Elodie stuns with new single written by Mahmood at Sanremo
Italy’s biggest song contest Sanremo Festival came to an end on Saturday night with worthy winner Diodato with the ballad ‘Fai rumore’, but there was another song in the competition I can’t stop raving about. Singer Elodie participated with the tune ‘Andromeda’, written by Italian pop star and winner of last year’s Sanremo Mahmood and his producer Dardust. They created a tune that had the potential of winning the Eurovision Song Contest all together if you ask me!

29-year-old singer Elodie has three albums to her name, of which the most recent one titled This Is Elodie, came out this week with the Sanremo entry on it. She has collaborated with rappers, experimented with soul, hiphop and R&B and all those influences are audible in the epic anthem that is ‘Andromeda’. Over piano and strings she sings and raps her way through the first verse after which a beat kicks in that leads into two new melody lines until finally that soaring chorus, still driven by strings, kicks in. Elodie, Mahmood and Dardust mixed elements from contemporary pop and hiphop with 70s disco and 90s house; this song has got it all. This might sound like it could get messy, but ‘Andromeda’ is a surprisingly cohesive anthem with a clear structure and a more than satisfying climax with that soaring chorus, all with a lush production.

Lyrically, it is a proper power anthem on which she admits that her fragility might make her seem small to some, but that she won’t be their ‘Andromeda’ (the meaning behind the title refers to a Greek mythological figure who was chained and offered to a sea monster). Live on stage at Sanremo, Elodie sold the hell out of her song. Her performance was full of attitude and her smokey, raw vocals are stunning. ‘Andromeda’ might be the Eurovision winner that never was, but at least we can stream the tune for the rest of our time!