Do we like them?

Do we like Damiano David?

Our score: 7 out of 10. A clean record on harm and no pattern of mistreating people, but I found little about his views beyond a few moments, so I held back from the top marks.

Damiano David started Måneskin as a teenager in Rome, the son of Italian cabin crew, and the band went from street gigs to winning Eurovision in 2021 with “Zitti e Buoni”. Since then the band has been on hiatus, and he has gone solo with the pop-leaning album Funny Little Fears, which came out in May 2025.

His biggest brush with scandal was in 2021, right after the Eurovision win. Viral footage led viewers to claim he had snorted cocaine in the green room. He denied it and said he had bent down because a glass broke, then took a voluntary drug test. The EBU said the result was negative and that it considered the matter closed.

On the harm test, there is nothing nasty in what I found. In June 2021 he and bandmate Thomas Raggi kissed on live Polish TV, which Italian outlet Open reported under the headline that love is never wrong. In 2022 he drew heavy criticism online for shouting a profane anti-Putin slogan from the Coachella stage, which is a long way from a campaign against anyone's rights.

The one position that will split readers is Israel at Eurovision. In 2025 he said he didn't see why an Israeli artist who simply wants to compete should be denied. He also said the situation is complex and that an artist who is very involved politically is a different context. Where you land depends on whether you read that as keeping artists apart from their governments, or as ducking a bigger question.

I found nothing new and dated from the last few months that I could pin down, and I couldn't verify anything on climate, vaccines or migration from him. That is honestly a thin file, not a clean bill of health on those topics. For the good stuff, he has been a loud, visible ally to queer fans and, by the reviews, is a hard-working performer who has tried something new rather than coasting on a Eurovision win.

So the verdict is a comfortable yes. He passes on harm and passes on nice, with the caveat that the record is thin and his Israel comment is one you can disagree with. Worth a listen, and a keep-an-eye-on-him rather than a worry.