What it’s like to go to a Tony Pitony concert
It’s the phenomenon of the momentmanaged in a handful of months to go from being talked about on social media to having an increasingly central presence even in the “institutional” contexts of Italian music, so much so that it was brought with great fanfare to Sanremo and end up at the center of one of the most talked about moments of the Festival, the one he saw Ditonellapiaga win the covers evening. Tony Pitony is among the Italian artists who have left their mark the most in 2026, ending up at the center of cultural debate (especially because of the lyrics of his songs, often accused of misogyny, sexism and to convey deliberate vulgarity which some read as artistic provocation and others as simple search for scandal). An exhibition that contributed to rapidly polarize its public imagedividing listeners, professionals and the general public between those who consider his proposal a break in Italian pop and those who, instead, see it as a phenomenon more linked to the viral effect than anything else. Meanwhile, his summer tour has exceeded quota 130 thousand tickets sold. It will officially leave tomorrow from Cortona, with a concert at the Santo Tiezzi Municipal Stadium. But a first preview came last Friday, when Tony Pitony performed at the Spring Attitude of Romein La Nuvola. Not an appearance, but a real concert, which lasted about an hour and a half, in front of an audience of 9 thousand people. An opportunity to see the phenomenon in action and understand something more about such a success.
The public that fills La Nuvola has a fairly recognizable profile: average age between 20 and 30, mostly university students, some engineering, some mathematics. An audience that is thrilled to sing without hesitation deliberately explicit and provocative texts, including sexual references and pornographyand who seems to experience the songs and the verses that compose them more as part of a shared code than as a scandalous element. There seems to be some catharsisor anyway a lowering of the collective embarrassment thresholdin which the deliberately extreme register of the texts is absorbed and returned as a group game, rather than as an individual provocation. «Tony, Tony, Tony», is the chorus that rises from the parterre and is repeated at regular intervals for the entire duration of the live, while he, with that Elvis mask (who also appears, gigantic, on the screen behind him), smiles and waves.
“Sessonline”, “Rio De Janeiro”, “The Cannon Man”: on stage, Tony Pitony alternates singing parts with spoken moments, with a structure that does not follow a fixed pattern. The band on stage and plays continuously. Musically the level is high, but that’s not a surprise. We also wrote it in unsuspecting times: the arrangements of the songs are careful, the sounds pleasant, the performances well played. In this he partly recalls Elio and Storie Tese, although with (much) less virtuosity. Take “Ass“, among her most contested songs: if it weren’t for that text, it wouldn’t be out of place in Giorgia’s discography. Or the irresistible “I like black ones”, between blues and funk, which seems to come out of a Zucchero album or the first Pino Daniele: «I like black women, I’m not racist / black is no longer a color that saddens me / I like black women, I’m not banal, no / finally I’ll be the one who gets enslaved». But around the music there is a performative component made up of interruptions, sketches and digressions.
In one of these passages characters like Smerdino And Danilofigures known on social media thanks to culinary-themed viral gags, which construct short surreal situations, linked to cooking and deformed everyday life. «Did you order the pasta? It’s creamy”, says one of the characters, alluding to the lack of consistency of the dish. And the other grants the public «a sloppy spade». Shortly after, the concert stops for an impromptu break. Tony says he has to go to the bathroom and leaves the stage for a few minutes: «I have to go to the bathroom, otherwise I can’t continue. Like Rosalía”explains. It is a moment that breaks the continuity of the show and which is then reabsorbed without particular explanations, as if it were part of the flow. These passages are part of a writing constructed so as not to remain on a single reading level.
“Rich women” it is one of the most awaited moments. After all, it is Tony Pitony’s most popular song, the most viral: «It’s that moment – he says, announcing the song – I would like us to sing this song all together: a single voice must rise». The audience follows, without needing to be convinced. Applause and stadium chants begin. A few flashes light up like a lighter, while Tony Pitony sings – and the 9 thousand with him: «I’ll stay on you / like a sketch drawn by Monet / my cock is hard, it explodes like Chardonnay / I want to uncork it with you tonight». It is the highest – or lowest, depending on your point of view – point of the catharsis mentioned above.
Meanwhile, off stage the project continues to move also on the recording front. The new single “Cadillac”, released after “L’ammor” with Tommy Cash, marks a move closer to the mechanisms of the music industry. The collaboration with Guè and Shablo seems to be part of a phase in which the project is progressively being structured. Is the phenomenon already becoming standardised, normalised? Perhaps this tour will help understand how the project can hold up on a larger scale.
