Music

Lucio Dalla · album · italian

Bologna's own beloved singer-songwriter: Caruso, 4 marzo 1943, Anna e Marco, Com'è profondo il mare, L'anno che verrà, Piazza Grande.

Fabrizio De André · album · italian

The poet of Italian song: La buona novella, Non al denaro non all'amore né al cielo, Storia di un impiegato, Crêuza de mä, Le nuvole, Anime salve.

Francesco Guccini · album · italian

The Emilian bard: Bologna, La locomotiva, L'avvelenata, Auschwitz, Via Paolo Fabbri 43. He sang of Bologna and lived its bohemian, leftist soul.

Battisti, De Gregori, Conte, Pino Daniele, Gaber, Mina and others · album · italian

Lucio Battisti, Francesco De Gregori, Paolo Conte, Pino Daniele, Vasco Rossi, Giorgio Gaber, Ivano Fossati, Roberto Vecchioni, and the great voices Mina, Mia Martini, Ornella Vanoni, Patty Pravo, Loredana Bertè.

PFM, CCCP, Afterhours, Verdena and others · album · italian

Prog (PFM, Banco) and the alternative canon: Litfiba, Afterhours, Marlene Kuntz, Verdena, Baustelle, Subsonica, and the Emilian punk legends CCCP Fedeli alla Linea.

Calcutta, Colapesce Dimartino, Brunori Sas and others · album · italian

Calcutta (Mainstream, Evergreen), Colapesce Dimartino, Brunori Sas, Cosmo, Iosonouncane, Pinguini Tattici Nucleari, Madame, Coma_Cose, Fulminacci, Gazzelle, Levante, Lucio Corsi, and Måneskin.

Sangue Misto, Murubutu, Caparezza, Marracash and others · album · italian

Bologna and Emilia are deep in Italian rap history: Isola Posse All Stars, Sangue Misto, Inoki, and especially Murubutu, the history-and-philosophy teacher who invented rap didattico (his Infernvm with Claver Gold retells Dante). Plus Caparezza, Marracash, Fabri Fibra, Salmo, Ghali, Lazza.

Tale of Us, Lorenzo Senni, Caterina Barbieri and others · album · mixed

From Italo Disco and Moroder to Tale of Us, Crookers, Bloody Beetroots, Lorenzo Senni, and Caterina Barbieri. Bologna is a UNESCO Città Creativa della Musica, with clubs like Link, TPO, and Locomotiv.

Lucio Battisti · album · italian

The melodic revolutionary of Italian pop, with lyricist Mogol. Il mio canto libero, Emozioni, Anima latina, and the radical later albums with Pasquale Panella.

Francesco De Gregori · album · italian

Il principe of the cantautori: Rimmel, La donna cannone, Buonanotte fiorellino, Titanic. Poetic, oblique, deeply Roman.

Paolo Conte · album · italian

The smoky, jazz-inflected lawyer-songwriter from Asti: Via con me, Sparring partner, Azzurro (which he wrote for Celentano).

Pino Daniele · album · italian

Naples' genius fusion of blues, jazz, and Neapolitan song. Napule è, Quando, Nero a metà.

Giorgio Gaber · album · italian

Inventor of the teatro canzone, fusing song and theatrical monologue into sharp political and existential reflection. La libertà, Io se fossi Dio.

Ivano Fossati · album · italian

A musician's musician, who also wrote for Mina and De André. La mia banda suona il rock, Carte da decifrare.

Roberto Vecchioni · album · italian

The classics-professor songwriter: Luci a San Siro, Samarcanda, and the Sanremo-winning Chiamami ancora amore.

Mina · album · italian

The greatest voice in Italian pop history, reclusive since 1978 yet still recording. Tintarella di luna, Se telefonando, Grande grande grande.

Mia Martini · album · italian

A voice of extraordinary depth and ache: Almeno tu nell'universo, Minuetto.

Ornella Vanoni · album · italian

Grande dame of Italian song, from Milanese mala ballads to bossa nova (the classic album with Vinicius and Toquinho).

PFM · album · italian

The Italian prog giants who broke internationally on ELP's label. Storia di un minuto, Per un amico.

CCCP Fedeli alla Linea / CSI · album · italian

Born in Reggio Emilia, the most important Italian punk band, later evolving into CSI. Punk, politics, and Emilian identity fused.

Afterhours · album · italian

Manuel Agnelli's noisy, literate alt-rock institution. Hai paura del buio?, Ballate per piccole iene.

Verdena · album · italian

Bergamo's titans of heavy, grungy, psychedelic Italian rock, back with new music in the 2020s.

Baustelle · album · italian

Literary, cinematic baroque-pop from Tuscany, all melody and dark irony.

Subsonica · album · italian

Turin's electro-rock crossover that filled stadiums. Tutti i miei sbagli, Strade.

Calcutta · album · italian

The figurehead of the 2010s indie wave: bittersweet, hummable, ironic. Mainstream, Evergreen, Relax.

Dario Brunori · album · italian

Calabrian songwriter bridging classic cantautore craft and indie warmth; a strong recent Sanremo presence.

Colapesce Dimartino · album · italian

The Sicilian duo whose Musica leggerissima became a generational anthem; elegant, melodic, witty.

Cosmo · album · italian

Piedmontese indie-to-dance auteur whose live shows are euphoric communal raves.

Pinguini Tattici Nucleari · album · italian

Bergamo pop-rock phenomenon, masters of the clever, hyper-referential singalong.

Måneskin · album · mixed

The Roman band that won Eurovision 2021 and took Italian rock global.

Lucio Corsi · album · italian

The glam, Bowie-esque Tuscan songwriter whose Volevo essere un duro was a 2025 Sanremo standout and Eurovision entry.

Murubutu · album · italian

A literature and philosophy teacher from Reggio Emilia who invented rap didattico, turning history, myth, and literature into concept albums (Infernvm with Claver Gold retells Dante).

Caparezza · album · italian

Wildly inventive, dense, politically and culturally referential rap-rock from Puglia.

Marracash · album · italian

The 'King of the rap' whose concept albums Persona and Noi, loro, gli altri redefined the genre's ambition in Italy.

Ghali · album · italian

Milan-born Tunisian-Italian star whose Cara Italia is an anthem of the new, multicultural Italy.

Caterina Barbieri · album · mixed

Bologna-trained composer of hypnotic, minimalist modular-synth music (Ecstatic Computation, Spirit Exit).

Tale of Us · album · mixed

The Italian duo behind Afterlife, a defining force in global melodic techno.

Ennio Morricone · album · mixed

The greatest film composer of all time: the Leone westerns, The Mission, Cinema Paradiso, The Hateful Eight (Oscar).

Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini · album · italian

The summit of Italian music: Verdi (La traviata, Rigoletto, Nabucco) and Puccini (La bohème, Tosca, Turandot). Bologna's Teatro Comunale is a great place to hear it live.

Various venues · website · italian

Bologna is a UNESCO Città Creativa della Musica. Locomotiv and Covo for indie and alternative, Estragon for bigger shows, Cantina Bentivoglio and Camera Jazz for jazz, Link and TPO for club nights.

Bologna Jazz Festival · website · italian

The city's flagship music festivals: jazz in autumn and classical across the year.

RAI · series · italian

The national song contest every February, an unmissable cultural ritual that launches the year's hits and conversations.

Spotify, RAI, NTS · website · mixed

Reliable ways to keep current: Spotify's editorial Italian playlists (Novità Italia, Scuola Indie, Hip Hop Italia), the 'This Is' artist playlists, and RaiPlay Sound for radio and archives.