Who is Madame, the Italian rap revelation

An intense look full of feeling, an eye-opening voice singing bare feet on the stage of the Sanremo Festival. Madame, born in 2002, won the "Best Text" award with her single "Voce". From her debut with "Anna" in 2018 to her first appeareance on the Ariston stage, Madame has collected one success after another in the last two years, thanks to her talent and her unique intensity that made the Italian hip-hop scene fall in love with her. Marracash called her "the woman Italian rap needed" and Paola Zukar,  to whom we owe the value and recognition that Italian rap has gained as a genre today, is her manager. Despite the undeniable ability to tell unique and true stories with a complex style that however find its way to reach everyone, her voice isn't the only thing that strikes us about the artist. Let’s find out more about the style and the career-path of the 19-year-old singer who made us googling texts more than anyone else since now.

The beginning

The stage name "Madame" was born at school, during the morning break while playing with friends on a drag queens name generator. The spontaneous and totally personal approach to  music of Francesca Calearo, originary of the province of Vicenza is detectable from this and her young-age wise naivety: she knew she wanted to sing since childhood. She firstyl approached rap music because the genre is notoriously not needing a loud melodious voice to break-through. Madame also recognized that women in the Italian musical genre weren't so many, but above that none of them is like her. So she first started singing covers, then writing her first pieces as an author. The scenario of her influences ranges from Fabrizio de Andrè to Michael Jackson, through Justin Bieber and Italian pop-trash music, loved so much by the singer that her famous "Sciccherie" (2018) sounds almost oriental-ish, and it is easy to associate Madame to a Neapolitan scenario at a first listen. Then with "Anna", 2018 starts with a boost: the song is about an ideal woman but that actually exists, with whom maybe Francesca had a relationship, or maybe not. "Anna" is a hymn to women who love life, and maybe in Anna there is also a bit of Madame, that ensures her passion for music ends between the graces of Italian rap and churns out gold records like "Baby" and "17". The artist reaches platinum record alongside Marracash, with the melodious "Anima" last year in a featuring with the Sicilian rapper in his award-winning and hypes album "Persona". Then Sanremo 2021, and in March, 19  her first album, "Madame" will be released.

Voce between music and style

The unpublished "Voice" speaks of the dearest thing to the singer, an instrument she uses to narrate, to work and that, moreover, is her greatest love. The song is destined to enter our heads with the beating rhythm and its words full of feeling, easily relatable. It remains, however, a subtle distance the singing style of Madame keeps from the pop context. Her "not spelling the words well" that leads most people to reach out to Google to understand her lyrics, comes from the current style of the Genoese trap where artists such Izi, Tedua, Rkomi but also Ghali and Ernia were pioneers. Complexity is what makes Madame unique and always changeable, fluid. Not surprisingly, during the Sanremo singing festival, all the outfits studied with stylist Simone Furlan, told a story in relation to her voice, more than enhancing her physical beauty. The mirrored dress of the first evening, the nude dress with the sketched breasts , the outfit that she herself defined "as a professor", and the "wedding dress" tailored for her by Dior, are all dedicated to Madame’s voice and relationship with music. 

The role of fashion for Madame

"Sex cannot be a limit, gender cannot be so standardized and stereotyped. Everyone is free, free to dress and express." This is what a post on Francesca’s IG profile says to celebrate the International Day against violence against women. A message of peace that puts an end to doubts about her sexuality and style, which was often considered very masculine or out of fashion. Madame’s style is beyond the imagination of gender held by the world of Italian pop music. A mix between the "street aesthetics" she fell in love with making rap and her very personal femininity expression that stays always true to her strong and secure identity. Being a woman in the world of rap is not easy, but dressing as if the gender-wall did not exist is a real feat, and of course she succeeded very well in it, playing with all the facets of the world in which she appeared.

The upcoming new album

The album will be released on March 19 by Universal Music Italy and will be the artist’s debut album, the first released with the major label. "Voce" from Sanremo will be surely featured, as well as all other songs that made her famous in the Italian and European music scenario like “Schiccherie”, “Baby”, the summery “Defuera” feat. DRD, Ghali e Marracash but also “Non è vero” with Negramaro and  “Acqua” feat. Mace. The tracklist has not yet been announced, and we can’t wait to discover the infinite prismatic facets of the diamond that is Madame, all marked, as always, by her voice.