Curiosity
to start.
The vision
to go further.

He founded his first IT company, providing multimedia services to artists and entertainment professionals.

He worked with Valerio Merola following his appearance on the reality show “L’Isola dei Famosi” and later on Rai 2’s afternoon entertainment programme “L’Italia sul Due”. He managed communications and web resources, working with what was then an early form of social media marketing.

Through his companies, he provided hosting, streaming and management services for the web radio stations run by producer Matteo Bonsanto and, later, DJ Alex Peroni of RTL 102.5. With Peroni, he launched the radio streaming platform “Music Drive”, which eventually joined Telecom Italia’s “Rosso Alice” portal.

With talent scout Claudio Cecchetto, he created the online “Cecchetto Festival” competition, attracting thousands of entrants from Italy and abroad. At the end of the year, Universal Music Group released “Gioca Jouer Superdance Compilation” to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of Gioca Jouer. The album included the winning single by Yudaxis, and Mantovani designed its cover. Cecchetto later discovered Samuele Dalò, known professionally as Alphetto Filmaker, a Max Pezzali fan who had made an unofficial video for the song “Il meglio” with a production budget of just one euro. Cecchetto liked it enough to make it official, while Mantovani handled its promotion. The young director was interviewed by Italy’s national television networks, and the video subsequently aired on MTV Italia and All Music, later DeeJay TV.

He appeared in the credits of Daniele Stefani’s third album, “Punto di partenza”, as project supervisor. He also worked on another project for Cecchetto’s group, “Memoring, il registratore di internet”, overseeing its development until the end of 2009. That year, he created the new “Finley Channel”, the band Finley’s online television channel. He also oversaw promotion for PFM – Premiata Forneria Marconi’s new album, “PFM canta De André”, and accompanied the legendary band to the Sanremo Festival for a performance with Claudio Santamaria and Stefano Accorsi. For the same label, Aereostella, he promoted Vittorio Nocenzi’s “Estremo Occidente” and Danilo Amerio’s “Ali digitali”. Another milestone was an agreement with Sony Music Italy to promote Matisse, a band that included Robert and Fabio, the duo from Maria De Filippi’s television show “Amici”. The campaign secured the group an appearance on MTV TRL, and on 21 October 2008 Mantovani accompanied them for a live performance from Piazza del Duomo in Milan.

He promoted “Songwriting & Duets – Part 1”, the new project by Argentine artist Maria Claire D’Ubaldo, beginning with “Il segreto sta nel ritmo”, an Italian-Spanish version of the historic hit “The Rhythm Is Magic”, recorded as a duet with Lola Ponce. That same year, he also promoted “Caos Cosmico” by Federico Poggipollini, Ligabue’s long-time guitarist.

He moved to Spain, where he worked with Sony Music Spain’s Catalonia department.

He founded his first publishing company, Yippee!, based in Málaga, Spain, for the distribution of books and music. He later financed technology and renewable-energy projects through the investment company Mantovani Investments S.L.

He returned to music promotion with the Radio Promoter brand, also operating in Spain as Promotor Musical. Both brands were managed by Mantovani Investments S.L.; that same year, Yippee! became the company’s publishing division.

He became established in music promotion across Spain and Latin America, delivering a series of successful projects. In the spring, the management of Italian artist Lorenzo Piani asked him to adapt three singles into English and Spanish and explore possible duets. This led to “The Soul” with Nirah, a contestant on “Operación Triunfo”, and “Mudar” with María Villalón, winner of the first Spanish season of “Factor X”. A close friendship developed with Villalón, who invited him on stage at the Feria de Málaga to perform “Cosas que no sé de ti”, the Spanish version of Elisa’s “Gli ostacoli del cuore”. Another success followed with Natalia’s “Nunca digas no”; the well-known Spanish television artist from the first season of “Operación Triunfo” achieved more than six million YouTube views. He also began working with the charity Pozos sin Fronteras, which builds drinking-water wells in Morocco, Burkina Faso and Peru. To support the association, he released “Tus mejores días”, featuring Italian and Spanish artists including Jalisse, María Villalón, Fabio Cinti, Andrea Maja, Paolo Miano, Venezuelan duo Jaba & Black, Alexis & Andrea and many others.

He founded the Mantovani Music record label and organised the “Música Málaga” competition, which attracted significant local media attention. He began relaunching Giovanni Scialpi, now known as Shalpy: with Mantovani supervising and Mario Ana producing, the singles “Come to Me” and “If You Really Want To” were released. The artist subsequently joined the cast of Rai 2 reality show “Pechino Express”, hosted by Costantino della Gherardesca. Another notable moment came during Shalpy’s birthday celebration at Rome’s Piper Club, where Mantovani brought María Villalón from Spain to perform the duets “Pregherei” and “Come to Me”. His first Spanish production, Carlos Bravo’s “Quien me dará”, was created with Italian arranger Mario Ana and entered rotation on Canal Fiesta, one of Spain’s leading radio networks. He later produced other emerging Spanish artists, including Ivan Pelaez, Fran Camino, Toba Gutiérrez and Telescópicos. Oracle then selected him to organise the “Oracle Rocks” concert in Málaga, whose 2014 and 2015 editions he managed.

He relaunched other artists known for their success in the 1980s, promoting Gary Low’s new single “Báilame así” after a twenty-year absence from the scene. In the spring, he signed Miani for the release of three new singles. He also launched Vendi Musica, a low-cost digital platform for releasing singles and albums. He produced singles by three Spanish drag performers — Xenon Spain, Pomela Anderson and Aylin — to promote tourism in Torremolinos, one of Europe’s leading LGBT+ destinations. During the summer, he organised a tour of every Fnac store in Spain for Paolo Miano, the only independent Italian singer to receive this level of exposure in the country.

He promoted Paola Iezzi’s single “Lovenight”. The Paola & Chiara member delivered one of the summer’s most popular songs in Spain; Los40 Principales played the track and Los40 TV placed its video in rotation. During the summer, he also promoted “Abusadora” by well-known M2O DJ Don Cash in Italy. He later launched the soprano quartet Le Div4s in Italy and abroad with their version of Gianna Nannini’s “Aria”; Nannini herself shared the video through her social channels. Radio Promoter also launched its Italian Digital Delivery service under the Cartolina Digitale brand.   

He oversaw the return of historic Neapolitan band Il Giardino dei Semplici with the new single “Dannata idea”. He also promoted Fabio Greca’s “Il principio attivo” in Italy and its Spanish and Latin American version, “El principio activo”. He later handled the production and promotion of Greca’s “Vivir la vida junto a ti”, recorded with Spanish artist María Villalón. In Spain, the Ritmo-branded Digital Delivery service was launched to deliver music materials to radio stations.   

He founded Mantovani America LLC in Florida, opening the group’s first offices in the United States. The new Miami headquarters opened in October. Meanwhile, Mantovani Investments S.L. in Spain became Mantovani Europe SL, and the Distrid brand was launched for digital distribution. At the beginning of the year, he released Shalpy’s “Il dolore del cuore”, supporting it with an extensive campaign in Italy and Spain that culminated in a major summer tour. To celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of “Pregherei”, a new version with Spanish artist María Villalón and a Spanish-language recording with Scarlet were released under the artist’s former name, Scialpi. Radio Promoter reached 1,000 promoted artists and handled Matteo Sica’s single “Fino a tre”; Sica had won Radio Deejay’s Deejay On Stage competition.   

All the MANTOVANI MUSIC catalogue is sold by Mantovani Europe SL to MANTOVANI AMERICA LLC, including digital distribution divisions.The MUSIC SALE catalog is ceded to the American division DISTRID. Radio Promoter also launches the radio monitoring service for the recordings of the tracks of its customers. CLASSIFICATION INDIE is founded, the weekly service that typifies the rankings of independent Italian artists. The stable of artists promoted by Radio Promoter expands with new names: Pino D’Angiò, Stefano Fucili, wLOG, Dinastia, Robie C. and many more....
Towards end of the year MANTOVANI AMERICA LLC pursues an agreement with Facebook Inc. for the distribution of the royalties generated by the Stories of Instagram and Facebook of its customers under the brand DISTRID.   

The Distrid division, controlled by Mantovani America LLC, reached 10,000 tracks distributed worldwide. Mantovani Europe SL closed the year with a substantial increase in revenue, while its Radio Promoter and Promotor Musical divisions established themselves as European leaders in radio and television music promotion.   

The new Radio Date service launched in Italy on Promo.Radio, the new platform controlled by Mantovani Europe SL. A progressive group rebrand began, reorganising the main European brands. Radio Date also launched in Spain and Latin America under the Ritmo brand. Radio Promoter reached 60 press offices and record labels reselling its services in Italy. Mantovani America LLC reached an agreement with TikTok for music distribution and the collection and allocation of royalties to clients through Distrid.

Mantovani America LLC expanded Distrid by opening branches in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, reaching 100,000 tracks distributed worldwide by the end of the year. Mantovani Europe SL began a rebranding plan that relaunched Radio Hits in Italy and Lista Indie in Spain and Latin America.