Italian pop is huge in Italy, but only occasionally reaches the shores of America, gaining a foothold for a time, only to lose it.
Even the country's biggest stars are only slightly more than obscure among the majority of Americans, except for icons like Andrea Bocelli, whose oeuvre straddles the line between pop and classical music.
The latest to try and mine the lucrative American market is Gianluca Vacchi, a wealthy former businessman turned mega Instagram star. The handsome, silver-haired, copiously tattooed 50-something has 12 million+ followers on Instagram; he's something of a poster child for a middle-age characterized by fabulous living and enviably stringent self-maintenance.
Not content with the drooling adoration of a population three times the size of Ireland's population, Vacchi is trying his hand at music-making (as well as acting). Why not?
The video for "Come on and Show 'Em" opens with an aerial view of a yacht harbor — fitting, since he first went viral for a video showing the star, mostly naked, dancing aboard his yacht with a bikini-wearing, bronzed and lithe young woman.
50 year old Italian millionaire Gianluca Vacchi dancing to Ricky Martin with Italian model www.youtube.com
Vacchi is apparently quite a successful DJ, too: the video, set to a generic house beat and a dully repetitive hook, prominently features him manning the nightclub decks, his bare torso glistening with purples, reds, and blues.
The only reason for this song and video to exist is as proof of one man's blissfully opulent existence. It certainly isn't proof of any special musical inclination: the music is painfully unremarkable, and the sole lyrics are taken from the song's title and repeated for the entire length of the track. The whole kit and caboodle is a morbidly fascinating curio for our pathologically self-obsessed times, a head-scratching monument to self-aggrandizement that would make Trump's golden toilet blush red. The only thing we can say is, "complimenti, Ragazzo!"
Gianluca Vacchi - Come On And Show 'Em (Official Music Video) www.youtube.com
Matt Fink lives and works in Brooklyn. Go to organgrind.com for more of his work.
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