Maneskin Is Italy’s First Rock Band to Rule the Charts

After winning the Eurovision song contest, the Italian rock band Måneskin was supposed to disappear from the global music scene.

Though Eurovision remains the most popular music competition event in Europe, it hasn’t produced a major pop star since Celine Dion won in 1988. But Måneskin, whose name is the Danish word for moonlight, has instead achieved a level of global popularity unprecedented in the history of Italian rock. And they’ve done it faster than any Eurovision winner ever, another indication of how quickly stardom can happen in the digital age.

For the past few months, the band has been one of the most popular musical groups on Spotify and YouTube, the world’s two most-popular online music services. Their songs “Beggin’” and “I Wanna be Your Slave” both rank among the top 20 most popular songs in the world, hitting the charts in more than 30 countries each. And their three biggest songs were streamed more than 433 million times on Spotify in the month of July alone.

They’ve also gone viral on TikTok, the music industry’s de facto hitmaker, and their respective followings on social media have mushroomed to more than 20 million people across the major platforms.

All that adds up to yet another record. At the end of July, Måneskin ranked at No. 9 in the latest Pop Star Power Rankings, the first Italian act to crack the top 10.

“We are in a time frame in which there are no borders,” said Andrea Rosi, chief executive officer of Sony Music Entertainment in Italy. “We are experiencing an Italian rock band with two songs in the top 10 in the U.K. That’s a dream for us.”

Sony discovered Måneskin four years ago when they were a teenage quartet busking on the streets of Rome. Three of the four members, lead singer Damiano David, bassist Victoria De Angelis and guitarist Thomas Raggi, met in school. They found their drummer, Ethan Torchio, using a Facebook group called Musicians Wanted (Rome).

Sony has a partnership with Simon Cowell’s Syco Entertainment for the Italian version of the singing competition TV show “The X Factor,” and they asked Måneskin to do a demo for the show. The band finished second on “The X Factor,” losing to Lorenzo Licitra, a pop balladeer from Sicily. Måneskin impressed executives at Sony enough to earn a record deal, however.

Måneskin’s first official single, “Chosen,” reached the second spot on the Italian charts. Their first album, “Il ballo della vita” topped the charts in Italy and reached the top 10 in a handful of European countries. Its second single, “Torna a casa” was their first to top the Italian pop rankings.

For a while, it seemed Måneskin’s fate would be as one of Italy’s top rock bands. Italy has birthed some of the world’s finest musicians, but its primary melodic exports have been classical music and opera. The biggest contemporary Italian act in the world today is Andrea Bocelli, a 62-year-old opera singer.

Italy had a vibrant progressive rock scene in the 1970s, and an alternative rock scene in the late 1980s. Rosi and his colleague Luca Fantacone came of age in the indie rock world of the 1990s. But while rock inched closer and closer to the mainstream, Italy never produced a major rock band.

“Nothing really crossed the borders during all these years,” Rosi said. “The most important music we were exporting was classical music.”

That’s why Måneskin was considered a long shot when it was selected to compete in the Sanremo festival earlier this year. Sanremo is a televised song contest that helped inspire Eurovision, and the winner of the Sanremo festival also serves as Italy’s representative at Eurovision.

Most of the recent winners have been pop acts. “We watched and thought ‘that’s a great rock number, but it’s never going to win,’” said Ewan Spence, the host of a podcast about Eurovision, and cofounder of ESC Insight, a blog about the contest. But Måneskin beat one contender after another, and was crowned the winner over 25 other acts in early March.

The band had been averaging less than 250,000 views a day on YouTube until March, when it spiked a bit. But it wasn’t until Eurovision that they reached a global audience. Some 200 million people watch the contest, which has been held annually since 1956 and recently inspired a comedy film starring Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams.

The two most famous winners of Eurovision are Abba, the Swedish pop group, and Dion, the Canadian pop diva who represented Switzerland in the competition. But even Dion took a few years to find herself as a musician after winning the contest. She decided to teach herself English before signing a record deal, and released her debut English-language album two years after winning Eurovision.

But the internet has accelerated the timeline. Within days of winning, Måneskin was averaging more than 7 million views a day on YouTube, peaking on July 15 at more than 17 million views.

“Måneskin coming along is unprecedented because it happened immediately,” said Spence. “People watching Eurovision see a band or performer they like, and the first thing they do is search, find their social media and follow them on Spotify.”

While Italy is their most popular market their music has developed a following everywhere. On YouTube, Kyiv is their third-biggest city (after Rome and Milan) and people in Brazil, the U.S., Poland, Mexico and Turkey have all watched their videos more than 30 million times.

The simplest way to explain the popularity of Måneskin is also the most obvious. The music is good. They have a strong visual aesthetic. And they bring great energy to their performances. But with every band, there is always also a little bit of luck.

While Eurovision deserves much of the credit for Måneskin’s newfound fame, it’s not the only reason for their breakthrough. Their winning song on Eurovision, “Zitti e buoni” is their third-biggest song. Their biggest smash is “Beggin’,” a cover of a song written by Bob Gaudio and Peggy Farina that was first made famous by the Four Seasons.

“Beggin’” went viral on TikTok, the short-form video app. Their song has been used in more than 9 million videos, and their name has been used in hashtags that have been watched nearly 4 billion times.

“Eurovision is only the starting point of a global word of mouth campaign regarding the band,” said Rosi. “It’s coming from TikTok. It’s coming from a viral situation all over the world.”

The band isn’t wasting any time capitalizing on their recent run. The foursome has traveled around Europe to perform at music festivals throughout the summer months, and are planning a worldwide tour next year. They are hoping to go to Australia, New Zealand, Latin America and the U.S. If their plans materialize, they could be the first Italian band to ever play some of the biggest U.S. festivals.