Holy ravioli, did you catch what happened at the Paris Olympics closing ceremony?
Kavinsky, the pioneer maestro of midnight drives, performed live with the Belgian singer Angèle, dropping his iconic “Nightcall” and… BAM! Shazam servers nearly melted faster than mozzarella on a wood-fired pizza!

He broke the record for the most Shazamed song ever in a single day!

Stumbling upon Kavinsky at the Olympics reminded me exactly of young me stumbling from one related video to another on YouTube (circa 2011), with the same hunger Italians have when they skip a meal. Other than Kavinsky there were so many other artists cruising my roads of nostalgia: I loved so much Anoraak, The Outrunners, and one of my main inspiration Miami Nights 1984.

These artists were opening a portal to a (Vincenzo Salvia’s) alternate 1980s.

Synthwave, to me, is more than just music. It’s a time machine, a rebellion against the flatness of the real world, a big “NO GRAZIE” to adulting. It’s like going back to the carefree days of us but with the wisdom (debatable) of our adult selves.

Fun fact: before it was called synthwave, this genre was known as Outrun. Why? Because it was inspired by the SEGA game of the same name: you’re cruising in a Ferrari Testarossa, wind in your hair (a pleasure only for the luckiest ones), a stunning woman on the passenger seat, deciding at the last moment where to turn, changing landscapes, traveling just for traveling, no destination in mind. If that’s not the pinnacle of escapism, I don’t know what is!

This Olympic moment proves that there are more synthwave lovers out there than there are varieties of pasta (and trust me, that’s A LOT). Many just didn’t know it yet. It’s like they’ve been eating spaghetti all their lives without realizing there were many other formats.
Mamma mia.

To all you newbies who Shazamed “Nightcall” that night: benvenuti to the family!

And to my fellow synthwave artists and long-time fans: can we just take a moment to appreciate how far we’ve come? From bedroom studios to Olympic stadiums!
What a ride!

And speaking of rides, it’s a bit like what happened to me on a Salvia-sized scale. There I was in 2012, timidly releasing my first synthwave tracks, probably while eating a slice of pizza in my bedroom. A few years, and… Without even knowing why or how, I found myself featured in Stranger Things (yes, that Stranger Things, not some weird Italian knockoff called Cose strane), and in PlayStation titles like Spider-Man 2 and Rollerdrome.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go polish my sunglasses and practice my acceptance speech for when they inevitably make “Best Synthwave Artist” an Olympic category.

Arrivederci! 🤌