INGROOVES MUSIC GROUP SIGNED A GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION DEAL WITH MEXICO’S SERCA MUSIC. ABBA’S BJÖRN ULVAEUS SIGNED WITH U.K.-BASED PPL FOR INTERNATIONAL NEIGHBORING RIGHTS. CREDITS TEEKAYMILAN — Facing deepening
isolation from a nationwide
coronavirus lockdown, Roby Peris-
sin, a medical marketing specialist
by day and Latin jazz bassist by
night, broke the monotony with a
performance in the courtyard of his
apartment building. With Perissin
on bass, daughter Eva on ukulele and
Dutch-born wife Marijke providing
vocals, they ran through blues songs
and even The Rolling Stones’ “Sym-
pathy for the Devil.”
These Milan residents were among
tens of thousands of Italians who took
to balconies, courtyards and open
windows as part of the “Sound Flash
Mob,” a countrywide event to alleviate
the frustrations of a national ban on
public gatherings.
For Italy, a country reeling from the
second-highest number of COVID-19
cases (69,000 infections) and the most
deaths (over 6,800) as of press time,
the flash mob was a moment of release
and spurred more organic musical
celebrations in the following days.
“It helped break the eerie silence
that had begun to creep over our
cities,” says Luciano Bevilacqua, one
of the flash mob’s organizers. “And it
fought the other virus — loneliness.”
In recent weeks, artists in othercountries badly affected by the out-
break — including Spain, China and
South Korea — also turned to ad hoc
concerts to keep their spirits up.
In Spain, where the number of virus
cases has topped 39,000, with over
2,800 deaths — the third-most fatalities
in the world — manager-promoter
Franchejo Blázquez organized the
virtual festival #YoMeQuedoenCasa
(I’m Staying Home). The event
featured 40 artists playing live sets on
Instagram, including Rozalén, David
Otero and Diana Navarro. An hour
after it kicked off, roughly 60,000
people had logged on, says Blázquez,
who works for management agency
Must Productions.
These bursts of spontaneous musi-
cal expression and altruism mask the
economic hardship throttling Italy’s
and Spain’s music industries due to
the shutdown of live events and retail
activity. The losses to Italy’s music
industry could top 100 million euros
($107 million), estimates Enzo Mazza,
president of FIMI, Italy’s major-labels
organization. In addition to the live
sector, FIMI is seeing a 60% drop in
physical record sales, a 70% drop in
synch revenue and a 70% drop in back-
ground music revenue collected from
shopping establishments.The situation is just as dire in Spain.
The Spanish Music Federation, known
as Es Música, estimates the country’s
live-music sector will lose 764 million
euros ($824 million) between March
and September. Until the virus struck,
the sector had been growing steadily:
Live-music income grew by over 14%
in 2019 to 382 million euros (over
$412 million), according to Spain’s As-
sociation of Music Promoters.
In Spain and Italy, the virus has
shown no signs of slowing. Italy went
into lockdown on March 9 when Prime
Minister Giuseppe Conte declared
there would be “no more nightlife.”
The move led a group of frustrated
musicians from Rome — a 20-piece
street band called Fanfaroma — to
come up with the Sound Flash Mob.
“Things got worse with the lockdown,”
says Bevilacqua, a founding member of
Fanfaroma. “We couldn’t get together
to rehearse!”
The original plan was for musicians
around the country to play whatever
music they wanted at an appointed
hour. Some groups urged everyone
to play the Italian national anthem,
“L’Inno Mameli” (The Mameli Hymn).
But not everyone did.
Many established artists took part:
Giuliano Sangiorgi of pop groupNegramaro gave a short concert from
the balcony of his Rome apartment.
Rock star Morgan sped around on the
street outside his Milan apartment
on a skateboard while singing an
unaccompanied version of his track
“Sincero” (Sincere).
The flash mob was also a moment
for lesser-known musicians to shine.
Music student Marta Cinelli, 15, stood
at a window in the Alpine village of
Campodolcino and played a selection
of pieces on her viola. In Cisternino,
a small town in southern Italy, 3D
graphics artist Alfonso Miceli and his
5-year-old daughter, Nina, banged pots
and pans from their balcony.
The event seemed to light a fire. The
following day at noon, Italians gath-
ered on their balconies to clap their
hands for five minutes to show their
appreciation for the nation’s belea-
guered doctors and nurses.
In the wake of the flash mob, though
not necessarily related, the Italian gov-
ernment passed emergency measures
on March 16 that included 130 mil-
lion euros to be shared between the
film and live-music industries, with a
further 10 million euros ($10.8 million)
for all authors and visual artists.
In Spain, a second “lineup” of artists
contacted Blázquez about wanting to
participate in the Instagram festi-
val. Another virtual event featuring
independent acts, Cuarentena Fest
(Quarantine Fest), also offered sets on
Instagram through March 27.
The crisis has pushed Spaniards
to return “to a time when neighbors
and friends helped each other,” says
Blázquez. For artists like Andalusian
singer-songwriter Javier Ruibal, who
will have to deal with the financial
blows of canceled concerts for the
foreseeable future, the virtual perfor-
mances offer an emotional payoff they
need right now.
“After the concert I collapsed in a
heap of tears,” Ruibal wrote to fans
on his Facebook page after a recent
set. “The situation is so strange and
so worrisome... Thank you for being
there, without your company this is
going to be very hard.”Fighting The Lockdown Blues
As the European concert business reels amid the coronavirus,
music lives, with flash mobs in Italy and virtual concerts in Spain
BY MARK WORDEN and JUDY CANTOR-NAVASClockwise from top left: A man plays guitar on
his balcony during a flash mob performance in
Milan on March 13; Uruguayan musician Jorge
Drexler in an empty theater in Costa Rica on
March 10; participants in a flash mob in Rome
on March 15; Otero’s Instagram show in Spain
on March 18; Cinelli serenading with her viola
in Campodolcino, near Milan; street band
Fanfaroma at a flash mob in Italy.GUITAR: LUCA BRUNO/AP IMAGES. DREXLER: JOHN DURAN. ROME: ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/GETTY IMAGES. OTERO: COURTESY OF @DAVIDOTEROMUSIC. CINELLI: DÉSIRÉE SORMANI. FANFAROMA: LUCIANO CONTROCHIAVE.THE MARKET • GLOBAL REPORT20 BILLBOARD • MARCH 28, 20207market_global_lo [P]_27835073.indd 20 3/25/20 2:16 PM