(Vicenza, 2002 – )
(By Annibale Gagliani, Università del Molise / Università del Salento)
Francesca Calearo, aka Madame, is the female voice of Italy’s Gen Z. She made her debut as a rapper at just 16 years old, with the song “Sciccherie,” a certified platinum record shared on social media by Cristiano Ronaldo. On the path of her artistic growth, she deserves the title of singer-songwriter as she experimented with a variety of musical genres: hip hop, blues, folk, samba, Middle Eastern sounds and traditional pizzica from Salento. Her young career already includes participation in two years of the Sanremo Festival: the 2021 edition with the song “Voce,” which won the Lunezia Prize for musical-literary value; and the 2023 edition with “Il bene nel male,” inspired by the song “Via del Campo” by Fabrizio De André, her main singer-songwriter model.
The artist’s first albums, Madame (2021, Sugar Music), winner of the Targa Tenco for best first work, and L’amore (2023, Sugar Music) have made her a textual custodian and interpreter of the impulses, discomfort and malaise of the new millennial generation. The most frequently used words in her songbook are true key words for today’s twenty-year-olds: love is the protagonist of her second release, a concept album that experiments with this noblest of sentiments from every angle; the heteronyms bene and male (good and bad) are a quintessential dichotomy for human beings throughout history; the verbs to die and to breathe offer another contrast between youthful frailties; terms such as wave and sea demonstrate the singer-songwriter’s personal perspective of panistic naturalism as expressed in her songs. Never banal, her writing is capable of ranging between registers, from the low and sometimes trivial to the courtly, versifying with a varied syllabification and utilizing traditional rhetorical figures.
The themes she tackles are consistent with her own existential path: expressive research transforms into formative creativity, in which the artist frees herself from the repressed anger of her teenage years in which she was a victim of bullying; bisexuality represents the lure of the flesh and an understanding of one’s own identity. With a timbre sometimes distorted with autotune to capture the musical echoes of the Mediterranean, lessons from albums such as Tutti morimmo a stento and Anime salve by Fabrizio De André and arrangements by Ludovico Einaudi often pulsate in her own style. Her expressive abilities earned Madame recognition and interest among the empyrean of contemporary Italian music: she wrote the song “Scatola” for Laura Pausini and co-wrote the song “La noia” together with Angelina Mango and Dardust, winner of the Sanremo 2024, while collaborating on numerous hits with big names like Fabri Fibra (“My friend”), Gué Pequeno (“Tell me now”), Sfera Ebbasta (“You understood me”), Blanco (“Everyone dies”), Ernia (“Nuda”), Rkomi and Carl Brave (“Lies”), Nuclear Tactical Penguins (“Babaganoush”), Marracash (“The Soul”), Ghali (“Pare”), Massimo Pericolo (“Airforce”) and Lazza (“Chaos”).
Madame is a singer-songwriter who sings about our contemporary world—a world that is glossy but decaying—with authenticity, without regard for the conventions of the market and stereotyped models, and with feeling that encapsulate individualism. It seems she wants to embark on a journey with the listener in order to overcome sexual-affective barriers and limits that young Italians find themselves facing along the way. With an eroticism that employs song as a means to release the essence of her experienced emotions, she questions the binary codes of society and affirms her bisexuality as an internal discovery, particularly in response to uptight conformists and ultra-conservatives. Her texts are studied, with roots stemming from Greek literature and myth, in which she aims to stir the conscience of her country where civil rights are not always respected. On a musical level, she found her beginnings in the micro-universe of rap, which led her to develop a courageous writing style, free of inhibitory filters. Her creative improvisations in hip hop bars have not hindered her sensibilities for other musical genres. She composed the melodies and arrangements of much of her own repertoire, seeking echoes of inspiration in popular music, world music and mainstream American and European genres: the traditional Salentine pizzica featured during La Notte della Taranta 2021, of which she was the concert master. The typical bpm of American trap music and the passionate whirlwind of Colombian cumbia. The choirs of the Carioca samba, the flutes and vibrant melodies of Arab music.
In her lyrical construction, Madame goes beyond simple metaphor, using rhetorical figures that evoke the most famous writers of the Italian literary tradition (she is a passionate reader of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy). She uses personification to bring inanimate but highly symbolic objects to life:
Come pioggia che guarda il cemento
e scorre come il nostro sangue misto
questa luce che va giù di nuovo
e poi ritorna nell’abisso in cui ti ho visto
(“Luna,” Madame, 2021)
(Like rain watching the concrete
and flowing like our mixed blood
this light that descends once again
and then returns to the abyss where I saw you)
E su una barca senza remi
ho visto il vento immobile
su una bici senza freni
ho visto il suolo correre
(“Tutti muoiono,” Madame, 2021)
(And on a boat without oars
I saw the wind standing still
on a bike without brakes
I saw the ground running)
Occuring often in her verses is hyperbole, a figure of speech largely employed by the latest generation of singer-songwriters to amplify their emotions about an element of their own experience:
Ogni mia parola si appoggia alla musica
pure nel mentre di una guerra punica
(“Dimmi ora,” Madame, 2021)
(Every word of mine relies on music
even in the midst of a Punic war)
Una corona di spine sarà il dress-code per la mia festa
(“La noia,” Sanremo 2024)
(A crown of thorns will be the dress code for my party)
Another frequent figure of speech she employs is the polyptoton (use of words deriving from the same root):
Ti strapperai i capelli per strappartene il pensiero (“Respirare,” L’amore, 2023)
(You will tear your hair to tear away the thought of it)
Muoio senza morire in questi giorni usati
(“La noia,” Sanremo 2024).
(I die without dying in these worn-out days)
Madame has a talent for mocking irony that borders on stand-up comedy, embedded in puns that exploit the homophony of the Italian lexicon and sometimes quote popular Italian celebrities:
La vita mi fa ‘click’ sul clito, eh
sa che godo quando preme il dito, eh
(“Clito,” Madame, 2021)
(Life makes me “click” on the clit, eh
you know I enjoy it when the finger presses, eh)
Davanti alla pandemia siamo tutti uguali
anche se la panda mia adesso è nel garage
(“Covid-freestyle,” 2020)
(In the face of the pandemic we are all the same
even if my Panda car is now in the garage)
Sì, però non è che canto ogni momento della giornata come Al Bano
ho messo al basso Brunetta e spaghetti alla chitarra
(“Tekno poke,” L’amore, 2023).
(Yes, but it’s not like I sing every minute of the day like Al Bano
I put Brunetta on the bass and spaghetti on the guitar)
The contradictions inherent in humanity are presented in the Vicentine artist’s lyrics through the use of antithesis:
Tu non esisti, ma io ti sento
(“Avatar – L’amore non esiste,” L’amore, 2023)
(You don’t exist, but I feel you)
A volte sono tutto, spesso sono niente
(“L’anima” feat Marracash, 2019)
(Sometimes I am everything, often I am nothing)
and with the use of the oxymoron, such as “Il bene nel male” (The Good in the Bad), L’amore, 2023).
Madame achieves harmony in her verses mainly through combinations of rhymes and assonances in an elevated register:
Il pudore di un uomo sicuro, quello del suo castigo
lo sproloquio di un uomo moderno, quello di un uomo antico
nelle tue mani metterei i miei sogni
nei tuoi capelli pianterei germogli
(“Come voglio l’amore,” L’amore, 2023)
(The modesty of a confident man, that of his punishment
the rant of a modern man, that of an ancient man
I would place my dreams in your hands
I would plant seeds in your hair)
Often the artist uses erudite quotes, for example in her melodic theme borrowing medieval sounds from “La Fiera dell’Est” by Angelo Branduardi:
La festa della cruda verità
fuori c’è un miracolo, la gente impazzirà
questa notte c’è la festa della cruda verità
(“La festa della cruda verità,” L’amore, 2023).
(The celebration of the raw truth
outside there is a miracle, people will go crazy
tonight there is the celebration of the raw truth)
Like other major contemporary trappers and rappers, she chooses playful interjections to link the verses and fill the gaps in the vocal track:
Perché domani te ne vai?
Mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm
perché, perché, perché
perché mi ami a metà?
Mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm
(“Aranciata,” L’amore, 2023)
(Why are you leaving tomorrow? Mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm
why, why, why
why do you half love me? Mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm)
Ti vorrei pettinare sentendoti urlare a ogni nodo che sciolgo
e farti capire che cosa vuol dire affrontare chi sei
ah-ah-ah, ah-ah-ah-ah-ah
(“Per il tuo bene,” L’amore, 2023)
(I would like to comb your hair, hear you scream at every knot I untangle
and make you understand what it means to face who you are
ah-ah-ah, ah-ah-ah-ah-ah)
On a syntactic level, Madame builds dynamic structures that alternate the asyndeton in the verse (“Se eri tu, nostalgia, male d’Africa” [“If it was you, nostalgia, sickness of Africa”]; “Pare” feat Ghali, 2022), with expressions from spoken language, current youth slang, and split sentences:
Come va, bro?
non ti sento bene, eh
(“Istinto,” Madame, 2021)
(Whassup, bro?
I can’t hear you very well, eh)
Certe sere in cui mi manca a merda, e, sì, che è lì, eh
(“Sciccherie,” 2019)
(Some evenings I miss him like hell, and, yes, he’s there, eh)
Dove sei finita, amore? Come, non ci sei più?
(“Voce,” Madame, 2021)
(Where have you gone, love? What, are you no longer here?)
Pure se mi vedi poco, tu mi hai capito
e pure se ti edo poco, tutto ho capito
(“Tu mi hai capito,” Madame, 2021)
(Even if you hardly see me, you understand me
and even if I hardly see you, I understand everything)
Like most rappers and trappers of her generation, Madame uses multilingualism in some fragments of her repertoire, disseminating both common and more refined foreignisms: borrowings from English such as “vibes,” “baby” and “mood”; Eastern expressions such as the greeting “salaam alaikum,” “Googoosh” (the stage name of Faegheh Atashin, legendary Iranian singer) and “babaganoush” (a Lebanese eggplant dip); Latino-Americanisms such as “milagro” (a sweet-flavored Mexican tequila) and “cumbia” (a typical Colombian dance); and Hawaiian words such as “pokè” (a dish of raw fish, fruit and vegetables). She often uses her own idiolect to mark certain verses imbued with familial or loving affection:
Papi, dimmi che non sparirai
mami, raccontami una favola
voglio un lieto fine
papi, cantami un po’ di Faber
(“Papy mamy,” Madame, 2021)
(Daddy, tell me you won’t disappear
Mami, tell me a story
I want a happy ending
papi, sing me some Faber)
Pargolina, salivando mi fai raggiungere orgasmi
(“Bamboline boliviane,” Madame, 2021).
(Baby girl, salivating makes me reach orgasm)
The Vicentine singer-songwriter uses erotic language to probe unexplored sensations in her concept album L’amore, weaving together lyrics that describe her bisexuality and encourage listeners to immerse themselves in her songs in order to understand the relationships they describe (always non-conformist). An example is “Il bene nel male,” a postmodern version of “Via del Campo” by Fabrizio De André, which sheds light on a fragile love between a sex worker and her client, a woman, overturning the cliché of De André’s song in which a male client falls in love with a prostitute. The word “whore”—which was originally intended to be the title of “Il bene nel male” but was later censored by the evaluation committee of the Sanremo Festival—remains in the text as an oxymoronic hyperbole, an obscenity whose effect is blunted by the youthful substratum of Madame’s language.
The singer-songwriter explores the intricacies of masturbation and oral sex through the use of allusions, euphemisms, metaphors or similes, and in more compelling examples through realistic profanity and sexually explicit language:
Ho il frutto della tua passione tra le gambe mie
ho la fica coi semi
ho un succo che mi scende alle calcagna mentre penso che
mi succhieresti rumorosamente come fai con l’ostrica
(“Respirare,” L’amore, 2023).
(I have the fruit of your passion between my legs
I have a pussy with seeds
I have juice running down my legs while I think about how
you would suck me loudly like you do an oyster).
Il mio nuovo maestro mi ha dato una carezza
e ho pensato a quel gesto, invece di pensare a te
(“Il mio nuovo maestro,” L’amore, 2023)
(My new teacher caressed me
and I thought about that gesture, instead of thinking about you)
In her empirical and evocative journey toward the meaning of love, Madame uses references to Greek mythology in order to describe individualism in a relationship, as well as impulses that can lead to nymphomania, while still trying to emphasize the desire for an idyllic love:
Dimenticata per errore
trascurata per dolore
maltrattata, egoismo
diventata Narciso
(“Se non provo dolore,” da L’amore, 2023)
(Forgotten by mistake
neglected due to pain
mistreated, selfishness
became Narcissus)
Oh-oh-oh nympha
ridammi la mia linfa
ti spingerei nell’Ade
per non guardarti più
(“Nimpha–La storia di una ninfomane,” L’amore, 2023)
(Oh-oh-oh nympha
give me back my lifeblood
I’d push you into Hades
So I’d never have to look at you again)
Se la tempesta arriverà a me
farò festa ogni notte con te
la mia musa mi guiderà a te
(“L’onda–La morte del marinaio,” L’amore, 2023)
(If the storm comes to me
I’ll party every night with you
my muse will guide me to you)
She chooses against the symbolic murder of her father, upending the Oedipal complex: (“Padre mio, non ti ucciderò / fino a dove posso spingermi per amore” [“My father, I will not kill you / how far I can go for love”]; “L’eccezione,” 2022).
The song “L’eccezione” appears in the soundtrack for the TV series Bang Bang Baby (The Apartment-Wildside-Amazon, 2022). Madame’s music is an educational journey for Italian listeners, present and future. Despite her young age, her sophisticated style has made inroads with the public: to date she has 1 million followers on Instagram, 5.5 million followers on TikTok, 2.5 million monthly clicks on Spotify, more than 400 million streams on YouTube, and over 3 million records sold (data from the Italian Music Industry Federation). She is in line to become the future queen of Italian music, with her innovative language open to elliptic nuances, but always with the Italian singer-songwriter tradition in mind.
(Interview with Madame for Esse Magazine)
