The song is literally called "Zitti e Buoni" — Italian for "shut up and behave" — and then it proceeds to do neither for two and a half glorious minutes. Måneskin marched onto the 2021 Eurovision stage, told all of Europe to pipe down, and then detonated one of the loudest guitar riffs the contest had ever politely tolerated.
This 38-second clip isolates that main riff so you can steal it fair and square. It's a driving, palm-muted power chord attack sitting squarely in a minor key — the kind of part that sounds absolutely furious but is secretly very kind to beginners.
How the Zitti e Buoni riff works
Underneath the eyeliner and the chaos, this riff is a masterclass in restraint. It's mostly root-and-fifth power chords hammered out in tight eighth notes and driven by relentless downpicking. The magic isn't the notes — there are barely any — it's the palm muting: rest the edge of your picking hand lightly on the strings right where they meet the bridge, so each chug comes out short, punchy and mean instead of ringing out like a campfire singalong.
Concrete takeaway: keep every stroke a downstroke and let your palm do the dynamics. Slide your hand a millimetre off the bridge and the chords bloom open; press a touch harder and they choke into a percussive thud. That single hand position, not your fretting hand, is what makes this sound like Måneskin and not like you practising scales.
Get it tight enough and, ironically, your neighbours will also start wishing you'd stay zitti e buoni. If you want the Guitar Pro file and the slowed-down version, I keep those on my Patreon, where I am neither quiet nor well-behaved.