Italian Eurovision Singer Lucio Corsi & the Normalisation of Racist anti-Roma Stereotypes
04 April 2025
“C'è chi dice: L'hanno preso gli zingari, e l'han portato in un campo fuori Roma"
Some say: The gypsies took him, and they brought him to a camp outside Rome.
So says the Italian 2025 Eurovision entry, Lucio Corsi, in his off-kilter, bluesy-glam rock song ‘Altalena Boy.’ The 10-year-old track has recently re-emerged and made the national papers, putting the singer at the centre of criticism over his use of a racial slur and promotion of the dangerous and unfounded stereotype of Roma stealing Gadje children.
To put the lyrics in their context, the song describes a Ziggy Stardust-like character; a boy, who did miraculous things, but who was not of this earth and so eventually disappeared from a playground and returned to the stars. It describes how “some say the aliens took him”, “some say the trees took him”, and almost inevitably, how “some say the Gypsies took him.”
The 1970s Americana use of the narrative ‘Gypsy’, as some free, elemental force of nature, may have passed in another time, on another continent. But in modern day, neo-fascist-led Italy the mention of Gypsies stealing children away to their camp is not arty or authentic, it’s just plain racist.
The furore over the offending lyrics began following a public spat between the singer, Lucio Corsi, and Romani artist and activist, Rašid Nikolić. On 26th February 2025, Nikolić sent Corsi and his management a letter requesting that the singer consider the impact of these words being sung on an upcoming sold-out tour and asking if he would consider substituting the line for another. The letter was cosigned by various activists and associations.
After receiving no reply to the letter, nor a follow-up letter sent on 4th March, the collective of activists made the letter public on 16th March. Their purpose, according to Nikolić, was “always with the goal of receiving a response and raising awareness, never making accusations of racism but calling for dialogue.” A video featuring Nikolić raising their concerns was posted the same day and quickly went viral, drawing the attention and ire of the Italian press.
The reactionary, satirical comedy programme “Striscia la notizia” aired a sketch on 22nd March at around 9pm depicting Lucio Corsi stealing a baby from a Romani woman who was begging for money, before proceeding to beat her to the ground with a police baton. The programme, appearing on prime-time TV on a major channel (Canale 5), reached an audience of around three million people and published the face of Rašid Nikolić as the initiator of the alleged racist accusations, exposing him to an avalanche of hate speech online and in the media.
Following days of news articles and television discussions, Lucio Corsi eventually appeared on a radio show to talk about his upcoming participation in the Eurovision song contest. When asked about the problematic lyrics from the song, he replied:
“It’s a voice I picked up from the street, and songs can do that. It’s not my thoughts.
In the lyrics, I sing ‘Some say...’”
How convenient when racist lyrics just float into songs on a gentle breeze through an open window from the piazza below. Corsi’s justification does nothing to engage with the racist content of his lyrics. His choice to shift responsibility for his own words to the supposed common sayings of a racist Italian society held no weight with Nikolić and other Italian anti-racist campaigners. Nikolic accused Corsi of “downplaying, trivializing, and ridiculing the attempt of a group of activists and associations to engage in dialogue.” In a response video, which included the voices of a broad range of campaigners from different sections of society and minority groups, the activists criticised Corsi for responding indirectly to their concerns. The video condemns his “‘response’ that came without ever involving us as direct interlocutors, ignoring those who raised the issue. This is serious because it means talking about the Romani community rather than with it, reinforcing a dynamic of exclusion instead of opening a real dialogue. We once again invite careful reflection on terms and language—this time, we do so collectively and intersectionally.”
The ‘Altalena Boy’ saga could seem trivial given the wider Italian political context. An artist singing about Roma stealing children barely even registers among the long list of everyday indignities and human rights abuses suffered by Romani people in Italy. However, this use of dangerous stereotypes and dehumanising language does not exist in isolation but as part of a wider racist discourse that is normalised in Italian society, not least by the far-right.
Italy has long born witness to extreme violence against Roma incited by hate speech and racist stereotypes. The current Minister of Infrastructure & Transport, Matteo Salvini, during his period as Minister of the Interior in 2018 called for a “mass cleansing” of Roma “street by street, piazza by piazza, neighbourhood by neighbourhood.” His words were taken at face value by far-right street movements such as Forza Nuova and CasaPound who instigated attempted pogroms of Roma from family homes and social centres. In the same period, Romani mothers and children were attacked in the street with stones and threats of stabbing and death.
In this context, Corsi’s throw-away reference to unfounded accusations of Roma stealing children is specifically dangerous. In the past such accusations have been ample justification for extreme violence in Italy. In 2008, after a Romani girl was accused of breaking into a home and attempting to abduct a baby, a violent mob descended on the Romani camp in the Ponticelli suburb of Naples. They poured petrol over homes and cars and set them alight before a nearly 400 strong crowd of locals charged the camp armed with metal pipes and wooden clubs. It is widely believed that the entire episode was orchestrated by local Camorra leaders who wanted the land cleared in order to begin construction work which they had a stake in. While Corsi’s lyrics are unlikely to instigate fiery pogroms, they do normalise the dangerous levels of antigypsyism that are ever present in Italian society. A Pew Research survey in 2019 found that 83% of Italians held unfavourable views on Roma, the highest level of anti-Roma sentiment in all of Europe.
The whole ‘Altalena Boy’ issue could have been avoided with a quiet change of the lyrics in question to something that does not incite racial hatred against an already assailed minority. Many artists have done this with varying degrees of public fanfare. Michael Jackson changed antisemitic lyrics, the Black Eyed Peas removed an ableist slur, Taylor Swift took out homophobic lyrics, Paramore stopped singing a line they felt to be misogynistic in a song, Beyonce has removed offending ableist lyrics, even serial offender Eminem has apologised for using homophobic slurs.
Italian Roma really don’t need extra kicks in the side from an artist who seems content to channel queer and progressive aesthetics, while simultaneously peddling and normalising racist lies. Corsi could easily quietly change the line. Even better, he could do something decent and use the opportunity to make a point of publicly standing in solidarity with Roma in Italy at a time when allies are sorely needed.
