Do we like Damiano David?
Our score: 7 out of 10. A clean run on harm and a decent record on treating people, but the public good deeds we could verify are small and the political record is thin.
Damiano grew up in Rome, the son of two flight attendants, so he travelled young and picked up languages. He joined Måneskin in 2016, and the band busked on the streets before placing second on X Factor in 2017. Four years later they won Sanremo and then Eurovision with Zitti e buoni, and the world got a very sparkly look at them.
Eurovision night produced his first big stoush. Viewers accused him online of snorting cocaine on live TV. He said he was reacting to a bandmate breaking a glass, and offered a voluntary drug test. The European Broadcasting Union said the test came back negative and called the matter closed. He told the press, “I don’t use drugs. Please, guys.”
In 2023 a video of him kissing a woman in a nightclub went viral just as the news broke that he and his long-time girlfriend had split. He said there had been no infidelity, and apologised for how the footage came out, calling it “my mistake”. It was messy, public and quickly owned, which is more than plenty of rock stars manage.
On the harm test, we found no nasty words or campaigns from him. When the band was accused of queerbaiting, he said they spend a lot of time around LGBTQ+ people and that their choices get run past queer friends. At Coachella in 2022 he shouted against Putin, and a celebrity chef told the band to write a song for Gaza. He replied sarcastically, and that's all the record shows. We found no clear stance from him on trans rights or the climate, so that part is a gap, not a clean bill.
The good stuff is small but real. After a fire at a cat sanctuary near Bologna in 2021, he started a monthly contribution to help rebuild it, saying it was the least he could do. In recent interviews he talks about questioning how much of his confident image was armour. That reads as a bloke working on himself, not a bloke working on his brand.
As for now, he's married, and Måneskin are reportedly set to reunite for a Sanremo appearance in 2027, after a solo run that earned mixed reviews. There's no scandal in the last few months. Would we support him? Yes, with the note that we'd like to see more of him using that stage for other people.