the italian song

“L’italiano” by Toto Cutugno (Francesco Ciabattoni)

When Adriano Celentano refused to sing “L’italiano”, he said he didn’t need to prove to anyone that he was what the song so strongly states: a “real Italian”. Toto Cutugno then took it to Sanremo himself (and was among the few to sing live rather than lip-synch), after having composed it during a trip to Canada where he likely wondered how Italians must appear to people overseas. And so he wrote this text to a catchy tune in A minor: a series of stereotypes and predictable but pleasant cadences, without any pretensions of analytical depth or social satire. A clichéd and well-crafted portrait of the average Italian.

While at this point the “spaghetti al dente” is perhaps the only remaining element of the song that could be considered unifying, in 1983 the reference to the partisan president evoked for many Italians the exultation after the victory over Germany in the 1982 Soccer World Cup, a founding moment for Berlusconi-led Italy, rather than authentic values of the Resistance. Obviously, this was not due to any particular defect in the brave partisan and president Sandro Pertini, but instead to a process of collective dissociation in response to the new national trauma of terrorism and the years of tension finally coming to an end at that moment. The 80s were a new era of inflated well-being, of pro-Americanism and youthful fashion which replaced the Boom of the 60s, just as new car models were replacing the “Seicento giù di carrozzeria.” What does it mean to be “Italian,” then, in the context of this song? It would seem that watching “soccer every Sunday on TV” and singing sad songs (“eyes filled with melancholy”) are—together of course with “spaghetti al dente” and an attachment to one’s favorite coffee, whether black or with a splash of milk—are constitutive elements of national identity as Cutugno seems to conceive it. The nod to “Maria,” immediately after an observation that Italian women are “ever less modest” and in conjunction with the prayer “God, don’t forget I’m here too,” constitutes a necessary homage to the values of homeland, religion, and family that are part and parcel of the do-goodism in which Cutugno wishes to frame “L’italiano.”

But the truth is that this song shouldn’t be taken too seriously: it is all a pop game, an amusing parody of the very concept of national belonging. Indeed, “L’italiano” did not win Sanremo (it ranked fifth, but none of the top four songs were comparably successful!) and the flag remains locked “at the dry cleaners.”

“L’italiano” immediately achieved considerable success in Italy and beyond, especially in Eastern European countries that looked toward Italy as Italians looked at America (“too much … on the posters”): a beautiful mirage of freedom and opportunity, but much closer than America—just a fearsome crossing of the Adriatic Sea away. The song boasts over 200 translations and adaptations in Chinese, Finnish, Russian, Arabic, Hebrew, etc. It should be noted, in any case, that Cutugno deftly inserted himself into the discussion, for example by recording a Chinese version of “L’italiano” and involving many young people from the Chinese community of Milan in the video clip. “L’italiano” by Toto Cutugno immediately became a catchphrase and a classic Sanremo pop song and became synonymous with its singer-songwriter, perhaps to the detriment of other less famous but equally beautiful songs he produced before passing away on August 22, 2023.