TOMMY CASH: Will represent Italy in Eurovision 2025
Photo credit: Estonian Foreign Ministry
Tommy Cash is a 23-year-old Estonian rapper who usually sings in English and whose real name is Tomas Tammemets.
When he travels to Basel to compete in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in May, it’s inevitable that Estonia’s entry will be partly in English and partly – as its title, Espresso Macchiato suggests – in Italian.
Codacons, a group of Italian of consumers’ rights associations, has already objected to Espresso Macchiato’s lyrics, which it finds offensive for dwelling on “stereotypes about Italy and Italians.”
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The group has now lodged a complaint with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), calling for an evaluation of the song and its possible exclusion from the next Eurovision festival.
Written in bad English and bad Italian, Cash’s song has been slated as “a parody of Italian culture” with hackneyed expressions taken from the Italian language.
Cash’s song makes fun of Italy
“Mi money numeroso. I work around the clocko,” Tommy Cash raps, “That’s why I sweating, like a mafioso.”
The consumers’ association was equally unimpressed by “Ciao bella, I’m Tomaso, addicted to tobacco. Me like me coffe very importante.”
Discussing the Estonian entry on state broadcaster, presenter Caterina Balivo called on the public to express their outrage. “With this song, he makes fun of Italy in a crazy way. Let’s be indignant!” Balivo declared.
Senator Gian Marco Centinaio from the League party also wants the song to be barred from the Eurovision contest.
“This singer should come to Italy to see how decent people work before he allows himself to write such stupid and stereotypical songs,” Centinaio wrote on Instagram.
Eurovision songs formally submitted on March 10
“Is this the idea of European brotherhood that the Eurovision Song Contest organisers have in mind?” he continued.
Despite the politician’s Instagram outburst, others were more laid-back about Cash’s take on Italy.
“I’m Italian and I honestly like this song because it’s also ironic, however there are people who don’t understand that,” one wrote.
Cash emerged the winner of the Eesti Laul selection contest in Estonia on February 15 and the organisers, responding to a CNN request for its comments, explained that all participating broadcasters had until March 10 to formally submit their entries.
“If a song is deemed unacceptable for any reason, broadcasters are given the opportunity to modify it,” EBU said. “Or they can select a new one, before the deadline as per the rules of the contest.”