The anomalous microwave emission (AME) is an additional diffuse foreground component, originated by an emission mechanism in the ISM different from the well-known synchrotron, free-free and thermal dust emissions. It was first discovered at the end of the nineties as a correlated signal between microwave CMB maps and infrared maps tracing the dust emission. Ever since several detections have been found in individual clouds in our Galaxy. This emission is an important contaminant for current and future CMB experiments, and therefore its characterization (both in temperature and in polarization) and understanding is mandatory. So far different theoretical models have been proposed to explain the physical mechanism that give rise to this emission. In this talk we will review these models and will present the current observational status of the AME, with particular emphasis on some recent studies that have been performed by our group in the IAC in the Perseus molecular complex and in the Pleiades reflection nebula.