▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
5. N.O.I.A.: “Forbidden Planet”
One last stop in the Italian ’80s underground, courtesy of the influential early electronic group N.O.I.A. I like the funky bass line and campy lyrics about space travel on this 1982 single, but I’ve also been enjoying some of the other recordings they’ve rereleased in recent years, like the kinetic “Do You Wanna Dance?” and the sleek, “Tron”-like “The Rule to Survive (Looking for Love).”
▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
6. Conan Gray: “Lonely Dancers”
Here’s a song I thought was from the ’80s when I first heard it, but it turns out it’s just a 2024 single from a 25-year-old American pop singer doing his best “Safety Dance.” Go figure! Conan Gray isn’t exactly a household name yet stateside — though he is headlining Madison Square Garden on Sept. 30 — but everywhere I went in Italy, this song was on the radio. As I have already established on this playlist, Italians appreciate synthesizers.
▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
7. Angelina Mango: “Melodrama”
The daughter of the Italian pop singer Mango, who died in 2014, Angelina Mango is a rising star in her own right. The 23-year-old’s buoyant, cumbia-inspired hit “La Noia” won the Sanremo Music Festival this year and was also Italy’s entry in the Eurovision song contest. In May, she released her debut album, “Poké Melodrama,” which features this shape-shifting single; the fun, sassy music video is all over Italian TV right now.
▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
8. Donatella Rettore: “Kobra”
Here’s another Shazam discovery, this time heard while recharging my batteries at an Irish-themed pub near the university in Bologna. Judging solely from my first impression of this song, Donatella Rettore (sometimes known just by her last name) struck me as the Italian Kate Bush, though this video of her performing the song on an Italian TV show in 1981 suggests she’s got a particular flavor of weird that is entirely her own!
▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
9. Patty Pravo: “Se Perdo Te”
And finally, I’ll leave you with one more from Patty Pravo — a soaring, stirring ballad first released in 1967. Those wrenching notes she hits in the chorus make me want to shout from the top of the Florence Cathedral, “Viva l’Italia!”
▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
Read More: Italian Pop Discoveries From My Vacation
