Qhen the winner of Sanremo 2019 takes the stage with the musical revelation of 2021 – respectively Mahmood29 years old, e Blanco18 – we can only expect “Chills“.
And this is precisely the title of the poignant song (“which speaks of something that is hard to say”, he explained) that the couple will bring to the Ariston stage, hoping to “repeat” the success of the 2019 singer-songwriter, victorious in Sanremo with his Money. On the evening of the covers, however, the couple will perform ne The sky in a room by Gino Paoli.
His stage name, as he explained, is a play on words between the surname Mahmoud and the English expression my mood (or “my state of mind”), because in his songs he wants to show his interiority.
In addition to being an internationally renowned artist, he is also an acclaimed author: he wrote songs for Elodie (Black Bali, Andromeda), Michele Bravi (I took Male), Marco Mengoni (Hola – I say) and signed verses for Fabri Fibra (moon), Gue Pequeno (Double Whiskey) And Marracash (I’m not Marra).
Mahmood to the Ariston. (Getty Images)
“It’s not that mine was a ‘really lightning-fast ascent, be clear, “he explained. «I signed the recording contract with Universal in 2016 and before winning the Festival I spent three years writing songs for others“.
But he is proud of his career: «This is the same thing that I also recommend to young people who would like making music in life“, has explained. “Try, try, try, without ever ceasing to believe it“.
Mahmood’s family
Born in Gratosoglio (“I’ve never lacked anything here. The periphery, the one I know, not the extreme one, makes me feel protected. The center of the city was there carousel where to go with friendsbut in the evening I wanted to go back, to the nest, “he said), abandoned by his father – which he said he hears “every now and then” – grows together with mother. (below, with him)
“I owe everything to mom“, has explained. At the beginning “she accompanied me to the music teacher, starting from Buccinasco, where he worked, and taking me to Baggio. Every day, a voyage. He was my mother and father. I can’t say I missed Dad, because she gave me everything. She supported me. She said to me: I pay you for music courses only if you do well in school“.
After the Festival and Eurovision, «she was left open-mouthed with me. We that we hadn’t had anythingwe did not expect anything, and suddenly we found ourselves with everything. She never got tired of being surprised. ‘
Mahmood’s career
As a child, for him, music «was an outlet and, growing up, the primary purpose “. After high school, he was a bartender at dawn and in the morning to be able to study piano in the afternoon. At one point «Mom had a bar in Via Larga in Milan, she came to eat the son of Caterina Caselli. She wanted me to give him a cd, I didn’t. And then I thought: say we lose a customer“.
His recording adventure begins in 2012 with X Factor, where it is eliminated during the third episode. “He didn’t please me, but I never thought about quitting,” he said. He was in Simona Ventura’s team, he was 20 and “even then I thought that, when you lose or fail, the fault is yours alone because you failed to make yourself understood. Losing causes me anger and want to work more“.
Mahmood guest at X Factor with Antonello Venditti, Francesco De Gregori, Gemitaiz, MadMan and the judges of X Factor 2019.
In 2016 participates in the New Proposals at Sanremo Festivalpresenting the song Forget with which he ranks in fourth place. “I was the only young man in the race who, then, he didn’t come out with a record of his own», The artist recalled. “I was under contract with Universal. Complicated years. They told me they sensed potential, but that still my songs weren’t working “. So they made him write for others.
Finally arrives among the Big
In 2018 he made his debut with his first official EP, Wasted Youth, followed by the album of the same name. In December of the same year she participates in Sanremo Giovani e wins first place, which entitles him to enter the competition at the 2019 Festival among the big names. “Either he goes, or he breaks it,” he said to himself. “The purpose was make me recognize, certainly not challenge the favorites. I saw myself as the last of the bandwagonso I took it as being in the circus: with funfollowing the flow ».
In the interviews he played the card of spontaneity: “I was telling about the time I fell from a horse in the desert, I was singing Money a cappella. AND everyone laughing and clapping“.
Victory at the Sanremo Festival 2019
In 2019 with his Money wins the Sanremo Festival: Mahmood is the first artist ever to win both in the Young category than in the Big one in the same year.
Below, the exhibition
But he certainly did not expect that victory. “It seemed already a miracle to be thereHe revealed. “He was right an unthinkable thing. I didn’t even imagine it when they told me I was in the top three. The other two, Last and the Flight, in the backstage they immediately entered the podium mood. They were silent, very tense, perhaps convinced that they were playing with each other ». Not him: “I talked, I joked, I sang. It was already a party regardless finish in the top three“.
Happiness on his face: Sanremo won! (Handle)
The song is an overwhelming success: it becomes a global hit, with the inclusion in addition 1,400 playlists worldwide and in over 42 Spotify Top 50 Viral charts. It breaks the threshold of 100 million streams (of which 39 million from abroad), becoming the most listened to Italian song ever on Spotify and Apple Music (before Maneskin).
The effect of victory on old friends
Back home from the Sanremo vortex, he said that friends looked at him in a different way. “These are situations you cannot control. My mother was weird, she looked like she had a joint. I’ve never known someone who suddenly, almost overnight, he is stopped and recognized on the street and it ends up almost everywhere in the media ».
He understood, thanks to the people closest to him, “the impact all of this may have had. And at a certain point I too began to think: we hope they all return as beforethat they don’t look at me strange ».
Mahmood, a symbol of integration
Mahmood, given his success and notoriety, was erto a integration symbol (his father is Egyptian). But a lot of it also rained down on him criticismsby some members of our political class, precisely because of its multiculturalism. «I was born in Milan and I am 100% Italian. I’m not a symbol of anything and these readings are a hole in the water, “he explained peremptorily. «Constructive criticism is good for me: I still have to prove everything. But if I you criticize for my father’s originsthen everything is wrong from the start ».
For him, everything related to his origins, «are nonsense speeches. If my victory helps mixed families I will be happy, but my generation is used to integration. In elementary, middle and high school I have always been part of mixed classes. These things already exist: for us it is normal, for some journalists and politicians perhaps not ».
The Eurovision Song Contest
In May 2019 Mahmood – thanks to his victory in Sanremo – represented Italy in Tel Aviv at theEurovision Song Contestfinishing in second place with his Money. To participate, he kept the original language version of the song but slightly modifying the text, in order to respect the maximum duration of 3 minutes. On that occasion he also won the Marcel Bezençon prize for the best musical composition.
The artist at the Eurovision Song Contest. (Getty Images)
Mahmood’s other songs
In the summer of 2019 he publishes another hit, Calypso along with Charlie Charles, Dardust, Sfera Ebbasta and Fabri Fibra e Barrio. His summer tour starts, making forays among the most renowned national and international festivalssuch as the Mi Ami in Milan and the Montreux Jazz Festival.
In 2020 Mahmood is back in vogue with Quick, and prepares to leave for another tour. He had not considered, however, the forced stop imposed by the lockdown, and everything was postponed.
The album Ghettolimpo
His new album was released on June 11, 2021 Ghettolimpo among which there is also Zeroa song that is part of the soundtrack of the homonymous Netflix original series of which he also edited an episode such as music supervisor.
“Ghettolimpo it’s a record that I started writing two and a half years ago, immediately after Sanremo“, has explained. «It all started from a plane heading towards Tunis: the first piece that took shape was Kisses from Tunisia. In this album there is a world that I created, which gave birth to my mind and comes from my passion for mythology“.
Narcissusamong all the gods, “it was perhaps the myth that it made me more passionate. But while he looked at himself in reflection and liked himself so much that he died to kiss, I am a Narcissus in reverse“. After Sanremo, in fact, he looked in the mirror «e I was having a little trouble recognizing myself“. Who knows if it will happen again this time.
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