Multifaceted, glamorous, and unashamed, Achille Lauro is reaching an audience that no one would have imagined. He shrugs off unkind remarks, wants to destroy stereotypes, often changes genres, and lives for his music.
Almost unknown to the majority of the Italian public, that is to say to whoever didn’t follow the underground rap music scene, Achille Lauro — stage name of Lauro de Marinis — made his first appearance at Sanremo in 2019 with his song Rolls Royce.
Lauro’s journey at Sanremo
The famous Sanremo Music Festival is an important stage that gives its participants high visibility: Lauro undoubtedly managed to take advantage of it from the start with a catchy and controversial song.
Rolls Royce was indeed harshly criticized for its text: Striscia la notizia — a popular tv program aired on Canale 5 (Mediaset) — had stated that the name Rolls Royce wasn’t used to refer to the well-known luxury car, but to ecstasy (apparently, some tablets use the Rolls Royce logo) and, therefore, the song was clearly a hymn to the use of drugs. Their theory also grounded on the references to Amy Winehouse, Jim Morrison, and Lauro’s past transgressions.
Despite this debut (or, maybe, thanks to it), Achille Lauro’s popularity has exponentially increased.
He returned to Sanremo’s stage the following year with the single Me ne frego (I couldn’t care less), which consecrated him as an icon and leading artist of the Italian music scene. On the stage, he sang wearing sumptuous costumes to play different roles.
In an interview with Sofia Viscardi he explains that with his performance he wanted to express an ideal: his aim was to perform the concept of Me ne frego through four figures who symbolized extreme liberty throughout history. So he chose St Francis, David Bowie in Ziggy Stardust, Marchesa Casati, and Queen Elizabeth I, gave his own interpretation of these personalities, and, obviously, caused a stir.
He also defines his exhibition as “extremely punk,” and he prides himself on having brought a revolution to the stage of Sanremo and on being an advocate of freedom.
And he has definitely been given even more space in the last edition of the festival, where he was appointed The Guest: every night he brought on the stage a different song and outfit alongside various philosophical remarks on life.
Living the present, experimenting with different sounds
In fact, Achille Lauro is playing on his visibility and role of ‘freedom ambassador’: he doesn’t want to be confined into a single description but is rather experimenting with different versions of himself.
He proudly accepts his constantly changing image and fluidity, trying to fight the “dangerous stereotypes on which Italy is based” with his theatricality, disinhibition, and exaggeration.
He’s crossing over the territory of fashion, he published books, and he has dizzily passed from one genre to another.
He went from trap to punk rock, glam rock, electronic music, pop, grunge hints: these characterize one of his latest singles, Lauro, whose video also clearly shows his will to conquer the international audience. He has, in fact, decided to include an English translation of the lyrics.
Lauro is of course taking inspiration from various artists of the musical and cinematographic scene, but he’s managing to create captivating, flamboyant, and grabby songs that seem to meet the tastes of a variegated audience.
Who knows what will come next: as he said, music is a bet which revolves around a constant search and growth, and Lauro has just started.
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