The final of the San Marinese selection process "Una voce per San Marino" was held on February 19th at Teatro Nuovo in Dogana, hosted by Senhit and Jonathan Kashanian. After four days of qualifying, nine emerging artists joined 10 established singers in the final). The winner, chosen solely by jury, was Achille Lauro with the song "Stripper".
Achille Lauro (real name Lauro De Marinis) grew up in Rome. At the age of 14 he moved to live with his brother who is a producer. From here, he get involved in the underground rap and punk scenes which influenced much of his early work in terms of mixtapes and live shows. Up to now he has released 8 albums, numerous singles and countless appearances/collaborations with other artists. He later competed in at the Sanremo Music Festival 2019 with the song "Rolls Royce", at the 2020 edition with "Me ne frego" and reappeared at the 2022 concert with the song "Domenica". His more recent music has been more rock based with shades of David Bowie/Ziggy Stardust in his stage persona and musical direction.
This song a a rock number with some glam rock influences. As the title suggests the whole thing is rather extravagant and provocative. The first verse kicks off straight away and gets down to business straight away. Throughout the verse and pre-horus the beat of the song comes in and out which creates tension and engages you in the song. The chorus is full on in terms of beat the the clever use of call and response means I can already imagine this being sung at the sop of the audience's lungs in the hall. Verse 2 starts after a brief lull to reset but this time it goes straight into the chorus when it ends it goes into a variant of the pre-chorus and an extended instrumental. There is then one final version of the chorus but the parts are layered on top of each ocher instead of one after the other which adds a different feeling to the earworms of the song.
This is quite the coup. Already a fan fave thanks to his appearances - competitive and non-competitive - at Sanremo, his unique sound and look has made him a 'must see' at Eurovision. Never did we dare to think it would happen. Never did we think it would be for San Marino! Valentina Monetta, Serhat, Senhit and now Achille Lauro. With these superstars you are really spoiling us! Unfortunately there has already been some bad press calling Lauro 'a traitor' for not representing Italy. In fairness to him we *was* in Sanremo this year and didn't win - why should be not have and jump at the chance from another nation? Many people have thought that the similarity to last year's winners is too great. Again in fairness to Lauro he has been doing this kind of thing MUCH longer than Måneskin have and so there are no questions about authenticity. Yes, his voice is not the best and his ability to sing in English is little questionable. I have to wonder if this song is provocative enough - or even too provocative - for Eurovision. One thing is for sure - I cannot wait to see what outfits he's got in stone for us! The home crowd will certainly be cheering him on and I sincerely hope this venture at Eurovision will be a successful one.
ARTIST - Achille Lauro
SONG -Stripper
WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Banf, G Calculli, M Ciceroni, Frenetik, Orang3, Simon P, D Petrella, M Lancs, A Lauro, F Viscovo
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