Måneskin have spoken about their love of playing covers and riling up rock purists with their takes on pop hits.

The Italian band won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2021 with their own song ‘Zitti e buoni’, but have had their rise to fame accelerated with the help of covers of songs including The Four Seasons’ ‘Beggin’’, The Killers’ ‘Somebody Told Me’ and Franz Ferdinand’s ‘Take Me Out’. A live recording of the former was released on Spotify in 2021 and recently reached one billion streams on the platform, while it has also gone viral on TikTok.

• READ MORE: Måneskin: “Nobody is keeping rock’n’roll alive – it’s just impossible to kill”

Speaking to NME for the latest Big Read cover story, frontman Damiano David said the group will likely “always do covers” in their live sets. “It’s one of the coolest things you can do,” he explained. “When you write a song and then publish it, it’s not yours anymore. You’ve gifted it to everyone.

“When people cover us I’m super proud, because they’ve been so starstruck by this song that they want to make their own version. You can see the same thing born again with hundreds of different shapes.”

As well as indie hits, the band have also included pop classics in their covers canon, such as Britney Spears’ ‘Womanizer’, which was aired as they made their debut Coachella appearance in April. Asked if they enjoy pissing off rock purists, David replied: “Yeah! Too much, maybe!

It’s my guilty pleasure. For me, it just makes no sense to expect us to behave like the Stones or Queen. It already happened and peaked. They fucking created a legacy and nobody can touch it.

“It’s so stupid and pointless to expect a band of 20-year-olds to replicate what was happening in the ’70s and ’80s. We’re in fucking 2022, so we’re just trying to do something new that makes us feel satisfied and happy. I really enjoy seeing people say, ‘Oh, they’re not Led Zeppelin’. I know! We never will be. I’m not Robert Plant; I wish I was! I have to do my own shit.”

Check out the full Big Read cover interview with Måneskin here, where they also talk the aftermath of the Eurovision cocaine speculation, work on their new album, working with Baz Luhrman on a song for the upcoming biopic ELVIS, having breakfast with Chris Martin and Dakota Johnson, and fame in the US.

Yesterday (May 31), the band shared a new video for their latest single ‘Supermodel’, in which they pay tribute to their favourite movies from the ‘90s. “We had so much fun filming it in London, playing funny scenes that reminded us of a detective B-movie,” the band said in a statement.

The band play Reading & Leeds Festival 2022 in August before headlining The O2 Arena in London on May 8. Visit here for tickets and more information.