Wordplay
Contemporary Italian songs that have as much fun with words as that fake English one that occasionally goes viral
Every few years the internet rediscovers Adriano Celentano’s “Prisencolinensinainciusol” (1973). You might not recognize the name, but there’s a good chance you’ve heard it. You’ll have seen the video linked on social media with a caption like “This is what English sounds like to Italians.” That’s right, it’s that seventies fake English song. In case you haven’t discovered it yet, allow me to offer a brief overview: the lyrics are meaningless U.S. American-accented gibberish meant to sound like English. And it does. You’ll do a few audio double takes as you listen. This guy really spent a ton of time listening to rock songs in English and noting what they sounded like and wrote a very convincing fake—and it’s tons of fun.
This got me thinking about more contemporary Italian songwriters having fun with language. I mean songs where language is used playfully, as much for its sounds as for its meaning. So here today, for your listening and reading pleasures, are a few such examples.
Ghali is an Italian rapper/trapper/singer-songwriter born in Milan to Tunisian parents. You might remember him from the 2026 Olympics opening ceremony (where, however, he recited a poem by children’s author Gianni Rodari rather than performing his own work). Identity, belonging, and racism have been frequent topics of his songs, as in his hit “Cara Italia” (2018)2, where he calls himself “un po’ italiano, un po’ tunisino” (“a little bit Italian, a little bit Tunisian”). So it may come as no surprise that Ghali is multilingual and has used codeswitching (language switching) in a number of songs, like in “Bayna” (2022)3, half in Arabic and half in Italian.
But where “Bayna” is linguistically divided in half down the middle, “Wallah” (from the same album, Sensazione ultra4) moves fluidly among four languages: Italian, Arabic, French, and English. He even mixes the syntax of one language with the words of another, as in “il mio passport red” (English words with a noun-adjective word order that is standard in his other three languages, but not in English).
I only speak two and a half of these four languages (English, Italian, a little French), but to my ear, it sounds like he uses his languages to create contrasting rhythms and textures within the song. I notice especially how the Italian sounds rhythmic and staccato alongside the French and English, which sound elongated and unaccented, a type of punctuation at the end of verses that begin with more marked stresses. See for example these verses around 0:43 (to give you a visual, I’ve italicized only the Italian words):
Vuole fare un plongeon
Ma non ho la piscine
Vuole pure un passport
Quello rouge, quello green5
I would love to hear what you think, especially if you speak North African Arabic or if your French is better than mine. This song makes me smile every time because it’s just so damn fun to listen to.
“Alaska Baby,” Cesare Cremonini (2024)6
This is another that uses codeswitching (well, kind of) to rhythmic effect. First, some background: Bolognese singer-songwriter Cesare Cremonini has been a sensation in Italy for literal decades, having first found success with his short-lived band Lùnapop in 1999. “Alaska Baby” was the first track7 on an album8 by the same name inspired by a road trip through the U.S.
The thing is, Cremonini is not really switching languages the same way Ghali does. Most of the English he uses comes in the form of proper nouns, with the result that the song is more or less fully in Italian. I hadn’t even given his use of English a second thought until I recommended the album to my cousin (shoutout, Holly!), and she later referred to it as “the one with all the English.” And she was right. Cremonini here is not using English in any way that would be strange in a normal Italian conversation, but he is using it, and he’s using it to make music. Check out the way the English (and, in one case, French) nouns establish rhythm in this section around 0:38 (I’ve used italics as above):
Route 66 fra le tue gambe
WikiLeaks, barone rampante
A Cap d’Antibes, Dio non è più grande
Miami Beach, è bastato un istante9
Now that this verse has trained our ears to his use of English he gets more varied and creative with its rhythms in the next one, which starts at 1:54 and gives us such great lines as “New York, New York, non è la Trump Tower / Mi sento Johnny Cash prima di trovare June Carter” (“New York, New York isn’t Trump Tower / I feel like Johnny Cash before he found June Carter”).
I may return to this album in another post, because it’s amazing from beginning to end. Check it out!
Tära is a 23-year-old singer-songwriter from the Apennine town of Cassino whose music is heavily influenced by her Palestinian heritage. Zefiro is her first EP, and I hope we’ll be hearing a lot more from her. While the Ghali and Cremonini examples above strike me for the rhythmic way they use use linguistic difference to punctuate their music, Tära’s Italian (the primary language of all six tracks) blends into her Arabic and occasional English in such a way that you could miss the language switch if you’re not listening closely.
In the song “Diaspora,”11 for instance, Tära sings of the Palestinian diaspora but also, in the second verse (starting around 1:15), describes young Italians as “in diaspora.” Is it just my imagination, or is this second verse, the only one with no Arabic words, the most phonetically conspicuous? Take, for instance, the line “pizza, pasta e l’espresso macchiato” around 1:20. Do you hear how she’s hitting those consonants with just a little more enunciation than most of the others?
It is a subtle effect, and it’s entirely possible that I’m overstating it, but I think it’s fun to juxtapose especially with Ghali’s use of language above. Both are using multilingualism to construct a bicultural identity for their music; Tära defines her style as “Arab&B” and, like Ghali, has emphasized her heritage in her lyrics, musical choices, and interviews. But where Ghali underlines identity with a playful use of phonetic difference, Tära’s voice emphasizes continuity between her different languages and emphasizes difference in the sounds within one.
Dad Jokes and More
I had a few other examples that I planned to add here but abandoned because their wordplay lies mostly in dad jokes, and translating them would have been a fool’s errand. So you’ll have to take my word for it that the bonus track12 on Madame’s brilliant but dark and emotionally intense second album13 is a delightful list of bad puns that ends in “tech-no, tech-sì” (get it?).
Would love to hear your favorite songs that play with (any) language!
YouTube link (full album)
It’s no longer the first track on the album on Spotify, as he has since added the single “Nonostante tutto,” but “Alaska Baby” opens the vinyl and is, in my humble opinion, a far better opener for the album both musically and thematically.
YouTube link (full album)
YouTube link (full album)
YouTube link; the video also includes translated subtitles
YouTube link (full album)
I always love your insights. Also, I love reading about Italian artists using wordplay in 45 languages, and I can barely speak English. It's always a nice weekly ego check, lol.
Great collection of songs!! As a non Italian speaker, I admit I get overly enthusiastic when I hear any English lyrics. For example, I’m far over-indexed on Achille Lauro’s “Rolls Royce”