Angelina Mango: "I want to give everything"

Angelina Mango is perhaps experiencing the busiest, most challenging, and stimulating period of her young career. Fresh from a very tense Eurovision Song Contest, she is ready to embark on her tour, or rather, her tours. This summer, she will be headlining major national and international music festivals. In the fall, she will be on a tour of European clubs, with sold-out shows in Cologne and Paris. She will be in Italy in October, with sold-out double dates in Rome, Milan, and Naples, as well as sold-out shows in Nonantola and Venaria Reale, and a completely sold-out concert in Florence. Her debut album, Poké Melodrama, was released on May 31. It manages to be both deep and danceable, speaking of her past and future, of love and pain. In short, a surprisingly mature and not at all superficial record, which is also her first.

We listened to it in advance on a cloudy May afternoon, together with her. It was immediately clear how complex she is, how significant this moment is in her life and career, and her desire to bring it to the stage. "Poké Melodrama is a very important and precise step," she admits. "After the year I've had, full of great things, it was essential for me to put a point and say, okay, this is who I am. I was very pleased to have the opportunity to express myself in every way, touching on many aspects of my life and my way of making music. I think this album shows everything about me."

Everything about her, including her past, which led her to Amici first and then to Europe, passing through Sanremo. "Before going to Amici I spent many years working, often to no avail. It was frustrating; I had so much to say but wasn't being noticed. I don't know if it was because I'm a woman or maybe because I'm young. Either way, I try to surround myself with people who don't judge me for these reasons."

Everything about her, including her talent as a songwriter. "For me, writing is essential. All the songs come from me. Sometimes I lock myself in a room and write alone, other times I like to ask for help from others, because I believe that alone you can only get so far. It's great to have external stimuli and go where you didn't think you could reach on your own, to experiment. That's why there are so many collaborations," she tells us, referring to Marco Mengoni, Bresh, Dani Faiv, and Villabanks. "That said," she continues, "there is something very personal in every song, because for me - as on stage - you either give everything or nothing. And when I write, I want to give everything to the people who listen, who can then decide whether to accept it or not. But for me to feel at peace and also to feel better, because it's also a cathartic moment, I always give everything."

What makes the tour so anticipated is also the connection with the fans. What do they expect? How will they be surprised? "They definitely expect energy because that's what I've mainly shown recently. I didn't want to disappoint anyone because I believe energy is the main thing. By energy, I mean everything you can dance to, music you can feel with your whole body. One thing I really cared about, which I wanted to include in the album, were songs where you can close your eyes, stand in the middle of the stage, stay still, and still feel that energy and focus a lot on that. I'm happy to have done this kind of research within myself and also sonically, so I hope people like it." Her final remark is about her dream collaboration: "With Billie Eilish," she says, nodding decisively and determinedly.