Italian music may make you immediately think of the cheerful folk song Tarantella, Domenico Modugno’s timeless “Volare,” the Italian Partisan anthem “Bella Ciao,” or one of Bocelli’s many heart-stopping ballads. The country is a hotbed for singers, songwriters, and rappers spanning many genres. You'll also find some artists in trap music, a subgenre of hip-hop that is the backbone of Italian contemporary music.
Aside from internationally known Italian superstars like Luciano Pavarotti, Laura Pausini, and Vasco Rossi, these five Italian artists are popular with the younger Italian generation. With 32 million combined monthly listeners on Spotify, they’re some of the hottest music artists in Italy right now.
Take a look at five Italian music artists you should know about.
Fedez
Federico Leonardo Lucia, known professionally as Fedez, is a rapper, singer, songwriter, social media personality, and businessman. He broke onto the music scene in 2011 with his self-produced album, Penisola che non c'è. Throughout his career, Fedez has obtained 52 platinum albums and currently has 4 million monthly listeners on Spotify. In 2018 he married Chiara Ferragni, an Italian blogger, businesswoman, fashion designer, and model.
Sfera Ebbasta
Often referred to as the “King of Trap,” Gionata Boschetti, known as Sfera Ebbasta, is one of Italy’s most popular and successful rappers. with 11 million monthly listeners on Spotify. He released his first songs on Youtube in 2010 but did not find much success. In 2015, he released XDVR with producer Charlie Charles. His songs, which blend pop and trap, have reached the top of the Italian singles chart 20 times.
Marco Mengoni
Marco Mengoni rose to fame in 2009 after winning the third season of the Italian talent show X-Factor with the song “Dove si vola.” He appeared in the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest with his song "Due Vita," placing fourth in the competition. Since then, he has sold over 2.8 million records in Italy and has been in the Top 10 Italian Singles Chart 15 times. Mengoni has 4.3 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
Guè
Over the course of his music career, Cosimo Fini has gone by a few names but is currently known as Gué. The rapper and record producer was once part of the popular hip-hop duo Club Dogo alongside rapper Ja La Furia and producer Don Joe. Between 1999 and 2001 he was also a member of the Sacre Scuole, a group made up of Gué Pequeno, Dargen D'Amico, and Jake La Furia. His solo music career started in 2011 with the release of his debut album, Il Ragazzo d'oro which saw collaborations with several other Italian rappers including Marracash, Entics, Ensi, and Jake La Furia. Currently, Gué has 5.5 million monthly Spotify listeners.
Ghali
Ghali Amdouni, known by his stage name Ghali, is a Tunisian-Italina rapper and record producer. Born in Milan to Tunisian immigrants, his music fuses Italian and Tunisian culture while tackling themes surrounding race and immigration. He rose to fame in 2017 with his debut album titled “Album.” The record surpassed Ed Sheeran’s 2017 album “Divide” in Spotify streams in Italy. His debut single, "Ninna Nanna," was released on Spotify and broke records for streaming in Italy. The song achieved the highest number of streams on the first day and debuted at the top of the Italian Singles Chart with 200,000 copies sold. Ghali has been known to collaborate with other Italian artists on this list like Fedez, Gué Pequeno, and Sfera Ebbasta. Currently, Ghali has 3.2 million listeners on Spotify.
Asia London Palomba
Asia London Palomba is a trilingual freelance journalist from Rome, Italy. In the past, her work on culture, travel, and history has been published in The Boston Globe, Atlas Obscura, The Christian Science Monitor, and Grub Street, New York Magazine's food section. In her free time, Asia enjoys traveling home to Italy to spend time with family and friends, drinking Hugo Spritzes, and making her nonna's homemade cavatelli.