Genre: Pop ballad
Long-time Eurovision fans are probably familiar with the name Alessandro Mahmoud, or more specifically his stage name Mahmood, who was a contestant of the famous Song Contest back in 2019, and even landed on the second place with his kick-ass song titled ‘Soldi’. Well, good news is that our favorite Italian fella is back on the track to represent his home country this year with ‘Brividi’, a song he made in collaboration with singer and rapper BLANCO. Will they be able to keep the trophy in Italy after Måneskin’s overwhelming success? We are yet to find out, but I think it is safe to say that they certainly won’t finish on the last place.
For the ones who don’t speak Italian, including myself, brividi means shivers, and by knowing this fact one could easily assume the song is about love or the general state of being in love. Well, it kind of is, except that it’s more about being in love but not quite knowing how to properly love. Being such a fine artist, lyricist and performer, Mahmood is able to piece together a variety of feelings one could feel while being head over heels for someone, yet always letting them down because of their own insecurities, fears, and emotional unavailability.
“E ti vorrei amare, ma sbaglio sempre”
(And I’d like to love you but I’m always wrong)
The charisma of Mahmood is something one cannot simply walk by; however, I have to emphasize just how well his whole vibe works with the iconic presence of BLANCO. At just 19 years old, Riccardo Fabbriconi is a mesmerizing artist with a powerful voice and a playful personality, and the chemistry between him and Mahmood, their voices as well as their stage performance, takes the listener and the watcher to an atmosphere where they can understand, re-live or indulge into the painful, disappointing, and bittersweet sensation of a person constantly torn between falling in and out of love and hurting his or her significant other in the process.
In my view, this ballad is a dedication to all the people who fell victim to emotional unavailability or found themselves to be the ones in the position of being unable to let their feelings run free, an undeniable understanding of the complexity of human emotions and the fact that sometimes our feelings are complicated and need time to unfold and heal.
Listen to ‘Brividi’ on Spotify:
Follow Mahmood and BLANCO on Instagram: