Ciao bella, is this a joke?

It’s easy to write off any winner of a Eurovision song contest and label these artists and songs as a novelty. After all, most of the past winners, with the exception of a few, notably ABBA in 1974, fade away into musical oblivion.

But hey, it's 2021, and perhaps it’s time to listen with an open mind, forget about the whole Eurovision thing, and turn the volume up to eleven (granted, this is a rock song!)

The intro & first part of verse one features the main guitar riff accompanied by a thumping bass drum, which kind of reminds me of the White Stripes, Seven Nation Army. 

The enigmatic front man, Damiano David, ushers in the full sound of the band with his phrase, Buonasera signore e signori, (translates to- good evening ladies & gentlemen), building the pre-chorus in a charismatic fashion.

The full throttle sound of the band opens up in the chorus, with Damiano shouting the words “Siamo fuori di testa, ma diverso da loro” (translates to- we’re out of our heads, and different to the rest/ the norm). This is a huge chorus, sure to have all rock fans pulling out their air guitars and stomping their feet. 

Cleverly, in verse two, Damiano switches melody & phrasing with an epic spoken word rant, which leads again into the explosive chorus.

In the bridge, Maneskin guitarist Thomas Raggi switches to a lead style riff with a rhythm you could almost find yourself dancing to, one Franz Ferdinand would be proud of. I love the fact Maneskin included a bridge here. A bridge is a risky thing to include in modern music, it can either make or break a song and only the craftiest of songwriters and producers can pull it off, here Maneskin do a brilliant job, as the bridge naturally leads into yet another explosive chorus, and the high intensity of the last few seconds of the song.

Musically this song has a lot going on, and it all works. There’s even a cowbell!  I’m convinced the cowbell is an inside joke only drummers worldwide understand. It’s like they dare each other to sneak it in and see if we all notice!

After listening to this song twice, I could not get the chorus out of my head, and I learned another language in the process!

Maneskin definitely deserve some rock cred for this track! Bravissimi Ragazzi!

Author: Rob Costa

Rob Costa is a freelance writer & Ghost songwriter from Melbourne, Australia. Rob helps us out with music reviews.