Isle of Mtv in Malta is the summer when festivals are back
Throughout its history this summer concert has attracted the greatest of pop, dance and electronic music worldwide, from Lady Gaga (in some of her first live performances outside the United States) to the Black Eyed Peas, from Gorillaz to the Chemical Brothers, passing through Enrique Iglesias, David Guetta, Snoop Dogg. Over the years, the line up has moved from names that are perhaps less striking but certainly more aligned with a very young audience, who in fact flocked en masse to hear artists who are forcefully changing the panorama of today's music, especially through social media. . After the Maltese singer Shaun Farrugia (known for his recent collaborations with Martin Garrix), the Canadian BBNO $ performed (don't worry, we asked too: it reads "Baby No Money") - acclaimed for his hit Lalala and that gave a lucky one in the audience a cookbook - and the English Mae Muller, a provocative TikTok-format pop star model.
Mae Muller Anthony Harvey / IOMTV Malta / Shutterstock In fact, the public was trying not only to enjoy the music on stage, but also to spot the best-known influencers here and there, who had come to give prestige to the event. When Elisa Maino, influencer and model with over 3 million followers on Instagram, revealed herself in the VIP area, the eyes especially of the Italians stopped following the concert in search of a photo even if from a distance. Not that the atmosphere on stage wasn't equally stimulating, with the performances of the rapper French Montana and above all of Marshmello, a dj with a mask in the shape of a gummy candy who concluded the evening with a mammoth set made up of visuals and fireworks.
With less than 6 thousand inhabitants, Valletta seems a very lively city from a cultural point of view, not only for the same Music Week organized by MTV as a side frame to the main event, but also as a catalyst for diversified festivals - also of opera music, since the city itself is a kind of huge open-air opera stage - and the capital of a country, Malta, which, despite being small, is one of the most invested in television and entertainment. In days like these, when the main island of the Maltese archipelago is invaded by young people from all over Europe, you live in a kind of short circuit: all around, the buildings, the architecture, the sea views, seem like a continuous, red-hot fortification. (given the history of invasions from the sea and various dominations); In some ways, Maltese society is also perched on reactionary positions, if we consider that abortion is prohibited here, divorce has only been legal since 2011 and the management of migratory flows is often the subject of heated debates (and selfishness).
Marshmello Anthony Harvey / IOMTV Malta / Shutterstock On the other hand, perhaps as a result of a glittering and sensational event like Isle of Mtv, Malta seems to be projected at least temporarily into a future made up of young people, energy, leaps towards the future. It will also be the thrill of seeing thousands and thousands of boys and girls find themselves crowded at a festival in a context like this, in which the pandemic seems a distant memory (the new cases here are just over a hundred, on average weekly), where you can finally return to hope, dance and breathe. Even here in Italy, after all, it was the summer of the return of the great summer festivals, from the new The first summer in Lucca to the classic I-Days, from the Kappa FuturFestival in Turin to Terraforma in Monza, from Umbria Jazz to Porto Rubino in Puglia, and why not also the highly contested - for environmental reasons - Jova Beach Party. Even on television, if you are not satisfied with the Isle of Mtv special, there are many Festivalbar emulators, from Battiti Live to Tim Summer Hits. What do all these events have in common? They give young people the semblance that the world can return to what it was before, or that at least there is a song to make us hope that the worst is behind us.
