The battle for the throne of summer hits 2024 is in full swing
From the season of Sanremo songs, which have monopolized the past few months, to that of summer hits, the step is short, very short indeed. And it could be a bachata or samba step. “Sex and samba”. There are more than thirty, and the list will continue to increase (watch out for the arrival of Mahmood), rest assured, the songs that are vying to conquer the throne of queen of the summer, of beach and umbrella hits. By consulting the Fimi ranking and the radio broadcast rankings, we have chosen ten candidates. Among these could be the Daenerys Targaryen, ruthless queen of the “Game of Thrones” series, of songs of summer, the one who will take the crown. Write down the titles and prepare for the battle.
Tony Effe and Gaia – “Sex and Samba”
Like it or not, it's already everywhere. It debuted in tenth place in the Fimi/Gfk ranking of the most listened to and downloaded singles in Italy, but within a week it immediately jumped to first place, overtaking everyone else. But really everyone. After “Taxi sulla luna” with Emma, the former Dark Polo Gang continues to flirt with pop, this time choosing Gaia as its partner, reborn after “Tokyo” and “Dea sapphica”. Tony Effe's sugary rap meets the sensuality of the former “Friends” winner: the cocktail is lethal.
The Kolors – “Karma”
The 5 platinum albums of “Italodisco” (the equivalent of half a million copies sold) and the 2 of the San Remo “A boy a girl” have not satisfied them: Stash and his associates are back to confirm themselves as the kings of the Italian musical summer. Also pushing “Karma” was the Cornetto Algida commercial, which in recent years has acted as a sounding board for many summer hits, from “Logico #1” by Cesare Cremonini to “Vorrei ma non posto” by Fedez and J-Ax . Attention: “Karma” has been at the top of the Radio Airplay chart of the most played songs on Italian radios for two weeks.
Noemi – “I don't need you”
Noemi also flies on the radio. This time she alone, without Carl Brave, with whom she had recorded “Makumba” in 2021 and “Hula-Hoop” in 2022. The Roman singer was ahead of the curve: “I don't need you”, with lyrics that wink at female empowerment, was released on April 26th, climbing positions week after week.
Rose Villain and Gué – “Like thunder”
A piece with a thousand lives. With a title with a cinematic flavour, it is a quote from the film of the same name by Derek Cianfrance, the song was initially published on the singer-songwriter's second album “Radio Sakura”, released last March. The track, also thanks to TikTok, between quotes and memes, literally exploded. It's a bachata in which Gué's rap is inserted: at the starting line it seemed like madness which instead turned into a hit.
Fedez and Emis Killa – “Sexy shop”
More than a song it seemed like it should be an earthquake. Many thought that Fedez would attack his ex-wife Chiara Ferragni, but this was not the case. At most he took a few pebbles out of his shoes in a plasticky song, but which sticks in your head like the aliens from the Simpsons, in which he also finds his old friend Emis Killa.
Ghali – “Paprika”
An Afro urban-pop song, born from an overseas team led by Takagi & Ketra and with exponents of Latin songwriting such as J-Castle and Daramola. It talks about a sweet and hard-fought love story and then, at a certain point, moves on to a spicier flavor: “You can tell me whatever you want, I won't do like Rai”. The rapper is referring to the events that occurred during the last Sanremo Festival 2024, when at the end of his performance in which he sang “Casa mia”, he sent the message “Stop the genocide”, which caused a stir.
Annalisa and Tananai – “Short stories”
“Storie brevi” is the new summer single from the two artists who, with an anti-catchphrase, rest assured, have launched a real catchphrase. The song, in fact, especially in the chorus, is persuasive, it's a delicate pop, a bit vintage, which stays in your head, but without sticking in an obsessive and sticky way, and this makes the difference. Not everything, writing-wise, is memorable, but the song works not only in these warmer months.
Elodie – “Black nirvana”
After “Guaranà”, “Ciclone”, “Tribale” and “Pazza musica”, he certainly couldn't stand by and watch. Moreover, the next few months will be very intense, in view of the first two live shows in the stadiums, those on 8 June 2025 at San Siro in Milan and on 12 June at Diego Armando Maradona in Naples. Elodie called together some of the main hitmakers of Italian pop – Eugenio Maimone, Federica Abbate, Jacopo Ettorre, Leonardo Grillotti and Merk & Kremont, namely Federico Mercuri and Giordano Cremona – and so “Black nirvana” was born, a perfect and infallible, a catchphrase to the nth degree conceived as such and destined to go straight like a train throughout the summer.
Emma – “Femme fatale”
Emma also took the lead, like Noemi. The Salento pop star dropped her summer bomb, this “Femme fatale”, last May 3rd, allowing the song to take its time to make inroads into the charts. It worked. And it doesn't pay, now the voice of “Apnea” doubles: on Friday 14 June “Ho desire di te” is released, the result of the collaboration with Olly and Jvli.
Coma_Cose – “Malavita”
An unexpected song in terms of sound, but with a content that is anything but banal, which moves the camera and tells the stories of others. The first listen, for a long-time fan of the group, can be unsettling. Produced by Merk & Kremont, “Malavita” is a mix that fuses mandolins and echoes of flamenco with urban. The piece is not in the first person, but the prose story of a slice of life. The protagonist of the song is a woman with a stormy past who decides to change her life by leaving an oppressive context.
