Eurovision has become synonymous with shape-shifting Swedes wiping the floor with the competition, but one of the contest’s other emergent superpowers is Italy, which in 2021 gave the Wagnerian kitschfest a rare rock’n’roll winner.
The gong was claimed by the ludicrous Rome quartet Måneskin and their glam stomper Zitti e Buoni. In a twist that seemed to catch even the musicians unawares, the tune immediately transcended the narrow parameters of Eurovision fame and catapulted the group to global stardom. They went so far as to turn heads in the United States, where people essentially think of Eurovision as the Borat movie with a disco beat.
It was an astonishing rise. When the band played 3Arena in Dublin, in December 2023, Måneskin‘s star appeal was obvious. Just as striking was that something as old fashioned and uncool as a mere rock show could draw so many Gen Zers. Waving their phones like glo sticks at a rave, they shrieked along to every bass solo and drum flourish.
Such was the band’s charisma in the docklands shed that they could even get away with covering the U2 weepie One – and make it sound as frothy and flamboyantly ridiculous as a Queen power ballad. Amid a wonderful marriage of chaos and charm, a bright future seemed to stretch ahead.
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But then Måneskin‘s frontman, Damiano David, put a glammy spanner in the works by announcing he was going solo. The career he had built with the band he started as the 17-year-old son of two Italian cabin crew was not one he craved (although Måneskin haven’t broken up, merely gone on hiatus).
“I really started a process of questioning the things I built and the people I surrounded myself with and the goals I was chasing,” he told DIY Magazine. “And the picture it painted was really not the picture I wanted.”
What picture did he want? With Funny Little Fears, his solo album, he has ripped upped that Måneskin canvas and scribbled in the blanks with vivacious pop songs that soar like a diamante albatross.
Even when David was fronting a rock band, there was always an escapist quality to his sound. He leans further into that across a beautifully overwrought collection that is full of twinkling Eurobeats yet is astute enough to keep pure Eurovision cheese at bay. It will set your antennas tingling without clogging your arteries.
Funny Little Fears begins, as all good things do, with a barrage of house piano and a big wonky techno beat, then plunges into the dance-floor-adjacent pop of Voices. It’s a belter, a number that, were it any bigger, would require its own power supply and planning permission.
As an opening statement it could not be more definitive. David isn’t doing Måneskin 2.0. Instead he’s hell-bent on bringing the listener to pop heaven.
That journey features a pivot into synth escapism with Zombie Lady, on which he has a go at sounding like a one-person Coldplay, albeit with lyrics you wouldn’t catch Chris Martin humming in the shower (“My beautiful zombie lady, the only one I adore” – a reference to Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride).
There are further surprises. Tangerine’s slide guitar introduces a Buddy Holly-style country rocker, only for the tune to morph into a Wicked-style hairdryer epic. The record reaches a pop-metal apotheosis on the single Silverlines.
It’s a thunderous triumph produced by Labrinth, the Euphoria music supervisor, and culminating in a heartfelt “whoa-oh-oh” chorus light-years removed from the moody poseur vibes David emanated with Måneskin.
His new incarnation as an over-the-top troubadour could go either way. The world was not crying out for a solo project by the guy from the Rotterdam competition. Only time will tell if he succeeds. Still, he has at least given himself every possible chance with a thoroughly solid LP.
He’s even had the savvy to release it on Eurovision weekend, when Måneskin are sure to benefit from an uncontrolled outbreak of nostalgia.
A solo career is always a gamble, even if you’ve won the song contest and gone on to headline arenas and stadiums worldwide. But, with Funny Little Fears, David has the courage to take the jump. Regardless of whether he ultimately flies or flops, it makes for a fascinating leap into the unknown.
