Come va?: X Factor Italia

Ciao! Instead of telling you about how I'm studying abroad in Rome, which is exciting for me but most likely boring and slightly envious for you, I'm going to focus on popular culture of Italy instead, mainly focusing around music, movies, and slang. I'm not taking Italian this semester, nor am I taking the pop culture class I signed up for--the professor even told us to drop it, telling us it didn't really focus on Roma, to which I said to myself "che di merda!"--so I'm going to attempt to meet Italian giovane (youngn's) like myself instead, and find out the lingo of the country from their point of view.

My Dirty Italian book will only get me so far.

I'll be starting off with something pretty awesome and universal, televised singing contests becoming a fast-track shot to mainstream music. We have American Idol, Europe has the X Factor. We're going to have it soon, and it will most likely replace American Idol unless Steven Tyler can bring it back. Whatever, X Factor's better. Italy's version began in 2008, and has had 4 winners thusfar. Here are videos of the past two winners, season 4 (Nathalie) and season 3 (Marco Mengoni). Both fantastic singers. Nathalie's a little on the rougher pop-rock side (think Pink and Avril Lavigne), and M

Muse's "Time is Running Out"--Nathalie (they sing in English too)