The Eurocentric: Debate Over Prejudice In Italy And Sanremo

Sanremo festival

Millions of Italians enthusiastically turn their televisions on annually to watch the Sanremo music festival, which has taken place in the town of Sanremo since 1951. While the festival originally inspired the creation of the Eurovision competition, Sanremo is now used as Italy’s selection process for who will represent the nation at Eurovision. As always, not everyone agrees on who should win, but this year the discrepancy was noticeable between the public, the journalists, and the radio jury. The winner of Sanremo is based on three components; the televote all Italians can participate in by texting the code of their favorite singer on their Italian number, journalists, and the radio jury. The televote is worth 34 percent of the final score while the journalist and radio jury votes are each worth 33 percent of the final vote. This year, the winner was Angelina Mango, beating Geolier despite only receiving 16.1 percent of the televote, compared to Geolier who received 60 percent of the televote.

Geolier is a Neapolitan singer who sang the song I p’ me, tu p’ te (Me for me, you for you) in the Neapolitan dialect for the Sanremo festival. While the choice to sing in dialect may seem surprising at first, Geolier is simply staying true to his brand. Some argue that there is no prejudice against the south as Angelina Mango, who won the competition is from Basilicata, another region in southern Italian. However, her song lyrics are only in Italian and decidedly do not have the obvious appearance of a southern Italian. This becomes less surprising as while her father is also from Basilicata, her mother is from Milan. For those unaware of Italian cultural discussions, Milan is seen as the direct opposite of southern Italy not only because of its geographic location but sharp cultural differences as well. In addition, Angelina Mango is fair-skinned and can easily pass for someone from northern Italy. Geolier on the other hand is tan and his fashion can be described as Neapolitan street wear. While Angelina Mango has sung in dialect in the past, she did not for the competition. For viewers of the competition unaware of her background, it would not be apparent from her performance.

There have been numerous jokes that Neapolitans voted on every cellphone possible to ensure Geolier won the televote. In reality, Naples is not the city that listens to Geolier the most, at least according to Spotify. Instead, songs by Geolier are streamed 1.5 million times monthly in Milan. Next, Rome comes in second place with Geolier songs streamed 857,000 times a month. Naples finally appears in third place with his songs only streamed 409,000 times monthly.

While the choice to sing in dialect is potentially controversial due to a majority of the nation not being able to understand the lyrics without a translation, this has not been the first time and likely not the last time that an artist has chosen to do so. In 1997, the Venetian group Fahrenheit 451 sang in dialect at the Sanremo competition. A decade before that, Tazenda performed in Sardinian.  

Televote To Decide Winner?

Some of my colleagues in my PhD program in Naples were quick to denounce the idea of the winner of Sanremo being decided only by the general public. When putting this in terms of the Eurovision competition, it amuses me. Eurovision is a popular song competition seen as a shared cultural phenomenon throughout the continent meant to bring nations together, similar to the European Union. Within the European Union, there is constant debate about a perceived democratic deficit because the only European Union institution to be directly elected by the general public is the European Parliament. Opponents of the perceived deficit declare that citizens should be allowed to vote for all European Union politicians. This makes a debate over whether or not Italians should be trusted to decide who should represent the nation in an annual song competition seem bizarre. Arguably, a song competition is less important than politicians in control of the European Central Bank who decide monetary policy for the eurozone. If citizens cannot be trusted with picking which singer to represent them, then how should they be trusted with voting for every single EU politician?  

Prejudice Within The South

While people in southern Italy may lament the perceived prejudice against Geolier, the unfortunate reality is that the South has its prejudices as well. As an Italian American currently pursuing a PhD in Naples, I had the unfortunate experience of being told I am a scimmia (monkey) by a Neapolitan. This is because besides having Neapolitan great-grandparents, I also have great-grandparents from Calabria. While Naples is firmly located in southern Italy, some Neapolitans still feel superior to other parts of southern Italy due to being well connected by infrastructure to central and northern Italy and not as isolated as other southern cities and provinces. Looking specifically at Calabria, it famously has had the nickname la terza isola (the third island), despite not being an island, yet in fact is the “toes” of the boot. This is because Calabria has been a very isolated region of Italy, poorly connected to the rest of the nation through infrastructure. This is slowly changing due to investments to connect Calabria through high-speed trains and another proposal to finally build the infamous bridge to connect the region to the island of Sicily, a bridge that has been proposed since 1969. For this reason, Italians are not holding their breath over the government’s current proposal to finally construct the bridge. It appears people will not believe the project will be completed until the bridge is officially open to the public.

While the role of prejudice is debated with the outcome of Sanremo, in reality, prejudice is apparent in everyday life in Naples, the home city of Geolier. When hunting for an apartment, it was also difficult for me possibly due to my very non-Italian name. Despite having a Polish last name, I am in fact not ethnically Polish. It became apparent that this potentially led to landlords ignoring my text messages about apartments or saying that they just signed with someone else yet kept the listing online for months after I contacted them. When I finally gave up and contacted a rental agency, which required me to pay an entire month’s rent as a fee to rent an apartment I found on their website, it was obvious the agent’s attitude towards me changed when he heard about my background. He admitted at first that he thought my email was potentially a scam despite my thorough explanation of why I was moving to Naples due to my name, and his composure also completely changed upon hearing I have Southern Italian ancestry. To be fair, some landlords may not have wanted to rent to a foreigner due to an issue unrelated to having foreign origins but due to their immigration status. This is because landlords know that to get a residency permit, foreigners must have a lease that is certified by the tax agency. Tax evasion is rampant in Italy however, and some landlords prefer to rent to tenants without an official lease to avoid paying taxes. People agree to precarious agreements as the lease will then be cheaper than if the landlord had to pay taxes. While it may seem confusing for readers outside Italy why this plays a role in Sanremo, the reality is it is no different than award ceremonies such as the Oscars in the United States which has been accused of ignoring talented celebrities who are racial minorities.

It is possible that Geolier lost Sanremo due to being too southern for the taste of the journalists and radio jury who participated in the decision process despite winning the televote by a large margin. Yet, prejudice in Italy is not only from northern Italy towards the south. There is prejudice within the South and prejudice towards the North as well. In the end, everyone should strive to treat others in a civil manner rather than based on stereotypes. Regardless of whether someone is from Calabria or Lombardia, they are still both Italian.