Madame (rapper)

Francesca Calearo was born in Vicenza on 16 January 2002, and raised in Creazzo, also in the province of Vicenza.[2][3] As a child, she developed an interest in music thanks to her father, an amateur musician with an interest in Italian cantautori.[4][5] During the lower secondary school years, Calearo started taking piano lessons, and she later continued to study music as an autodicact, while listeing to artists like Ludovico Einaudi.[6] She studied Human Sciences at the liceo Don Giuseppe Fogazzaro in Vicenza.[7] She chose the pseudonym "Madame" after trying a random generator for drag queen names, which produced "Madame Wild" for Calearo.[8] She found it represented the idea of "elegance and sophistication" she wanted to pursue, as well as her will to be "a Woman with capital W".[4]

Madame's debut single, "Anna", was produced by rapper Eiemgei and released in September 2018 by Arcade Army Records.[9][10] At the age of 16, she signed a recording contract with Sugar Music, which released her second single, "Sciccherie", on 21 December 2018.[11][12][4] The song received airplay from Italian radio networks including Radio DeeJay.[13] In August 2019, Cristiano Ronaldo posted an Instagram story on his account, with a video of himself listeing to "Sciccherie" while on his home's terrace. Ronaldo's story attracted media attention on the song, leading several media to talk about Madame's music for the first time.[7][14][15][16]

The singles "17", "La promessa dell'anno", "Baby", "Sentimi" and "Clito" were also released between 2019 and 2020.[17][18][19][20][21] In late 2019, Madame appeared on the album Persona by Italian rapper Marracash, performing as a featured artist in the track named after her pseudonym.[22] In the summer of 2020, producer DRD released the single "Dafuera", with vocals by Ghali, Marracash and Madame.[23] She also recorded the song "Non è vero niente" with Italian rock band Negramaro, included in their album Contatto in late 2020.[24]

In 2020 Madame was among the fifty candidates for the title of "Italian Woman of the Year" for D: La repubblica delle donne (lit. 'D: The republic of women'), a magazine attached to the newspaper la Repubblica.[25] Madame made her first appearance on Italian television on 3 December 2020, when she opened the semi-final of the fourteenth season of X Factor on Sky TV, singing her song "Baby" in a duet with contestant Blind.[26] The following week, on 10 December, she was again a guest of the show, performing "Non è vero niente" with Negramaro.[27]

In March 2021, Madame will compete at the 71st Sanremo Music Festival, performing the song "Voce".[28] She will be the first female rapper to compete in the contest's main section, and she will be the youngest singer among the established artists competing in the 2021 contest.[8][29] Her entry "Voce" will be included in Madame's debut album, also preceded by the single "Il mio amico", featuring Italian rapper Fabri Fibra and released in January 2021.[30]

Among her influences, Madame cites singer-songwriter Fabrizio De André, as well as trap and, despite not having southern origin, Sicilian neomelodic music.[31][10] Instrumental music also played an important role in her artistic development, with artists such as Ludovico Einaudi and Van Halen.[10]

In 2019, her musical style was described by la Repubblica as "urban, a very wide container in which trap and rap can merge, together with several other contemporary sounds".[7] Claudio Cabona wrote for Rockol.it that Madame's lyrical style is sometimes "visceral", and sometimes very explicit, without being banal.[32] He added that all her songs are characterized by very particular voice sounds.[32] On Klamour, Gabriele Zangarini compared her voice in "Sciccherie" to La Rappresentante di Lista, describing it as "sometimes enraged, then whispered, often theatrical".[9]

• Madame at Spotify
• Madame on Instagram