BLANCO - Ma’

After years of exhausting media exposure, Blanco has taken a step back. It's a trajectory common to many new idols of the very young: staying within the Sanremo orbit, one need only think of Madame, Sangiovanni and Angelina Mango. After his triumph at the Ariston with "Brividi" in 2022, alongside Mahmood, and the release and promotion of "Innamorato" (2023), he's stayed active as a songwriter for others, with only a handful of collaborations and singles of his own. "Ma'" is a third album that arrives loaded with the kind of expectation reserved for works seen as make-or-break: after such a rapid rise, this was supposed to be the consolidation.

The stylistic hallmark of his early work, that overwhelming expressive urgency delivered through a singing style somewhere between lyrical and screamed, was the translation of an uncontainable need that today seems to have been left behind. The boy of back then has become a man, even while still in the full bloom of his youth, and he's smoothed out that once-untrained timbre, fitting it into more structured arrangements, more typical of contemporary pop.

The explosion of synths and trap beats on "Ti voglio bene, uomo" is misleading, promising a harsher record than the one we actually get. Traces of that past do remain, though, in the already-familiar "Maledetta rabbia", an electronic pop-punk track that reveals the singer's influence on artists like Chiello, and above all in "Woo", the most volatile blend on the record: pop-punk "with cuts on its face".

"Ma'" builds again on his quavering voice but sets it within a more demanding arrangement, even reaching for stadium rock by the end. Even softer are "Tanto non rinasco", a mid-tempo electronic pop-rock number, and the emotional, '80s-tinged pop of "Ricordi" with Elisa, complete with an old-fashioned sax in its long outro. "Los Angeles" dangerously risks turning him into Olly — certainly more visceral in delivery, but no more original in its dopily nostalgic mood. Better is "Anche a vent'anni si muore", where a heart-wrenching vocal performance stands out over an arrangement swollen with reverb and layering, and "Piangere a 90", laid over a piano that lets the protagonist's rough edges show through more clearly.

One of the pivotal moments of this third project, also for its symbolic weight, is the duet "Peggio del diavolo" with Gianluca Grignani. A track in which the guest sacrifices himself vocally to warn his younger colleague of the dangers of success achieved too quickly. Another key passage is the one-two punch of "15 dicembre (prima)" and "27 luglio (dopo)", tracks that dig deep into the emotional turmoil of a young star, less focused on hooks. Worth noting too is the closing "Un posto migliore", curiously vintage-sounding and bordering on the suicidal:

And it takes courage to believe the songs of a madman

Like diving headfirst off a building

You have to trust, without asking anything else

Divisive like every self-respecting icon of this social-media-dominated era, the man behind the record risks falling victim to the fickle tendency of the mainstream audience to constantly chase new names and new talents. This "Ma'" is unlikely to win over anyone who's always hated him, and, by the same token, can only be welcomed with enthusiasm by those who were captivated by his undeniable charisma from the start.

This outlet praised, albeit without excessive enthusiasm, his first two records, while this one seems far too lukewarm and restrained to deserve the same verdict. Not a collapse, but a more decisive compromise that chips away at an artistic identity now wary of showing itself in its pure form. The lyrics too, once excused by his very young age, only work intermittently — flashes of brilliance here and there, but failing when it comes to telling a more complex story. There's clearly a chance this is simply an unlucky transitional work — after all, we're still talking about a 23-year-old — but for now, the path toward normalization seems to be the one he's chosen.

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08/05/2026