Mirkoeilcane
Povera me

There is a whole culture of Roman singer-songwriters that I find fascinating. Gazzè, Fabi, Silvestri or Mannarino, for example.

People who know how to play and compose and who have honed their skills in the venues of the Capital, sometimes performing in front of a small yet interested audience.

And I think of places like "Big Mama", "L'Asino che vola", "Na Cosetta" or "Mahalia" where even in the pre-Covid times, it was still possible to listen to live music from more or less established artists who always belonged to this beautiful culture.

Mirco Mancini (Mirkoeilcane) started as one of them. He is a talented guitarist and managed to play in 2014 on the first album of another young Roman singer-songwriter from the same label of those times, Simone Barotti (whom I reserve the right to talk about in the future...). Then lots of live performances. And as in the best stories, he managed in 2018 to make a nice leap by participating in the Sanremo Festival with the almost recited song "Stiamo tutti bene", placing second and collecting so many awards that year as to make any acclaimed BIG pale in comparison. I'm talking about the "Mia Martini Award", "Sergio Bardotti Award", "Tenco Award", "Fabrizio Frizzi Award" and many others.

In short, a young, committed, and ironic singer-songwriter who seemed to have taken off.

Then nothing. A few singles went completely unnoticed and then "Povera me". A track anticipated as delicate and ironic for the big relaunch.

I find the piece, instead, just a missed opportunity. Perhaps yet another.

But when I see a newcomer manage to assert themselves and affirm their musical culture without having to resort to the talent show du jour, only to then embark on a path devoid of depth (whatever it may be... even lighthearted, for heaven's sake), I become terribly inflamed.

"Povera me" has a decent text, you can see that Mirko has authorial skills, but musically it fails to be incisive. Stuck in a banal and, in some respects, clumsy arrangement where nothing seems to be in its place. A futile attempt to draw on characters like Mannarino who, on the other hand, have depth to sell.

Where is the genius of "Stiamo tutti bene"? And the ability to manage and put ideas into music?

Perhaps yet another bluff.

I believe that Italian music needs characters like Mirkoeilcane. But they should be guided and directed to avoid these pointless leaps into the void.

So while the winners of "Degli amici di Maria" garner millions of streams with meaningless songs, those who have all the cards in hand to say something remain decapitated by the budgets of the small record labels that produce them.

I write all this because I love music in general but especially Italian music. And I hope that Rome can still offer that singer-songwriter musical heritage as it has so far. It would be enough to produce it, enhance it, and give it the right means and voice.