Marco Mengoni's shimmering pop-rock vocals helped him clinch the top prize in Italy's third season of The X Factor, and the gifted tenor has only cranked up the grandiosity since seizing the charts. Flirting with operatic levels of emotion, Mengoni aims for a mature soul ache even while his startling falsetto leaps suggest a man who knows how to flirt with frenzy. It should come as little surprise to learn Marco admires rock legend David Bowie—the two share a chameleonic ability to inhabit a wide variety of pop and theatrical spaces.