A debate over linguistic and cultural discrimination has erupted in Italy after a man was allegedly banned from singing a Neapolitan song at a karaoke bar in Florence.
Pasquale Abbatiello, a 26-year-old PhD student from Benevento in the southern Campania region, was in the Tuscan capital with friends on New Year’s Day when they decided to toast 2025 with drinks and karaoke at a bar in the centre.
Recounting the episode in a video that was widely shared on social media, Abbatiello said that all kinds of tunes were being performed in a variety of languages, from Italian classics and American songs to the latest hits.
But when he stepped on to the stage and entered the title of the song he wanted to sing into the karaoke system, he claimed the event’s manager nipped his performance in the bud because the song was in the Neapolitan dialect.
“I was stunned,” Abbatiello said. “I asked, why can’t you sing in Neapolitan? Among other things, the song I chose wasn’t so dialectical compared to much more well-known songs. I was told it was the owner’s choice and that you can only sing in Italian, English or French. French? How can that be considered more suitable than Neapolitan, especially for karaoke?”
Abbatiello had wanted to sing Tu Si a Fine do’ Munno, a hit by Angelo Famao, a newcomer to neomelodic, a music genre that originates in Naples and combines elements of traditional Neapolitan song, for example O Sole Mio, with modern pop.
Enraged, the group left the bar. The incident provoked a lively debate on social media, with some defending Neapolitan music as “the best in the world” and saying the incident was an offence to the beloved late Naples-born singer Pino Daniele.
Even the mayor of Benevento, Clemente Mastella, intervened. He said Neapolitan music “represents a fundamental part of our cultural identity” and “cannot be marginalised”. He added: “O Sole Mio is the best-known Italian song in the world. This creeping racism that is injecting itself into musical tastes is stupid, worrying and poisonous.”
The Neapolitan dialect is commonly spoken in Naples and the wider Campania region.
