That Time An Italian Singer Made A Song in Gibberish

For better or worse, American pop culture has been wildly influential all over the world for a long time. Particularly where music is concerned. The Beatles got their start out of a love for American rock n' roll music--particularly Chuck Berry. David Bowie, real name David Jones, was a British Ameriphile who named his stage name after American historical figure, Jim Bowie. British punk bands like the Sex Pistols and The Clash grabbed influence from American proto-punk pioneers like Iggy and The Stooges and The Velvet Underground. I could go on all day, but we'd be here forever.

Italian singer Adriano Celentano was also influenced by American music, and wanted to write a song that sounded American. So in 1972, he produced "Prisencolinensinainciusol"--which doesn't mean anything in English. As it turns out, it doesn't mean anything in Italian either! The song is straight gibberish sung in an American accent.

The song first popped up on my radar when I saw a TikTok about it claiming that Celentano wrote it as a protest song. The claim was that he wanted to make a statement about American music overtaking Italy, and wanted to prove that Italians will listen to anything as long as it sounds American; including total gibberish. While this claim may have been true to a certain extent, Celentano says instead that he wanted to explore linguistic barriers, and how American English sounds to people who do not speak it. "Ever since I started singing, I was very influenced by American music and everything Americans did," he told NPR in 2012, "[B]ecause I like American slang, I thought that I would write a song which would only have as its theme the inability to communicate. And to do this, I had to write a song where the lyrics didn't mean anything."

Anyone who writes knows that it's hard to write gibberish--especially when what you're aiming for is a performance in phonetics. So no lyrics were written for the song, instead Celentano improvised over a repetitive funk beat. The talk-singing almost sounds reminiscent of rap music, (though Celentano denies that he had any influence on rap, which would officially begin to take form just a few years later with Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" in 1979.) The song released in 1972, and didn't get much of a response at first. It sold only 260,000 copies on its release, so it was likely only bought and heard by people who were already avid fans of Celentano's. However, Celentano still felt his song had potential and performed it several times on Italian TV to bring it to a wider audience. His dedication to making sure this song was heard paid off. It finally began to make waves in 1974, particularly in Belgium where it peaked at #2 in their charts.

It really is a fun song with a catchy tune, and anyone who is interested in linguistics will definitely appreciate the simple breakdown of how frustrating language barriers, and the pursuit of learning a new language can be. For my own purposes, I have tried to learn Italian in the past, and gave up because it's a very difficult language to learn for anyone who didn't grow up hearing it. I imagine learning English can be just as frustrating for non-native speakers because of how many exceptions to the "rules" there are. Celentano admitted as much himself, that despite being influenced by American culture--he doesn't speak a word of English, and has said that not knowing English can be "a real pain."

The song is thought of now as a novelty song, or a foray into the avant-garde...Celentano never intended it to be either of those things. "It was an anger born out of resignation," Celentano said, "I brought to light the fact that people don't communicate." Perhaps "Prisencolinensinainciusol" really is a protest song after all!