Without stopping singing: from Taylor Swift to Paul McCartney, the music that went on during the pandemic

The confinement has aroused ambivalent feelings in the artists: there are those who admitted that they were unable to write anything, paralyzed by the fear of stasis, and those who, once the pen had placed the paper, never stopped, giving life and to albums that told the whole world inside that was pressing to come out and finally hover in the air. This is the case, for example, of Taylor Swift who, towards the end of April, contacted the musician Aaron Dessner explaining the need to express the fears, dreams, whims and reflections that accompanied her during the lockdown.

Thus was born Folklore, an album full of intimacy that Taylor herself defined “Sad, beautiful and tragic”: came out as a surprise, conquered the charts all over the world and demonstrated how an artist of her caliber can want to swap cards to trust an instinct, an idea that suggests stability and survival.

In the same vein, another sacred monster of world music such as Sir Paul McCartney, which announced the release of McCartney III, his new album of unreleased songs, explaining that he wrote and composed it in the midst of the health emergency. Written in April on his East Sussex farm, McCartney III è arrived despite the former Beatle had not planned any album for 2020, at least until the isolation and the suggestions that surfaced in his mind led him to get back to work on already existing songs and on songs yet to be composed. Unlike, however, the more reflective and melancholy style of the works of Swift, Charli XCX and BTS, McCartney proposed an album full of vitality and resilience, optimistic about the future and deeply grateful for all he has received.

However, the effort of all those artists who, while not composing from scratch during the first wave, worked hard to reinvent themselves and keep the flame of music alive in their hearts. Renato Zero decided to publish Zerosettanta, the mammoth trilogy written to celebrate his seventy years, respecting the original release plan; same speech for Luciano Ligabue, struggling with thirty years of career and a mega-concert postponed to 2021; ed Emma, who would sing at the Verona Arena in September to pay homage to his ten years as an artist. With their hands in hand, however, they did not stay either Claudio Baglioni, Annalisa, Nek, Marco Masini e Diodato (his performance in the empty Arena during the special episode ofEurovision was one of the strongest we have experienced this year). What if Lady Gaga he still picked up prizes for his album Chromatica choosing to take part in initiatives such as One World, with all the greatest artists in the world connected remotely to tell the world not to give up, others, like Mika, they rolled up their sleeves putting on events like I Love Beirut, a tribute, always in streaming, of music to a wounded city that has never folded.

Browse the gallery above to discover the artists who have not stopped due to the pandemic >>