04 Apr 2009
Gay or Cured Italians?
This year, the flagging San Remo Festival was marred by a rather tasteless and homophobic song. San Remo (the inspiration for Eurovision) is the most important, most watched and most talked-about week-long annual cultural event in Italy. (Breathe out). This year, gays were up in arms.
The ditty in question was called Luca was gay. Yes, past simple. Luca is no longer a screamer. The song tells the story of a young man with an overpowering mother and a distant father. Unsure of who he is, he adopts a (promiscuous) homosexual lifestyle. Until he meets HER. She who manages to make him change his ways and subsequently marries him. A faery tale with a very bitter-sweet ending. A chilling message to all Italians. Gays can be cured. Subtext: they just don’t want to. Sub Subtext. This is bad.
This song came second in San Remo. A sure sign of the even more conservative, right-wing and morally stagnant country Italy has become during the Berlusconi years. Just why was this song included in the 2009 San Remo Festival? Please choose from one of the following four choices and leave your answer in the comments below. Those with the correct response will get a sprinkling of my magic gay-dust and thus be immune to future "cures".
A. Silvio Berlusconi and Benedict (whose Base Camp Vatican is located right in the heart of Italy), colluded to achieve their own twisted objectives. In the case of the former: to draw attention away from Italy’s economic decline and to find an acceptable scapegoat; and in the case of the latter to reiterate to the masses that gays choose their lifestyle and reject the traditional family child-bearing unit in spite of a cure being available.
B. Gays do turn their backs on their gay pasts and form partnerships more acceptable to society. This is something which the grand public probably don’t know and freedom of speech should allow an artist to communicate this message. Gays have always demanded to have their voice heard in Italian society but, now that the boot is on the other foot (albeit Prada), they don't like it very much. Pix'n'mix democracy in action.
C. San Remo’s viewership figures have dropped dramatically with last year being a particularly low-point. What better way to entice television viewers to their sets than to have a controversial song which sets off a series of protests up and down the country? This year’s festival has curiously been one of the most viewed in recent memory and garnered acres of print media coverage.
D. Luca really exists and he and his wife just wanted to set the record straight with all their neighbours, that YES, Luca WAS gay, but now he’s straight and life is sweet. Television appearances and magazine covers (but no gay ones) beckon.
None of my gay Italian friends here in Spain have commented about the song. That may be from sheer embarrassment, ignorance or boredom. However, one question that needs to be asked is: Why are there SO MANY (cute, intelligent and hard-working) Italian gays here in Spain, when they could be back home? Are they running away from the cure? Or have they all just shagged Luca and are terrified of having everything revealed by the gutter press?
Read a translation of the lyrics here: http://vitavagabonda.blogspot.com/2009/02/luca-era-gay-luca-once-was-gay-povia.html