Mahmood announces new arena dates: 5 more concerts in May

The show, meanwhile, continues these days with three more dates

Ph. Walter Coppola

ROME – After the success of the first stages of N.L.D.A. Tour, the first tour in Mahmood’s sports halls, the singer-songwriter announces 5 new dates – produced by Friends & Partners – scheduled for spring 2025.

READ ALSO: Mahmood in the arenas: the concert lineup

The show will stopon May 17 at the Unipol Arena in Bologna, on May 20 at the Palazzo dello Sport in Rome, on May 21 at the Palapartenope in Naples, on May 24 at the Inalpi Arena in Turin, and then conclude on May 25 at the Unipol Forum in Milan. Pre-sales will be available from 6pm today, Friday 25 October.

After the preview in Jesolo and his shows in Milan, in the meantime, the N.L.D.A. tour in Mahmood’s arenas continues these days. The singer-songwriter will land at the Mandela Forum in Florence on October 25, at the Palazzo dello Sport in Rome on October 27 and at the Palapartenope in Naples on October 31. The latter two concerts are sold out.

THE CONCERTS

The concert was conceived asa theatrical rave with different aesthetic paintingssometimes dreamy and sometimes more underground, to underline the multiple worlds of Mahmood and his experiences, showing the evolution and growth thanks to all the experiences lived and transporting the flavor of European clubs into the amplified dimension of the sports halls.

The show – which sees Type-Ten as the creative director – is divided into three parts, in which every detail supports and enhances the story in a coherent way. On a stylistic level, the choice of visuals, choreography, lights and clothes worn for each of these moments blends with the story and emphasizes its sensations even more. 

Mahmood’s adventure begins in a dentist’s office where, due to the anesthesia, he falls asleep and begins to dream, imagining he is embarking on a journey. The first part of the show is a flight into the unknown, a runway, we set off towards something unknown, with songs ranging from “Tutti contro tutti” and “Paradiso”, taken from the new album “Nei letto degli altri”, to hits from the past such as “Brividi” (8 platinum records). Here the artist has chosen a custom look by Prada (which will always remain at the opening for the entire tour), where the elegance of the coat, total black shirt and red tie is contrasted with the rough and non-linear movements in which Mahmood engages with the dancers; a desired contrast and a look in which he feels at ease and free to move.

The second phase of the journey represents the journey, the most dreamlike part of the live, with moments almost of prayer (this block opens with the cover of the song “Sabri Ailel”) and other very intimate ones, especially when Mahmood performs only piano and voice with “T’amo”, “Il Nilo nel Naviglio” and “Stella cadente”, on a piano with a metal support that almost recalls a spaceship suspended in the sky. Here the clothes will always be different during the tour.

The third and final part of the show is the arrival, an arrival on the clouds, this is the landscape also represented in the visuals – created for the occasion by Tommaso Ottomano -, the reaching of a non-place, which in reality is a state of mind, today, the present. It represents the evolution of Mahmood’s artistic path, which shows how it has changed and how it has arrived to today, concluding in fact in the setlist with the songs “Ra Ta Ta” (in which images sculpted by the artist’s unique style follow one another, certified platinum and with 140 million streams) and “Tuta gold” (experimental, with a baile funk style and club rhythm, 5 platinum discs and 370 million global streams). Here the dress, which will also remain fixed for all the upcoming dates, is a custom made by Willy Chavarria, a dreamy look with a red durag so long that it almost gets lost in the clouds on the screen, and which hides a reference from the past: a similar garment worn in the video clip of “Rapide” (2020, certified double platinum).

The predominant colors on the stage are black and red, in addition to metal, the material used for the electric columns and the moving piano – which appears in the most intimate moment of the show -, recalling the atmosphere borrowed from the Japanese opera Ghost in the Shell. Added to this are the references to the Pyramid, symbolism linked to its origins: the staircase at the center of the scene is pyramidal, as are the lights – composed of 300 spotlights – and lasers, with light design by Douglas Green. The choreography is by Carlos Diaz Gandia.