Maneskin, the Italian rock quartet, landed in the USA performing their hits “Beggin'” and “Mammamia” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
The band have made massive strides in the United States this year. At the start of 2021, most American music fans had no idea who they were. Now, with a chart-topping song fueling their rise, the outfit is perhaps the biggest new band among the mainstream, giving Top 40 airwaves a long-missing dose of rock music.
“Beggin’,” a major earworm for pop listeners that’s actually a cover of a 1970s Northern soul number, is currently No. 1 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart, No. 15 on the Hot 100. “Mammamia,” the band’s latest single, debuted this month at No. 21 for Hot Rock and Alternative, where “Beggin'” sits at No. 2.
The band — vocalist Damiano David, bassist Victoria De Angelis, guitarist Thomas Raggi and drummer Ethan Torchio — won 2021’s Eurovision Song Contest in May, representing their home country with the original song “Zitti e Buoni.”
An older single, “I Wanna Be Your Slave”, started climbing the U.S. charts. The group has released two albums so far, 2018’s Il Ballo Della Vita and this year’s Teatro D’ira: Vol. I, as well as the 2017 EP Chosen.
“We are just four friends doing what we love,” David told British Vogue when considering the band’s growth this year, “and we hope it continues like that.”
De Angelis added to AltPress, “I think the main thing we want to express is really the freedom because, especially here, there are not many rock bands. And since we started playing together, we’ve always been told, ‘This is not going to work. Rock music is not a thing in Italy. No one listens to it. It’s dead.'”
Maneskin, “Beggin'” (Live on The Tonight Show – Oct. 26, 2021)
Maneskin, “Mammamia” (Live on The Tonight Show – Oct. 26, 2021)
