Playlist Picks: Ania Magliano
The ‘SNL UK’ star’s picks see her discuss her renewed love for the radio and why The Dare is the ideal role model for modern masculinity
Welcome to Rolling Stone UK’s Playlist Picks. In the ever-growing and all-consuming world of music streaming, it’s increasingly hard to find something that really stands out from the noise and might just become your new favourite. So here’s where we step in.
We’ve decided to recruit noted tastemakers and familiar faces to tell us the songs they’re really vibing with at the moment. In turn, we hope that you’ll find something in those songs too. You’ll be able to listen to all the picks on our new Playlist Picks playlist on Spotify.
The latest picks come from comedian and Saturday Night Live UK star Ania Magliano. “I always feel a bit self-conscious talking to like music-y people about music,” she says. “When you’re not a musician or in the music world, it can feel quite vulnerable to share your taste and what you’re enjoying. In relationships, I’ve also always been the one who knows less about music.” Only recently, she says, “have I really come into [thinking] I’m just gonna like what I like, and that’s fine”.
See Magliano discuss her picks and listen to them all – alongside all other picks from the series so far – on our Playlist Picks playlist on Spotify below.
Kim Petras – ‘Jeep’
I love this whole album a lot, but this song specifically. My friend Will Owen, who’s a great comedian and also does my tour support, and I went through a real phase of sending each other songs. He sent me this and I was listening to it the first time and being like, ‘I already need to know all the words and be singing along to this. It’s making me nostalgic for a time in a life that I’ve never had’. It just really transports me to a different place. We listen to it in the tour car now – which isn’t a Jeep, unfortunately. But it’s one of those songs where listening to it in a car makes you feel like you’re going to ascend into a new dimension.
What does this dimension and this un-lived life look like in your head?
It really feels like an American road trip. Ultimately it makes me feel like I can drive, which I can’t do. It’s this fantasy of, ‘God, I know how to drive! I’ve passed my test!’ I guess it’s also talking about a relationship where you keep going back into it, even though you know it’s not good for you. I’ve never really done that, so that’s kind of enchanting to me. Every time I’ve ended a relationship with someone, I’m like, ‘Yeah, good riddance. Why would we ever go back here? That would be such an awful idea’. It’s romanticising the toxic bad boy that you can’t help but go back to.
Audrey Hobert – ‘Thirst Trap’
These [choices] are all pretty much on the poppy, dancey end of stuff because that’s what my vibe is right now this summer. I love Audrey Hobert, and I think I’m gonna say perfect pop song for this. I think it might be in perfect pop song territory. The lyrics are really funny. Sometimes I’m like, ‘I’m sick of comedy, I do it all the time, I don’t want to see anything funny’, but actually I do like a song with a funny lyric because they can be quite subtle. It’s almost like observational comedy in a way. This song is about trying to take hot pictures of yourself because you’ve got a crush on a guy, and yeah, unfortunately I relate to that. It’s so fun and joyful and silly and embracing cringe, which is a great combination of stuff for me. That’s really what I’m doing in my life right now.
Sugababes – ‘Round Round’
I dropped this at a party the other day. I’ve ended up in a situation where I keep ‘DJing’ – and I’m using quote [marks] the heaviest they’ve ever been used – at events. I think I accidentally manifested it, and I manifested it too strongly. I always thought I’d like to try DJing, and now it’s been every week on the trot. And I can’t DJ. I’m just queuing stuff up on my Spotify, or sometimes using the Spotify mix feature if I’m really going out on a limb.
I was meant to be DJing at my friend’s birthday on Friday night, and I was like, ‘I can’t do this. I’m just not in the right headspace. It’s going to be too vulnerable. I’m not drunk enough’. They were totally fine with it, but then when we went to the dance floor, I was like, ‘I’ll just put one song on the queue and dip my toe in like that’. I put on ‘Round Round’ and it cleaned up. It was just such a perfect choice, if I do say so myself. I’ve been listening to it non-stop after that to relive the glory. But also, it’s so fun, it’s kind of sexy, it’s a good song to dance to.
La Rappresentante di Lista – ‘Ciao Ciao’
This is an Italian pop banger. I think I maybe heard it on the White Lotus season two soundtrack. I’ve found a lot of songs that I really love through party scenes in film and TV. I don’t know what they’re saying [in the song] but it sounds sexy as hell just because they’re speaking Italian. They could be talking about putting the dishwasher on, but I don’t think they are. It makes me feel cultured to listen to music in another language, even though I don’t know what they’re saying. It’s called ‘Ciao Ciao’ so that must be “bye bye,” or maybe even “hello”? God, I’m half Italian and it’s really not coming through at all!
This is a song that really makes me want to dance. It makes me want to be in a club in Italy in a tiny t-shirt and skirt with an Aperol Spritz and a bob. Despite all my DJing, I haven’t played this in public yet. [I would play it] in a group outdoor context, in a square in Italy at 2am, with an Italian hunk nearby on a moped.
Alewya – ‘Maktoub’
I’m now living alone, and I’m loving coming downstairs and putting the radio on and then making my breakfast. I’ve been listening to Nick Grimshaw on [BBC] Radio 6 Music, and it’s such a good way to start the day. I used to listen to the radio as a kid in the car on the way to school, Nick Grimshaw as well but when he was on Radio 1. It’s this weird passage of time, but it doesn’t it doesn’t feel bad scary or even nostalgic – it’s just like, ‘Oh thank God this thing is still here’. Thank God the radio hasn’t been killed by podcasts or whatever, because it’s such a specific thing that really fulfils something. Putting Spotify on shuffle, that’s not the same.
This is one of the songs that I heard on Radio 6 one morning, and it actually might have even been the first morning I thought maybe I should listen to the radio in the mornings. I turned it on and was like, “Oh my god, perfect!’ This song, there’s something about it. I feel like it just goes straight to your bones. You want to move. You want to dance. I’d never heard it before, but it’s familiar and just really cool sounding and really interesting to listen to. I can definitely be someone who gets caught in a nostalgia loop of only listening to songs that I’ve already heard, or comfort songs that I’m already very familiar with. I have to consciously try and go out of my comfort zone, and I used to do that through streaming, but the radio has been really good for that.
Geese – ‘Cowboy Nudes’
If you live in east London and want to have a conversation with any man, you have to have engaged with Geese, so I put the time in. With ex-boyfriends, usually our music taste doesn’t align so much, so I assume stuff won’t be for me. Last year I went back and listened to a lot of Lou Reed, and I was expecting all the music to be quite sad and low, just based off how the people I knew who had liked it were all quite sad, downbeat people. It was a pleasant surprise to discover that the music is quite bouncy and enjoyable.
This Geese song, I know this is probably not something we should recommend people do, but one headphone in on a Lime bike on a summer’s evening cycling through London with this on – uh oh, I’ve joined heaven! I’ve died and I’ve gone to heaven. I’ve been hit off my Lime bike.
As I’ve got older, my taste has developed a bit and I appreciate more interesting choices in songs. I think there were times when I was younger where you hear someone singing a bit out of key, or making a choice that makes it slightly less easy listening, and I’d always think, ‘Why are they doing that?’ Whereas now I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s really engaged me and switched me on’, so that’s growth! I’m just proud of myself that I enjoy that.
The Dare – ‘Perfume’
I’m a huge fan of The Dare. I love it. I love everything he’s doing. This was a song that was playing when I went downstairs at my friend’s birthday, and I was like, ‘OK, maybe I will dance!’ All of these songs are songs that are making me want to dance and move around and bring energy into my life. The other day I was having a conversation with Jack Shep from SNL, talking about how The Dare is such a good example of being a sexy man. If any men are thinking [they] don’t understand how to have role models in this society of looksmaxxers and Nigel Farage… ‘Who do we turn to?’ I would say my idea is you guys all turn to The Dare and copy that.
Ania Magliano is touring across the UK and Ireland with her brand new show, Peach Fuzz’– tickets are on sale now at aniamagliano.com.