrics, makes complex.
Negramaro: “Let’s start everything over again” – August 8th
For the first time in Sanremo as a big. A powerful ballad that works in all its elements: it tells of the constant new beginning of love, it quotes Battisti's “blonde braids”, an instrumental crescendo that begins with Sangiorgi on the piano and then brings the orchestra into dialogue (the strings come from Davide). Rossi) and the band (the guitar riff looks like U2).
Irama: “Not you” – 8
In Sanremo he always showed an exciting spring. Outside of Ariston, he often showed his wildest side, even damaging his career. Here he has a song in his pocket that gives you goosebumps: desperate voice, intensity, emotion in a minimal (but not acoustic) key
Rose Villain: “Click Boom” – 7
There is a song from Frankenstein: it seems as if two songs were put together. The verse is in the realm of the melody, with the high note pushed very high by the autotune function, and suddenly an urban beat sounds that swells the room. Are you sure Frankenstein is a monster?
Mahmood: “Golden Tracksuit” – 7
After two of two victories, this Sanremo also has a point: Baile Funk Brasileiro for memories of the suburbs, extinct friendships that cannot be revived even with “five cell phones”, personal memories of bullying and racism (“the insults”) are good to me done… I took her and cried… you said go back to your country) and again a difficult relationship with the father.
Loredana Berté: “Crazy” – 7
A rush of autobiographical rock with an '80s feel: She knows she's so outside the rules that she's even hurt herself, but she's certainly not looking for forgiveness and who cares if the judgment on her is between ” crazy” and “holy” fluctuates ».
The Kolors: “One Boy One Girl” – 7
What if it was the year of the bands? There's no such thing as pure rock (“Not even among young people,” says Amadeus), but if Stash and company have been pestering us all summer, here's another catchphrase: “A boy meets a girl, lips on lips.” , Cash Straight and Funk fragrance.
Big Mama: “Anger is not enough for you” – 6.5
The hatred of those who are most fragile, the hidden tears of those who would simply like to have a different body, a test of acceptance that makes them say: “Now I am different”. No melodrama or ballads to make you cry, it's time to dance.
Ghali: “My Home” – 7
He lets you dance with the thoughts of a second-generation boy, singing about “dreams lost at sea / children of a distant desert,” about the difficulty of finding your way home “when you don't know what your Home is”. “, about borders and wars in which hospitals are bombed.
Annalisa: “With kind regards” – 7.5
It's his moment and for the first time he's really playing it in Sanremo. The song, a pop anthem to female freedom, has a '70s classicism that doesn't lend itself to vintage. The beat is infectious, in the style of Kylie Minogue's “Can't Get You Out of My Head”.
Mr. Rain: “Two Swings” – 5
Simplicity remains his territory: an arrangement that ranges from the minimal to the thrust of the orchestra. He explains that the song is about a parent who lost his children, but without the spoiler it is difficult to understand such a big drama.
Maninni: “Spectacular” – 5.5
Amadeus fell in love with him last year when he saw him among the young people. The singer-songwriter couldn't get through and the artistic director had honored a guaranteed invitation for that year. The song is a ballad about the value of simplicity, but it hardly manages to inspire.
The rich and poor: “But not the whole life” – 4
The LOL rate of this issue. There is the desire for a lively Saturday evening, there is the pure dance cash register, but the cash register makes everything creak. Song included. And the “what a mess” is more tender than nostalgia
The French Saints: “Love in the Mouth” – 6.5
The winners of X Factor 2022 have a piece of atmosphere and sensuality, images without a precise story but with a clear direction
Clara: “Diamonds in the Rough” – 5
There's the “But are we sure there was a need for 30 songs?” category. Amadeus is convinced of this. Clara, one of the faces of “Mare Fuori”, tries to talk about Gen Z: confused in the Mahmood style, but banal.
BNKR44: “Punk Government” – 6
They play with freshness and show us the nightmares, dreams and vices of their generation.