I love Italy, says Estonian Eurovision entry accused of insulting Italians

Rome: Estonia’s entry for this year’s Eurovision song contest has said he never intended to offend Italy with his song that pokes fun at Italian stereotypes of coffee-drinking, spaghetti-eating mafiosi – and said he submitted the song after his grandmother cried over it.

There have been calls in Italy for Tommy Cash’s catchy song, Espresso Macchiato, to be banned from the competition, which takes place in Basel, Switzerland, in May.

“I love Italy and have the utmost respect for the country,” Cash said during an interview with Italy’s Rai Radio2 at the weekend.

His song, in a blend of broken English and Italian, depicts a life of sweet indulgence. “Ciao bella, I’m Tomaso, addicted to tobacco. Mi like mi coffè very importante,” the first verse begins.

Cash goes on to sing: “Mi money numeroso, I work around the clocko. That’s why I’m sweating like a mafioso,” and: “Life is like spaghetti, it’s hard until you make it.”

Codacons, an Italian consumers association, lodged an appeal to the European Broadcasting Union questioning whether it was appropriate “to allow a song that offends a country and an entire community” to be part of the competition.

In a statement in February, the association said the song was filled with “the usual cliches of coffee and spaghetti, but above all the mafia and the ostentation of luxury, which conveys a message of a population tied to organised crime.”

In a video for the song, Cash drinks coffee from a takeaway paper cup, in what was perceived as another slight on Italian coffee culture.

Cash said he loved Italy for “the food, architecture, design and coffee” and he had never imagined that the song would cause such offence.

“I believe a lot in this song,” he said. “It has something magical. None of my team wanted it to come out because it was very different from my previous songs, but when I played it to my grandmother she started crying and I realised there was something special [about it].”

Indignation over Espresso Macchiato has mostly been outweighed by bemusement and appreciation from Italians. One comment beneath the video on YouTube said: “As an Italian I am amused but also confused but also offended but also honoured.”

Referring to some of the lyrics, another commenter wrote: “‘No stresso, no stresso, don’t need to be depresso’ – as an Italian, I think I’m going to get this tattooed.”