7 emerging artists to keep an eye on at the Mi Ami Festival

MI AMI Festival represent ideally the beginning of summer in Milan. Nearby Idroscalo, Magnolia has been hosting for the last 15 years – during the last weekend of May – some of the most interesting artists of the italian music scene. The Festival of Good Music and Kisses has always been able to propose a fresh, young and heterogenous line-up capable to satisfy different types of audience every year. Itpop or rap, rock or trap, electronic or songwriting, indie or major: MI AMI doesn’t care about this kind of tag, what really matters is the music.

For these reasons, it shouldn’t be a surprise if in this year's line-up we can find next to each other: the winner of Sanremo 2019, a Myss from Porta Venezia, a producer duo behind lots of the music hits of the last months, a songwriter that made his debut in 1981, a rapper that will make his debut at the festival.

In conclusion, at MI AMI 2019 you can find anyone you want and – for the occasion – we have tried to recommend you some of the most interesting artists we can’t wait to see live at Magnolia (in no particular order).

MILLE PUNTI

Label: Vetro Dischi

Genre: disco music, psychedelia

Live Performance: Saturday, May 25 h 20.40

Mille Punti is the artistic project by Edoardo Bassi, former member of Revo Fever. “Tame Impala covering Alan Sorrenti”: an easy description that allow us to understand immediately what are the music inspirations of the Milan based artist’s new path. Mille Punti comes directly from 1974 and in his debut album, Retrofuturo, he wanted to bring back to life old times sonorities. Italian disco music, Nile Rodgers alike guitars and a bit of psychedelia, all accompanied by his warm and profound voice: this is Retrofuturo, one of the most interesting debut album in the last few months. We are ready to move our asses in the crowd and get back to the 70s. Before that we just need to wear our flared trousers and put our sideburns in order. 

DOLA

Label: Undamento

Genre: street pop

Live Performance: Friday, May 24 h 18.10

DOLA, stage name of Aldo Iacobelli, is Undamento’s next big thing, the label of Coez, Frah Quintale, Dutch Nazari and Ceri. It’s quite complicated to tell what type of genre is this project: in DOLA we can find songwriting, electronic, rap, lo-fi and DIY attitude. First entered in the label as Coez’s backliner and driver, he published his debut album MENTALITÀ on April 5th: nine tracks where his rough and scratchy voice leans on the excellent production by MNTL (alias Leonardo Milani). After the successes of the last few years, Undamento wants to repeat itself with DOLA. The premises are very good.

MIKE LENNON

Label: Carosello Records

Genre: hip hop, asian rap

Live Performance: Saturday, May 25 h 20.35

Mike Lennon is a designer, graphic designer, producer and rapper born in Parma in 1995. What makes his project interesting and completely new in the italian rap scene is that Duc Loc Michael Vuong (his real name) is the first Asian rooted rapper in Italy. Moreover in his tracks Mike Lennon makes fun of the stereotypes Western people have against Eastern people. Just listen to Aligatò, Lavolale and Talocco (written with the L instead of the R on purpose). The last one in particular refers to fake fashion brands and to the period when Mike’s classmates called him Nakata, as the famous Japanese football player – even though he is Italian with Vietnamise origin. This is Mike Lennon’s winning formula: a lot of self-irony and the ability not to the take himself too seriously. This recipe also convinced Carosello Records with whom he has recently released his first EP Asian. You don’t want to miss the live debut of the pioneer of asian rap.

YONIC SOUTH

Label: La Tempesta Dischi

Genre: garage, punk rock

Live Performance: Saturday, May 25 h 00.10

No, we did not spell it wrong. At MI AMI there won’t be a reunion between Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon. These are instead Yonic South, they are italian and they only reversed the initial letters from Sonic Youth. It’s certain though that they not only share the name with the New York based band, but also the sound. In 2019 they released their first EP Wild Corbs with La Tempesta Dischi: four powerful songs and a garage rock attitude. At the moment they have few streams and views on digital platforms, but MI AMI could be a great opportunity to discover this band. We promise you that it will be like being in 1978 at CBGB in New York.

EUGENIA POST MERIDIEM

Label: Factory Flaws

Genre: Indie, rock

Live Performance: Sunday, May 26 h 20.15 

In the last few years indie rock – especially the English one – has been a matter just of women with artists like Snail Mail, Courtney Barrett, Stella Donnelly (just to name a few) that released some of the most beautiful albums of the genre. Eugenia Post Meridiem, Genoa based band born in 2017, moves exactly in this direction with an indie rock that turns its gaze more abroad than italian music industry. Listening to Low Tide – their first single released at the moment – was enough to be blazed by Eugenia’s voice and by their ethereal and dreamy guitars. MI AMI will be our first opportunity to see them live on stage and we hope they will perform some new songs. We are looking forward to fall in love again.

DELLACASA MALDIVE

Label: La Valigetta

Genre: Indie, psychedelic

Live Performance: Saturday, May 25 h 22.35 

"Have you ever been to the Maldives?”: Dellacasa Maldive, a project born from Riccardo Dellacasa (former Wemen and Verano band member) and performed with Edoardo Castroni, Davide Povolo and Dario Canepa, begins with this question. After releasing genova, davide and ferrara di furio (which entered the Indie Italia Spotify playlist), last March they published Amore Italiano – their first album under La Valigetta. A debut characterized by funky rhythms able to bind to pop chorus and 80s synth. The songs from Amore Italiano carry us to another dimension making us feel like The Dude in the famous scene from The Big Lebowski. In an ideal world every song from this album would be a hit. For the moment we can’t wait to see them on stage: we already have our ticket for the Maldives.

EMMANUELLE

Label: DEEWEE

Genre: disco, house

Live Performance: Saturday, May 25 h 01.55

Let’s finish with a bang our list of the most interesting artists at MI AMI 2019: at Magnolia you can dance untill late morning and we’re certain Emmanuelle will be able to make us dance even after 4-5 hours of concerts. She was born in Rio de Janeiro, she grew up in Miami and she now lives in Milan: she is best known especially for the song Italove played in lots of dj sets in the best clubs in Milan and outside of it and in Matteo Garrone’s Dogman soundtrack. More than one milion views on Youtube, more than two milions streams on Spotify for a song that has become an instant classic, also thanks to the use of an imperfect italian. We are looking forward to dance under-bass. “È tutto blu, ci piace di più”.