During the first hard but necessary lockdown due to the COVID-19 virus, together with 3 dear friends, we have been sharing one song each every day. Our goal was to entertain ourselves with good music while at home and distant from each other. We created a playlist on Spotify. When everything ends, we will have at least a nice gift from this difficult period for all humanity. At the same time, I asked myself why don’t we share with our readers a playlist with the most famous Italian songs in the world.
This is how this playlist called Best Italian Music for Traveling was born.
Music is in everyone’s life and is always one of the best travel buddies. I love to enjoy the sounds that surround me. Can be birds, wind, or even cars and horns. But sometimes there is nothing better than the right songs to enjoy the moment. Very often it happens to link a place, an experience, or a person with a song. A song that, once home, will remind the emotions you felt in that precise instant.
After all, music is an art. And it is part of the culture and tradition of a community. Knowing a bit of local music means discovering a bit more of the people and places you visit.
So, is there anything better than some Italian songs while you are visiting the Belpaese?
Italian Songs in the World
With a few exceptions, the most famous Italian songs in the world come from the past. We have Opera, classical music, and melodic pieces known in every corner of the planet. They have been representing Italy for years, upholding the prestige of our country.
Our opinion as Generation X guys and Millennials is that those songs represent the past, the idea of a country that no longer exists. If not in the collective imaginary.
Anyway, we are super happy to collect in a single playlist what we think are the most famous Italian songs. You can listen to it now, at your place. While you cook, do some gardening, or simply relax on the couch. Or where ever you like.
Even better if you listen to it on your trip to Italy. I imagine yourself sitting on a train looking out of the window. Or driving a car across the panoramic roads of Tuscany, while outside the beauties of our country flow before your eyes. This playlist of Italian songs comes with you, helping you to impress memories in your mind that will last forever.
We know that many foreigners love listening to us speak in Italian. For them, our language is like a romantic melody. Although I have to admit, sometimes we are a little too loud when we talk. So, Italian songs can bring romantic notes to your house when you are not traveling to Italy.
Italian music as a way to learn the Italian language
If you are studying Italian or you wish to learn a few expressions of our language, the playlist of Italian songs could be a good tool. When I was a teenager the best exercise to learn English was listening to English songs. It helped me also to read lyrics and translate words into Italian.
Our Playlists of the Best Italian Songs
We made a selection choosing famous tracks in Italy and abroad, starting from the very end of the 1800s to nowadays. Most of the songs are in Italian but we also included a few Italian artists singing in English.
Songs are uploaded in order of the year of release. If you are keen on the old classics stay on the top. Otherwise, keep scrolling to the end.
To Listen to the full playlist on Spotify click here on The Best Italian Songs for Traveling. In the following frame, you can have a taste of 30 seconds for each song.
If you prefer videos take a look below or click on the link to the playlist on YouTube.
A few artists included in the playlist
If you wish to know a bit more about the artists we chose, here is a short bio of a few of them.
- Domenico Modugno is still a legend of Italian music. Thanks to Volare, he won two Grammy Awards in 1958.
- Renato Carosone was one of the greatest figures of the Italian music scene in the second half of the 20th. He is the symbol of the Canzone Napoletana, Naples’ song. He also performed at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York in 1957.
- Mina is one of the most prolific artists from the ’60s. Thanks to her songs and her beautiful voice, she became an icon for many generations of fans. She can pass through different emotional states just with the power of her voice. From sadness to love, to angriness to happiness. She became famous with a unique performance at La Bussola, a historical nightclub in La Versilia.
- Patty Pravo is the third best-selling Italian artist of all time, after Mina and Adriano Celentano. She raised popularity with her song Ragazzo Triste, aired as the first pop song by Vatican Radio, which was the Italian version of But You’re Mine by Sonny and Cher.
- Adriano Celentano is also known in Italy as Il Molleggiato, the flexible one, for his funny way of dancing. His music was strongly influenced by Elvis Presley and the rock of the ’50s. Many people in Italy think he looks like Jerry Lewis.
- Ricchi e Poveri is the Italian answer to the Abba. They are on the scene since the late 1960s, and they took part in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1978. Their energy helped them to gain considerable success and many fans in Italy and abroad.
- Fabrizio De André was a singer-songwriter and socially committed. His songs talk about social problems. They celebrate the marginal life of prostitutes and gypsies and attack the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church. He is considered one of the finest lyricists and musicians of the 20th century. He has been described as a hybrid of Leonard Cohen and Georges Brassens.
- Zucchero spent his youth in Forte dei Marmi in northern Tuscany and formed a music band with Edo’s uncle. Currently, he lives in Pontremoli in the Lunigiana. Gospel, soul, blues, and rock music inspire his music. He is widely known all around Europe, thanks to his collaboration with internationally famous artists such as Eric Clapton, Miles Davis, Ray Charles, B.B. King, Sting, Bono, Paul Young, and Peter Gabriel.
- Lucio Dalla composed a popular song dedicated to the Italian opera tenor Enrico Caruso. He was shy and enigmatic with the public and media but all hesitations vanished when performing on the stage.
- Francesco De Gregori is a singer-songwriter and a poet, the Italian version of Bob Dylan. Exactly Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Fabrizio De André influenced his songs.
- Gianna Nannini is a singer-songwriter and pop musician who became famous abroad, especially in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. She is from Siena in Tuscany. In her career, she performed with Sting and Jack Bruce. Together with Edoardo Bennato, she sang the official song of the 1990 FIFA World Cup. Another great Italian musician, Giorgio Moroder composed the song.
- Giorgio Moroder is famous all over the world as a songwriter, DJ, and record producer. He is considered a pioneer of electronic dance music producing singles for Donna Summer, and Bonnie Tyler. He created a score of songs for performers the likes of David Bowie, Kylie Minogue, Irene Cara, Janet Jackson, Madleen Kane, Melissa Manchester, and Blondie. Moroder also produced movie hits like Take my breath away from Top Gun and What a Feeling from Flashdance. Thanks to this last song, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1983 and 1986.
- Umberto Tozzi gained popularity in Europe, the USA, and Australia with his song Ti Amo. He performed twice at Sydney’s Opera House. Even another of his songs, Gloria, became a hit. It was translated into English and performed by Laura Branigan with the title Sold Gold.
- Pino Daniele was a Neapolitan singer-songwriter. His music has influences from pop to blues, passing through jazz and Middle Eastern music. He sang several of his last songs mixing English, Italian, and Neapolitan passages. His friend Eric Clapton called him at Toyota Park in Chicago playing with Joe Bossanova and Robert Randolph at Crossroads Guitar Festival in 2010.
- Eros Ramazzotti is popular in Italy, most European countries, and in Latin America. He played a duet with artists the likes of Cher, Tina Turner, Patsy Kensit, Anastacia, Joe Cocker, and Ricky Martin. He is very much appreciated for his nasal voice and melodic tunes.
- Andrea Bocelli is probably one of the most popular opera singers in the world. He is from Valdera in Tuscany. In 1999, he got a nominee for Best Artist at the Grammy Awards, and his duet with Celine Dion in the film Quest for Camelot won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song. Over the past 20 years, he sold millions of records worldwide. Nowadays he supports charity projects such as Celebrity Fight Nights and in 2011, he founded his own foundation to help with medical research and fight against poverty.
ANDREA BOCELLI AND THE CONCERT AT TEATRO DEL SILENZIO, TUSCANY
- Laura Pausini is a pop singer-songwriter that became famous in Italy after her victory at the 43rd Sanremo Music Festival. She topped the charts also in the Netherlands and Belgium. She also sings in Spanish and is having huge success in Latin America. In Spain, she became the first non-Spanish to sell more than one million copies.
- Tiziano Ferro is a pop singer who sings in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, English, and French. He is very popular in Central and South America. His most famous songs remain Xdono and Rosso Relativo.
- Francesco Gabbani is a singer of the new generation and he won the Sanremo Music Festival 2017. He gained enormous success at Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with his hit “Occidentali’s Karma”. He is from the town of Carrara in Tuscany which is famous for the white marble.
How to install and how subscribe to Spotify
If you are a first-timer on Spotify, follow these instructions to use it. Spotify is easy and free unless you subscribe to a premium service. This last option allows you to listen to music with no commercials, download playlists on your devices, and listen to them even without an internet connection.
Click here to install Spotify on your Windows/Mac. Then click on the download button on the right top. You can subscribe using your Facebook account by clicking on the button Login with Facebook. Otherwise, use your email address and fill out the form in the center of the screen. Once you have subscribed the download starts.
When the download is complete, open the file SpotifySetup.exe and click Yes to install Spotify. The process is super easy and automatic. You don’t need to move a finger.
The next step is to log in using your Facebook profile, or the account you previously created. After that click on Is my first time on Spotify, and start to listen to your favorite music.
How to follow our playlist
As soon as you download Spotify on your device, open the link to this playlist “The most famous Italian Songs for your holiday“. The cover is a green rolling hills landscape with the My Travel in Tuscany logo.
To add the collection to your favorites, click on the symbol of the heart. On the Spotify desktop version, the playlist will appear in the column on the left of your screen.
Would you like to add Italian songs to this playlist?
If you wish to add other Italian songs to this playlist, leave a comment below with the title and the name of the artist. We will be pleased to update the collection.
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