The Eurovision contest is an entertaining, diverse
and controversial showcase, where catchy tunes mix with tacky performances. But
I always enjoy it, especially the voting bit when the countries conveniently
cast their votes according to specific geographical areas (all the eastern
countries vote for each other, the same for the southern ones and so on). The
UK ends up being a bit isolated, but these are the disadvantages (and
advantages) of being an island.
I am particularly fond of the Italian song this year,
Occidentali’s Karma (Westerners’ Karma), sang by Francesco Gabbani, an
extremely funny, clever and fresh tune. The song is catchy and the lyrics cracked
me up. It can be defined a postmodern intertextual high quality text, or to say
it in a simpler way, it ridicules all of us mixing quotations from different
sources. There is a good list of the ideas and texts it refers to here: http://wiwibloggs.com/2017/02/15/occidentalis-karma-lyrics/174193/ (with the English translation of the lyrics
at the bottom), which I am going to summarize briefly as well as adding some
personal considerations.
Here is the lyrics:
OCCIDENTALI’S KARMA
Essere o dover essere
Il dubbio amletico
Contemporaneo come l’uomo del neolitico
Nella tua gabbia 2×3 mettiti comodo
Intellettuali nei caffè
Internettologi
Soci onorari al gruppo dei selfisti anonimi
L’intelligenza è démodé
Risposte facili
Dilemmi inutili
AAA cercasi storie dal gran finale,
Sperasi
Comunque vada, panta rei
And “Singing in the rain”
Lezioni di Nirvana
C’è il Buddha in fila indiana
Per tutti un’ora d’aria, di gloria (ale!)
La folla grida un mantra
L’evoluzione inciampa
La scimmia nuda balla
Occidentali’s karma
Occidentali’s karma
La scimmia nuda balla
Occidentali’s karma
Piovono gocce di Chanel
Su corpi asettici
Mettiti in salvo dall’odore dei tuoi simili
Tutti tuttologi col web
Coca dei popoli
Oppio dei poveri
AAA cercasi umanità virtuale
Sex appeal
Comunque vada, panta rei
And
“Singing in the rain”
Lezioni di Nirvana
C’è il Buddha in fila indiana
Per tutti un’ora d’aria, di gloria (ale!)
La folla grida un mantra
L’evoluzione inciampa
La scimmia nuda balla
Occidentali’s karma
Occidentali’s karma
La scimmia nuda balla
Occidentali’s karma
Quando la vita si distrae
Cadono gli uomini
Occidentali’s karma
Occidentali’s karma
La scimmia si rialza
Namaste, ale!
Lezioni di Nirvana
C’è il Buddha in fila indiana
Per tutti un’ora d’aria, di gloria (ale!)
La folla grida un mantra
L’evoluzione inciampa
La scimmia nuda balla
Occidentali’s karma
Occidentali’s karma
La scimmia nuda balla
Occidentali’s
karma
Om
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
To
be or to have to be
Hamlet’s
doubt
As
current as the Neolithic man
Get
comfy in your 2 x 3 cage
Intellectuals
in cafés
Internet
experts
Honorary
members of the selfie-addicted anonymous
Cleverness
is out of fashion
Easy
answers
Pointless
dilemmas
AAA
grand endings wanted
Hoped
for,
Whatever
happens, panta rhei
And
“Singing in the Rain”.
Nirvana
lessons
There’s
Buddha in single line
Recreation
time for everyone, a moment of glory (ale!)
The
crowd is shouting a mantra
Evolution
stumbles
The
naked ape is dancing
Westerners’
karma
Westerners’
karma
The
naked ape is dancing
Westerners’
karma
Drops
of Chanel are pouring
On
aseptic bodies
Save
yourself from the smell of your own kind
All
know-all with the web
Cocaine
of the masses
Opiate
of the poor
AAA
virtual humanity wanted
Sex
appeal
Whatever
happens, panta rhei
And
“Singing in The Rain”
Nirvana
lessons
There’s
Buddha in single line
Recreation
time for everyone, a moment of glory (ale!)
The
crowd is shouting a mantra
Evolution
stumbles
The
naked ape is dancing
Westerners’
karma
Westerners’
karma
The
naked ape is dancing
Westerners’
karma
When
life is distracted
Men
drop
Westerners’
karma
Westerners’
karma
The
ape gets back on its feet
Namaste,
go!
Nirvana
lessons
There’s
Buddha in single line,
recreation
time for everyone, a moment of glory (ale!)
The
crowd is shouting a mantra
Evolution
stumbles
The
naked ape is dancing
Westerners’
karma
Westerners’
karma
The
naked ape is dancing
Westerners’ karma
Om
The beginning refers to the famous Hamlet’s
soliloquy (to be or not to be) and Eric Fromm (to have or to be). The song carries
on quoting the alcoholics anonymous (which now are selfie-anonymous, alluding
to our attention-seeking addiction), advertising sites (AAA, everything can be
effectively advertised) and the famous ‘Singing in the rain’ by Gene Kelly,
which seems just to rhyme with panta rhei
(everything flows, by the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Heraclitus), but it is
not so simple. In the film Singing in the Rain the main actress (Kathy) is
dubbed by Lina, the nice girl with an angel voice, as it often happened when
silent films were converted into a talkie. At the end the curtain lifts and the
audience finally sees that Lina is the real star. It’s clearly a sham.
The song mocks serious and pretentious attitudes not
only towards Oriental philosophies and religions (which the Westerners use as a
way to relax, have fun or self-advertising) but in a more general way it teases
the way Westerners use and misuse everything. The world has become a big
supermarket, we go around and grasp whatever we need with little respect for
others (other people, animals and the environment). The funny thing is that we
are pretty unaware of it and believe (or pretend) we are doing nothing wrong,
we are the best. But eventually who cares, panta
rhei.
The cherry on top is the dancing naked ape (referring
to the famous Desmond Morris’s book The
Naked Ape: A Zoologist’s Study of the Human Animal published in 1967), who
always rises like the phoenix from the ashes. Its instinctual, playful and
aggressive behaviour represents us all at our best. This is who we are at the
end, let’s acknowledge it. I don’t think this is referring only to sex, it’s
about all our attitudes towards the others: ‘life is distracted’, the ape comes
back and ‘men drop’ (cadono gli uomini). We take advantage of others, cheat
them, play with them in a more or less abusive way. We are all dancing apes
pretending to be civilized respectful humans, and we need to acknowledge it.
According to Desmond Morris, this happened because
our cultural and technological progress developed too fast and our biological characteristics
couldn’t keep up with it, we would need some million years to bridge the gap.
Consequently our civilized goals are too high a stake sometimes and we can’t
cope with it, we fall back on our instinctual side. Or our instinctual side is
something we can’t get rid of to survive biologically, so ‘we should tailor our
intelligent opportunist advances to our basic behavioural requirements’.
Other references are to Karl Marx (Religion is the
opiate of the masses, which becomes ‘All know-all with the web cocaine of the
masses opiate of the poor’) and Oriental spiritual terminology (Nirvana,
Mantra, Namaste), which are not mentioned with disrespectful intentions but are
just a way to mock the people who practice them without really understanding
the meaning of it.
The quotations are well chosen, a clever pastiche that
communicates a clear thought-provoking message. It is a warning or just a way
to say that the king is naked and we can all see it, open your eyes and don’t
make much fuss about tolerance and consideration towards the others. We just
grab what we can and how we can.
The video clip is brilliant as well, Francesco
Gabbani is a good singer and dancer, and above all it is his body language and
facial expression that spices it up, he winks at us in a typical knowing
Italian way. You know what I mean, he seems to say. And we do.
The song won Sanremo Music Festival 2017 beating
Fiorella Mannoia’s Che sia benedetta (Let her be blessed), a moving song about the
beauty of life but no match with Occidentali’s Karma.
Will it win Eurovision contest as well? Let’s wait
and see. I believe it deserves our votes.
