Sanremo, the annual festival of Italian Music, is a wonderful celebration of Italian culture. Unfortunately, it’s also a showcase of the worst elements of the culture, such as the unconscious (conscious?) bias that results in the routine devaluation of incredibly talented women in favour of male artists.
Yes, this phenomenon is not unique to Italy but it was particularly noticeable in this year’s Sanremo, when the top five artists were all men, despite more than 40% of the acts including women. This all-male top list was something that happened in 2023 as well. (In 2024, 3 of the top five were men; 2022 4 of the top 5; and in 2021, of the 10 people who qualified as finalists, 8 were men.)
The winner of Sanremo this year was a rapper named Olly, with a song called Balorda Nostalgia – essentially a song mourning the end of a relationship. Here’s the video:
Given that Olly’s songs in the past have (sometimes controversially) referred to his relationships with women, I find this video fascinating. It’s a breakup song where no partner is featured – just Olly himself engaging in the very masculine pastime of boxing in a video that is making reference to the very macho film Raging Bull.
To be clear – I am NOT saying that Olly is a misogynist. But I do find it interesting that his song is unintentionally coded to appeal to the manosphere. It features:
- references to an absent woman whose departure has messed up Olly’s life
- violent athletic activity as a way of working out one’s feelings, vs going to therapy
- a milieu where Olly is surrounded by other men
- the only woman in the video being a token, smiling, wordless woman chosen because she was pretty
Again, I don’t think Olly intentionally set out to make a video that appeals to the manosphere. I just think that his video contains all the elements that WILL appeal to a set of fans that prize a certain type of masculinity.
Which is why I was so delighted when Olly decided to turn down the opportunity to go to Eurovision, meaning that Sanremo’s second place artist, Lucio Corsi, will be representing Italy this year. And Lucio Corsi is bringing a very different version of masculinity to Eurovision.
First of all, let’s see what Lucio Corsi looks like:
Yes, that is a man in white tie holding the beloved children’s character Topo Gigio while wearing a full face of mime makeup. For those of you who are ancient crones like me, it’s like Shields and Yarnell mixed with Liza Minnelli mixed with Marcel Marceau. There’s something very 1970s glam about this that does not seem to belong in 2025.
But what does this children’s television presenter sound like? Here’s Corsi’s winning performance from Sanremo:
And we see how very much not 2025 he is – Corsi appears to be a full embrace of the 1970s not only in aesthetic, but in sound. His style borrows heavily from the androgynous glam rock of the era, and he’s performing guitar-style singer-songwriter rock with a riff that sounds like it could come straight from a Wings song.
Without even knowing what the song is about, we know a couple of things:
- Lucio Corsi is not of this time. He may be timeless; he may be dated, but he stands apart from today’s debates about everything.
- Lucio Corsi rejects a traditional model of gender. He likes makeup, he likes dolls (although we all know Topo Gigio is alive), he likes elaborate feathers and costumes and dressing up and other signifiers of modern femininity.
So what is his song about? Well, the official music video helpfully has English subtitles for all of us not versed in Italian:
In this, Corsi is telling us that he tried the Olly model of masculinity. He tried to be the tough guy – that guy in the boxing ring, beating people up – and instead, as he says:
But I’m nobody
A white belt in judo
Instead of a star, just a sneeze
Ultimately, the song is about Lucio Corsi coming to accept Lucio Corsi as himself, the skinny kid who got beat up, a kid who will never be tough, a kid who will never be the macho man that others expect a man to be. And, he’s telling others through his video and song and appearance, that’s totally okay! You can just be yourself!
So if Italy can’t send a woman, I guess the next best thing is a man who rejects traditional masculinity and offers another model of what a man can be and look like in public for Italians.
Corsi’s song also offers a message of love and acceptance of self that is pretty universal. It could resonate with some of the people watching on Saturday evening who are feeling like misfits wherever they are, and remind them that they’re okay just being themselves – if Italy figures out how to stage it. However, since Corsi was announced, there’s been nary a peep about this act outside of the Italian press – nothing about staging, nothing about pre-parties. Lucio is going to show up in Basel, hopefully with Topo Gigio in tow, and surprise us all. But if that doesn’t include something that helps the Italian lyrics cut through to a wider audience – much like the subtitles France is providing for Maman – I worry about people missing the point of this song.
Lucio, I want you to be Lucio. But you need to explain who Lucio is to those of us who might not be aware of you already.
dudepoints.fun 