My Favorite Songs, Podcasts, and Youtubers for Italian Learners

Fun ways of improving your “italiano”

Passive listening — it might be one of the most enjoyable and relaxed language practices I have encountered so far. It teaches you the language melody and the grammatical structure, the pronunciation, and the most used words. The great thing about Italian is that for the most part, it’s pronounced just like it’s written, so you will probably be able to understand the spoken language relatively quickly (in opposition to French, for example).

Music

No matter your Italian level, listening to songs will definitely make you learn many new words. Whether you just listen to them passively or look at the lyrics and write down vocabulary is up to you — the latter obviously bears the most fruits. I have a whole playlist with only Italian songs on my phone and listen to it regularly.

• Ex-Otago: Without a doubt my favorite Italian band. Some of their best songs are “Stai Tranquillo”, “Infinito”, “Gli Occhi Della Luna” and “Non Molto Lontano.”

• Fulminacci — “Resistenza” and “Al Giusto Momento” (a young singer-songwriter producing nice pop songs)
• Selton — “Voglia di Infinito” and “Luna In Riviera” (Brazilians singing in a very melodic Italian)
• Cosmo — “L’ultima Festa” and “Sei La Mia Città” (I don’t know if I’d call this pop, but I absolutely love the first one!)

• Mahmood — “Soldi” (the Italian contribution to the Eurovision Song Contest 2019; a singer-songwriter whose songs are somewhere between pop, RnB, and hip hop)
• Willie Peyote — “Io Non Sono Razzista Ma…” and “C’era Una Vodka” (He’s apparently very popular among young Italians; his lyrics are sometimes funny and often direct)
• Bruno Sas — “La Vita Liquida” (very poetic)
• Laura Pausini — “Primavera In Anticipo” feat. James Blunt (you might remember this song, it’s more than a decade old)
• Lucio Battisti (he lived before the times of Youtube) — “Con il nastro rosa” (the oldest song in this list; it’s from 1980 and really worth discovering)
• Jovanetti — “Chiaro Di Luna” (a wonderful love song, sung with passion and a beautiful voice)

Podcasts

I use Spotify to listen to podcasts. Therefore, my recommendations might not always be available on the platform you use (like Apple Music). On Spotify, you can create a free account and conveniently download episodes to hear them offline. I’ll tell you the approximate required level of every podcast according to my estimation — however, I encourage you to listen to podcasts above your level as well, even if you don’t understand every single sentence!

• “Speak Italian — Pensieri e Parole.” Required level: beginner/intermediate. In her podcast, Linda talks about Italian literature and culture (like food, traditions, and history) — around 10 minutes at a time. I particularly recommend episode 54 about the “Italian walk” if you don’t know where to start. The host has a real radio voice, soft and engaging — that’s why I enjoy listening to her a lot.
• “Intermediate News in Slow Italian.” Required level: intermediate. As far as I know, there used to be a version for complete beginners, but I think they’ve stopped producing it. Listening to slow news is a practice I recommend for every language. Not only do you learn new vocabulary and have small moments of satisfaction because you’ve managed to understand a lot, but you will also learn a lot about what’s going on in the “Bel Paese.”
• “Be Italiano.” Required level: intermediate. My favorite Italian podcast! This one has only been created in June 2020 but Stefano who releases the podcast has such a sympathetic, enthusiastic voice! You can definitely hear that he doesn’t lie in his first episode when he says that he smiles a lot. He also talks about really interesting things, like the Italian culture of coffee, the Italian school system, etc. His episodes are 10 to 20 minutes long and are uploaded each Sunday.
• “Learn Italian with Lucrezia.” Required level: intermediate. I’ve been following Lucrezia on Youtube for years and only discovered her podcast recently. I love her voice (yes, you must have figured out how important that is to me) and find her a very motivating teacher.
• “La bottega di Babbel.” Required level: intermediate. Gianluca is an Italian man talking about Italian traditions, festivities, etc. The episodes are about half an hour long and treat topics like the most popular Italian products, the culture of slow food, coffee, pizza, and more. He often invites guests and has a small conversation with them.
• “Senza rossetto.” Required level: advanced. This is a podcast about feminism (femminismo). If you have a good understanding of Italian and are very passionate about feminism in Italy, or about hearing stories of women, I highly recommend it. I honestly don’t find the voices of Giulia and Giulia, the two hosts, particularly engaging, but they also include other voices and their podcast is well made.

You might also enjoy “L’italiano vero” and “Italiano Automatico Podcast.” They require an intermediate or advanced level and I don’t listen to them — for one simple reason: You can’t listen to everything, right?

Youtubers

I will only include three language channels here because most of the other Italians I follow talk about veganism (veganesimo), a topic I am passionate about. As an advanced learner, I recommend you search for Italians talking about topics that interest you.

• My absolute favorite has to be the adorable Lucrezia from the channel “Learn Italian with Lucrezia.” Her videos are in Italian, but most of them have English subtitles. She sometimes vlogs about life in Italy but mostly talks about Italian culture and, more importantly, how to improve your vocabulary and your grammar.

• My second favorite Youtuber is Manu, a very sympathetic Italian instructor and creator of the channel “Italy Made Easy.” He talks about culture, language, etc., mostly in English. Manu is also the host of the podcast “Learn Italian with Italy Made Easy” (which hasn’t been active since March 2020, but you can listen to all the old episodes).

• You probably know this one, but I’ll mention it anyway: “Easy Italian.” Just like the other “Easy Language” channels, it focuses on making you hear Italian from different Italian people randomly interviewed on the streets. The advantage: You have Italian and English subtitles so you won’t struggle to understand anything.

© Annika Erika 2020

If you have other recommendations, be it for songs, podcasts, or videos, please let me know in the comments — grazie mille!

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