30 Italian Singer-Songwriters Worth Your Time
Thirty Italian cantautori and cantautrici you should listen to. Plus one 61-song Spotify playlist.
Italy with Antonio. Honest guides for moving to, traveling in, and understanding Italy from a native Italian. Three articles a week, with deeper resources for paid members. Join 1,000+ subscribers.
A few days ago, I got an email asking for some Italian music recommendations.
I replied with a Spotify playlist I made a while ago, which includes a couple of songs from each of the most famous Italian artists before 2000. 234 songs in total. Essentially, the classic Italian hits most people over 40 know.
That got me thinking about Italian cantautori (singer-songwriters). How poetic they are. How clever. How key they are to really understanding Italian culture.
So I published a Substack Note listing ten classic cantautori from the golden era (say, 60s to 80s). It was well received, and it won a request for a more modern list. I added ten more, contemporary this time.
Then someone else hit me with: “Not a single woman on either list.” Hold on. He was right! The golden era was certainly dominated by men, but recent decades have produced plenty of cantautrici (the feminine form of the word). And even back in the day, there were women well worth mentioning. That needed fixing.
Which brings us to today’s article. I’ve included: ten classic cantautori, ten contemporary cantautori, and ten cantautrici. For each artist, I’ve added two songs to a unified Spotify playlist you can follow and listen to.
Ten classic Italian singer-songwriters
Let’s start with the original list of golden era Italian cantautori.
Franco Battiato: “La cura”, “Voglio vederti danzare”
Lucio Battisti: “Il mio canto libero”, “Emozioni”
Paolo Conte: “Via con me”, “Azzurro”
Lucio Dalla: “Caruso”, “L’anno che verrà”
Fabrizio De André: “La canzone di Marinella”, “Bocca di rosa”
Francesco De Gregori: “Rimmel”, “La donna cannone”
Rino Gaetano: “Ma il cielo è sempre più blu”, “Mio fratello è figlio unico”
Francesco Guccini: “L’avvelenata”, “La locomotiva”
Gino Paoli: “Il cielo in una stanza”, “Sapore di sale”
Luigi Tenco: “Mi sono innamorato di te”, “Vedrai, vedrai”
Yes, I know. No Venditti, no Pino Daniele, no Modugno, no Gaber. Ten slots is a brutal format. If it helps, tell me in the comments who you'd evict from my ten, and who gets the seat.
Fun fact: Conte was a practicing lawyer in Asti who co-wrote Italy's most famous summer song (“Azzurro”) for somebody else (Adriano Celentano) before anyone knew who he was.
Ten contemporary Italian singer-songwriters
Brunori Sas: “Quelli che arriveranno”, “La verità”
Calcutta: “Tutti”, “Paracetamolo”
Colapesce: “Totale”, “Musica leggerissima”
Lucio Corsi: “Volevo essere un duro”, “Situazione complicata”
Diodato: “Fai rumore”, “Che vita meravigliosa”
Niccolò Fabi: “Una somma di piccole cose”, “Costruire”
Gazzelle: “Settembre”, “Destri”
Max Gazzè: “La favola di Adamo ed Eva”, “Una musica può fare”
Mannarino: “Me so ‘mbriacato”, “Apriti cielo”
Giorgio Poi: “La musica italiana”, “Niente di strano”
Ten female Italian singer-songwriters
Alice: “Per Elisa”, “Una notte speciale”
Carmen Consoli: “Parole di burro”, “Confusa e felice”
Teresa De Sio: “Voglia ‘e turnà”, “Aumm aumm”
Cristina Donà: “Goccia”, “Invisibile”
Elisa: “Luce (tramonti a nord est)”, “Eppure sentire (un senso di te)”
Levante: “Alfonso”, “Tikibombom”
Madame: “Voce”, “Il bene nel male”
Nada: “Senza un perché”, “Tutto l’amore che mi manca”
Gianna Nannini: “Bello e impossibile”, “Meravigliosa creatura”
Margherita Vicario: “Abaué (Morte di un Trap Boy)”, “Pincio”
No Mina, no Mia Martini, no Vanoni. I know, I know. These are giants missing from the list, but the truth is, they are mostly interpreters. Amazing voices, not writers. This is a list of pens, not voices. The same standard I applied to the men's lists.
One last thing. There's a 61st track on the playlist: Giovanni Block. I can't justify him on any objective ground, and no critic will rank him with the names above. I don't care. Every list this long earns its author one indulgence, and he's mine.
Now, if you like, go follow and listen to the playlist.
Italy, minus the filters.
New posts every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday: cultural pieces and in-depth guides for people planning a move or simply in love with Italy.
Paid subscribers get every post; free subscribers get a large selection.