Italian rapper Fedez publicly apologized for the lyrics of a song in which he mentioned tennis player Jannik Sinner. The controversy arose from a verse that made reference to “Adolf Hitler’s accent” when talking about Sinner, which generated accusations of incitement to racial hatred. Fedez shared on an Instagram story the lyrics of his new song, which in Italian said: “Italy has a new idol named Jannik Sinner. Italian of pure blood with the accent of Adolf Hitler”. A councilor from Bolzano, capital of the autonomous German-speaking province of South Tyrol, where Sinner was born, filed a formal complaint with the prosecutor’s office. The complaint is based on an article of the Italian penal code that punishes incitement to racial hatred and propaganda.
I wanted to draw a parallel, but it went terribly wrong, about athletes who are born and raised in Italy but are often not considered Italian because of their skin color, and apply it to the best Italian athlete.
Fedez
The reference to “purebred Italian” evokes Italian fascist propaganda from the 1930s, according to councilor Giuseppe Martucci, who added that the reference to Hitler was unacceptable. I felt it was my duty to act and defend the founding values of our constitution. We cannot allow public figures to normalize language that evokes racism and hatred. Sinner, after winning four Grand Slam titles in the last two years, surpassed the Italian football stars to become the country’s most popular athlete. Recently, he lost the US Open final to Carlos Alcaraz and ceded the number 1 ranking to his Spanish rival. This is not the first time Sinner has faced questions about his Italian identity. Before winning his first Grand Slam title and not participating in the Davis Cup for Italy in September 2023, he was widely criticized. “National Case” (National Matter), said the cover of Sportweek, the weekly magazine of Gazzetta dello Sport, in a headline with double meaning. When Sinner won his first Grand Slam title at the 2024 Australian Open, he was welcomed as a national hero upon his return home and met with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the Chigi Palace. Sinner and Meloni posed together with the Australian Open trophy and then with the Italian flag. Sinner warmly embraced Meloni to conclude the meeting.I didn’t achieve my goal and the only thing I can do is apologize. If something like this is not understood, it is due to an error by the person who wrote it. So I take responsibility.
Fedez
