FROM ARGENTINA to PENNSYLVANIA all the way to COLOMBIA. ZANNA RECORDS PROVE GREAT MUSIC HAS NO EXPIRATION DATE and NO BORDERS
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FM 101.3 Vida (Santa Fe, Argentina) Discovers "The Minutemen" From Gianluca Zanna's Spaghetti Western Album — A Song Licensed to NPR's This American Life · WXPN 88.5 XPN Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania, 93,000 Facebook Followers, Producer of World Cafe) Plays "You Are My Destiny" · Power 88 Medellín Adds the Remix — Colombia's Dance Capital Opens Its Doors
ARIZONA — May 2, 2026 — There is a song that Gianluca Zanna wrote more than twenty years ago. A spaghetti western instrumental — haunting guitar, cinematic tension, the vast silence of the American desert translated into melody. He called it "The Minutemen." It is part of his collection album Spaghetti Western Music, a body of instrumental work that predates everything that would follow: the EDM anthems, the rock recordings, the global radio campaigns, the 25 million YouTube views.
On May 2, 2026, a radio station in Santa Fe, Argentina — FM 101.3 Vida — played "The Minutemen" on its airwaves. Twenty years after it was written. From the pampas of Argentina, a DJ discovered a piece of music that Zanna made in the Arizona wilderness before most of today's streaming platforms existed, and decided it belonged on the radio.
On the same day, WXPN 88.5 XPN — the University of Pennsylvania's NPR-affiliated station in Philadelphia, one of America's most respected public radio institutions, the producer of the nationally syndicated World Cafe program — played "You Are My Destiny – remix" at 23:21.
And from Medellín, Colombia's second city and one of South America's most vibrant music scenes, Power 88 Radio added the same remix to its dance and electronic rotation.
Three stations. Three countries. Three entirely different stories about what music can do when it is built to last.
"I wrote 'The Minutemen' over twenty years ago. I was sitting in the Arizona desert, thinking about wide open spaces, about old westerns, about the silence that comes before something important happens. A radio station in Argentina just found it — on its own, without anyone guiding it there. Twenty years later. That is not a radio play. That is a conversation across time."
— Gianluca Zanna, Founder, Zanna Records
🇦🇷 ARGENTINA & "THE MINUTEMEN" — A TWENTY-YEAR JOURNEY TO SANTA FE
"The Minutemen" is not a dance track. It is not an EDM remix. It is a pure instrumental — a cinematic piece rooted in the spaghetti western tradition of Ennio Morricone, the spare guitar melodies and sweeping emotional landscapes that defined an era of Italian-American filmmaking and gave the American desert its musical voice. Gianluca Zanna wrote it as part of his Spaghetti Western Music collection — a body of instrumental work that represents some of his most personal and enduring compositions.
The track has a remarkable history beyond the Arizona recording studio where it was born. "The Minutemen" was licensed alongside "Wake Up America" to NPR's This American Life — one of the most celebrated and widely distributed radio programs in American public broadcasting history, with millions of weekly listeners. To have an instrumental spaghetti western piece selected by the producers of This American Life for broadcast is a validation that transcends genre, chart position, and commercial metrics. It is a statement that the music has artistic merit that speaks to a sophisticated, discerning audience.
FM 101.3 Vida in Santa Fe, Argentina found that same merit entirely on its own — two decades after the piece was written, without a submission, without a campaign, without any effort from Zanna Records to place it in the Argentine market. A DJ in Santa Fe scrolled through a catalog and heard something that moved them. And so "The Minutemen" played on South American airwaves for the first time.
Argentina has now become one of Zanna Records' most consistently loyal South American markets. FM Trance Buenos Aires, Radio Sucesos 104.7 FM Buenos Aires, and now FM 101.3 Vida in Santa Fe represent three confirmed Argentine stations across two cities — each discovering the music organically, each covering a different part of the catalog. Buenos Aires plays the EDM remix. Santa Fe plays the spaghetti western instrumental. Argentina, it turns out, has ears for everything Gianluca Zanna has ever made.
"'The Minutemen' was licensed to NPR's This American Life. Now it's playing in Argentina. Twenty years. Two continents. One song made in silence in the Arizona desert. I will never stop being amazed at where music travels when you build it with honesty and let it go."
— Gianluca Zanna
🇺🇸 WXPN 88.5 XPN PHILADELPHIA — WHERE NPR MEETS MUSIC DISCOVERY
WXPN 88.5 XPN is not simply a university radio station. It is one of the most influential public radio music institutions in the United States — a non-commercial NPR-affiliated broadcaster owned and operated by the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, with 92,978 Facebook followers and a reach that extends far beyond its 88.5 FM signal through national distribution and digital streaming.
WXPN is best known to the wider world as the producer of World Cafe — a nationally syndicated music program distributed by NPR to hundreds of non-commercial stations across the United States, featuring live performances and interviews with both established icons and emerging artists. World Cafe has introduced generations of listeners to music they would not have found elsewhere. It is, in the truest sense, a discovery platform — and it lives at the same station that just played "You Are My Destiny – remix" at 23:21 on May 2, 2026.
The WXPN play carries additional significance: Gianluca Zanna's college radio outreach campaign included a personalized submission to WXPN's music director, as part of a systematic state-by-state effort to reach college and community radio stations across America. Pennsylvania was in the campaign pipeline. Whether the play represents a response to that submission or an independent discovery by a WXPN programmer, the result is the same: one of America's most prestigious public radio institutions added Zanna's music to its airwaves. For an independent artist who has also had his music licensed to NPR's This American Life, the WXPN play is a continuation of a relationship with public broadcasting that began long before this week.
Philadelphia is also, it should be noted, one of America's great music cities — the birthplace of Philadelphia soul, the city of Hall & Oates and The Roots and Questlove, a place with deep musical bones and a radio culture to match. WXPN is that city's most trusted musical voice. And on May 2, 2026, that voice played Gianluca Zanna.
🇨🇴 POWER 88 MEDELLÍN — COLOMBIA'S DANCE CAPITAL OPENS ITS DOORS
Medellín is one of South America's most remarkable cities — a metropolis that reinvented itself from the ground up over the past three decades and emerged as one of the continent's most dynamic cultural and creative centers. Its music scene is eclectic, passionate, and deeply connected to global dance culture. Power 88 Radio, broadcasting on 88.9 FM and online since 2012, is Medellín's dedicated electronic, house, and dance music station — "the power of your electro-dance music," as it describes itself, running Monday through Saturday with the latest trends in electronic music alongside beloved classics of the genre.
Power 88's decision to add "You Are My Destiny – remix" to its rotation on May 2, 2026 makes it the second confirmed Medellín station in Zanna Records' Colombian footprint, alongside Fantástica FM. Colombia as a country is building an increasingly significant presence in the worldwide airplay map — and Medellín, with two stations now confirmed, is emerging as its musical center of gravity.
THE BIGGER PICTURE — A CATALOG THAT KEEPS GIVING
The three May 2 plays tell a story that goes beyond geography. "The Minutemen" is twenty years old. "You Are My Destiny" has been in rotation worldwide for just 1 year. These are not new tracks chasing algorithmic trends. They are compositions built with craft, patience, and a belief that music made honestly will find its audience — not on its first release, not necessarily on its tenth play, but eventually, somewhere, on the airwaves of a radio station in Santa Fe, or Philadelphia, or Medellín, where a DJ trusted their ears and pressed play.
The worldwide WARM-verified radio footprint now stands at 301+ stations across 78+ countries on 6 continents. The YouTube channel has crossed 25 million total views (vidIQ certified).
YouTube Music monthly listeners stand at 1.12 million and climbing.
"Wake Up America" holds 20 million TikTok views.
B2B and retail networks confirmed via iPlugger span MoodMedia (500,000 commercial locations in 150 countries), M-Cube (106 countries), Spectrio (70,000+ US/Canada locations), and Moojic (six Asian and Middle Eastern countries).
On the same day that Santa Fe, Philadelphia, and Medellín were all playing his music, Gianluca Zanna's YouTube Music channel crossed a new milestone: 1,120,000 monthly listeners — confirmed May 2, 2026. That number was 1,040,000 just nine days earlier. Eighty thousand new monthly listeners in nine days, with no paid promotion, no label push, no algorithmic manipulation.
On the same day, vidIQ certified another landmark: Gianluca Zanna Music is officially in the TOP 5% OF ALL YOUTUBE CREATORS — having achieved 907,583 weekly views among channels with 10,000 to 50,000 subscribers. Nearly one million views in a single week. In the top 5% of every creator on the platform. With 12,000 subscribers and no major label behind him. The momentum is not slowing down. It is accelerating. Thirteen days before the May 15 release of "Live With No Regrets — Analog Rebellion," the audience that will receive it is larger — and more engaged — than it has ever been.
And somewhere in the Arizona desert, there is an album called Spaghetti Western Music. It was made over twenty years ago by a man who sat in the silence and wrote what he heard. A radio station in Argentina just found it. Apparently, it was worth the wait.
"I have 150 original compositions. EDM. Classical. Hard rock. Spaghetti western instrumentals. I always believed that every one of them would find its moment. Santa Fe, Argentina just proved it for 'The Minutemen.' May every song I have ever written find its radio station, in its own time, in its own city, on its own terms."
— Gianluca Zanna
ABOUT GIANLUCA ZANNA / ZANNA RECORDS
Gianluca Zanna is an Italian-American artist, activist, and founder of Zanna Records, an independent label based in Sedona, Arizona. Born in Rome, he grew up from the age of 10 at the Convitto Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele II — one of Italy's most prestigious public boarding schools — before joining the Nunziatella Military Academy in Naples at 16. He immigrated to the United States in 1998 and built a catalog of 150+ original compositions spanning EDM, classical, hard rock, spaghetti western instrumentals, and world music. He performs as "Luca" in the EDM duo Luca and Claudette (www.lucaclaudette.com) alongside singer and life partner Claudette Lyons.
His music has been licensed to NPR's This American Life.
YouTube: 25M total views (vidIQ certified) · Top 5% of all YouTube creators — 907,583 weekly views (vidIQ certified May 2, 2026). YouTube Music: 1.12M monthly listeners (May 2, 2026). Radio: 301+ WARM-verified stations, 78+ countries, 6 continents. TikTok: 20M+ views on "Wake Up America" (Songstats).
Upcoming: "Live With No Regrets — Analog Rebellion" (May 15, 2026) featuring Kevin Martin, Rudy Sarzo, Robert Sarzo, Robin Diaz, produced by Danny Saber.
Joseph Wooten Soul Remake of "You Are My Destiny" (June 21, 2026).
MEDIA CONTACT
Zanna Records
Sedona, Arizona
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