Trendy artists of the week : Achille Lauro, Fabri Fibra, Max Pezzali and Marshmello

Achille Lauro On Tour in Italy

32-year-old Italian singer-rapper Achille Lauro is on tour in his home country, promoting the re-issue of his 2021 self-titled album “Lauro”. On Wednesday, July 13th, he performed live at the Ippodromo Capannelle in the capital city of Rome. Next up for the artist is a freshly announced appearance at the Teatro Antico in Taormina, Italy on July 14th. Ticket prices range from €39 up to €69 for the event. Then, it’s off to Florence for him next week.

His live shows have stirred up quite a bit of controversy in the past. At the 2022 Sanremo Music Festival, he performed a fake baptism on stage, which evidently didn’t go over well with everyone in deeply religious Italy. Even the bishop of Sanremo protested the event.

Fabri Fibra Debuts New Single in Parma

About 300 miles north of Lauro’s latest live gig at the Roman Hippodrome, at the Parma Cittàdellamusica festival, fellow Italian rapper Fabri Fibra was headlining.

The 45-year-old European hip hop star invited all his fans to come to his show with this message: “Get ready, we are about to arrive with the most powerful live rap in Italy. I grew up with Yo Rap videos on MTV and this is what we’ll bring to Parma”.

Thousands heeded his request. Those who turned out were fortunate enough to hear his new single “Contrabbando”. It was co-written by Fibra, Davide “Tropico” Petrella, and Cesare Cremonini. It’s one of the “socially conscious” hip hop songs, decrying the overflow of information these days and the polarization of our culture.

Fibra has always been known to not shy away from political topics in his music. He has stayed true to himself in that regard with this new song as well.

Max Pezzali at San Siro

Out of all the Italian artists giving concerts this week, pop-rock singer Max Pezzali was booked in the most prestigious venue. He’s performing at none other than the San Siro Stadium in Milan, Italy on this Saturday, July 16th. The arena is home to two Champions League-winning soccer clubs, AC Milan and Internazionale (also winners of the last two Italian championships). The venue can hold more than 80,000 people. 

Pezzali originally made a name for himself as the lead singer for the rock band 883. Since 2004, however, he’s been focusing on his solo career, Now, he’s expected to reunite with two of his former band mates, Paola and Chiara, for this concert.

Pezzali’s latest solo album came out in October 2020 with the title (that it shares with a 2016 Italian comedy movie) “Qualcosa di nuovo” (“Something new” in English).

Marshmello Raises the Roof at Ottowa Bluesfest 2022

Leaving Italy behind, we’ve got American DJ and music producer Marshmello doing a live show over in Canada at the 2022 Ottawa Bluesfest at LeBreton Flats Park. The music festival’s line-up is packed with A-list artists such as Alanis Morissette or Rage Against the Machine. However, Marshmello stands out even in that crowd.

His gig was scheduled for July 12th. According to the reviews, the show went swimmingly with the DJ keeping the large crowd moving for the whole night. Marshmello’s latest release is the single “Numb” featuring Khalid from last month.