Even with the oversaturated musical market, the Italian rock band, Maneskin, has made a global comeback. With their latest world tour, The Loud Kids Tour, Maneskin focused primarily on performing in large cities in the United States.

Who is Maneskin?

Maneskin’s band members are Damiano David (vocals), Victoria de Angelis (bass), Ethan Torchio (drums), and Thomas Raggi (guitar), all from Rome, Italy. Damiano, Victoria, and Thomas first met in high school. In 2016, Ethan joined the band shortly after they posted an ad on Facebook looking for a drummer.

Keeping rock and roll alive, Maneskin has played a role in preserving and modernizing this form of music, drawing out appreciation from younger and older generations.

“We just want to say to the whole of Europe, to the whole world, rock and roll never dies,” Damiano sometimes shouts from the stage. 

“This Italian band seems to be making a shift toward rock music in the public pop consciousness, and I’m all for it,” senior Maverick Williams said. 

Background

In 2016, they participated in a local competition for emerging bands: Pulse. They performed in front of nearly 300 people and came home with the first-place title.

At this competition, they came up with their band name. Victoria is part Danish, and the others asked her to say words in this language. One of the words she listed was Maneskin, meaning moonlight, and it became the group’s new name.

In 2017, they competed in the Italian X-factor. There, they covered many known songs including Somebody Told Me by the Killers and Beggin by the Four Seasons. They also came out with their single Chosen, charted at number two on the Italian FMI singles chart.

“Honestly, I first heard Manerskin’s cover of Beggin on the radio,” freshman Daniella Cohen said. “It is my favorite version of the song.”  

In 2018, Maneskin released their first album, Il Ballo Della Vita. The album and their song Torna a Casa quickly rose to the top of the Italian charts. To promote the band, Maneskin released the documentary film This is Maneskin. Between 2018 and 2019, they took their first European tour, selling out of tickets across the continent.

After winning the Sanremo contest in 2021, Maneskin became the Italian representative for Eurovision. They won with Zitti e Buoni, bringing Italy its third win, becoming the first rock and roll band to win since 2006. 

With their win on Eurovision, their tracks began entering the U.S. Billboard charts. I Wanna Be Your Slave and Zitti e Buoni were among the first to be on the top 10 charts.

They also made debuts across American television on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the MTV Europe Music Awards, Saturday Night Live, and the American Music Awards.

Their performance of If I Can Dream was also included on the soundtrack for the newest Elvis film.

Maneskin Today

In the upcoming year, Maneksin is set to release its third studio album Rush! on Jan. 20, 2023. Many fans are excited about this release. 

“I can’t wait to see what new music they have,” freshman Ellen Barbu said. “I love their past releases and know I’m going to love the new ones just as much.”

Now, after 2022, Maneskin has been on tour in the U.S. They were in New York just a few weeks ago, on Dec. 2 and 3. At their concerts, they performed Kool Kids, a track set to release with their Rush! album, building up the suspense to its official release.

Maneskin has experienced international growth over the past year, and its fan base waits with anticipation to see what will happen next.