Do we like Damiano David?
Our score: 8 out of 10. No harmful words or company turned up, and he's backed Ukraine at a cost; the thin record and one contested Eurovision comment keep it off 9.
Damiano David is the face of Måneskin, the Italian rock band that won Eurovision in 2021 and went global on the back of leather, eyeliner and plenty of swagger. These days he's billed as the band's former frontman, since he's gone solo. That's the arc: a Eurovision winner who turned a one-night win into an international career.
His biggest stoush came straight after the 2021 win. Footage of him ducking his head in the green room had viewers claiming he snorted cocaine. He denied it, saying he was reacting to a bandmate breaking a glass, took a voluntary test, and it came back negative. The EBU said no drug use took place and called the matter closed.
On the harm test, the record is clean as far as we could find. The main criticism aimed at him is that he and guitarist Thomas Raggi were accused of queerbaiting over their gender-bending style. He denied it, saying their choices are filtered through their queer bandmates. We found no anti-LGBTQ+, anti-women or climate-denial words from him, and no questionable collaborators, though the coverage is thin in places.
He's also put his platform behind something. In March 2022 Måneskin pulled Moscow off their tour after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and he said they had to stand for what's right while respecting Russian fans. Dropping a market over politics costs a band real money.
The one contested position is Eurovision and Israel. In 2025, he told Europa Press an Israeli-born performer who just wants to compete shouldn't be stopped, though he said it depends on the individual. Where you land depends on whether you read that as separating artists from governments or as going soft on a war that has split fans.
The recent news is a happy one: his wedding to Dove Cameron in Tuscany in September 2026. Nothing controversial has surfaced around it or around his solo work lately, and we found no court cases or lawsuits against him.