[Photo Courtesy Lucan Furio] 

By Eileen Fortner, Contributor 

The Eurovision Song Contest has just started releasing each country’s songs and artists within the past two months. On February 19, the Eesti Laul song contest released rapper Tommy Cash as their finalist set to compete in Basel, Switzerland for the Eurovision Contest. Tommy Cash will be competing with the song “Espresso Macchiato” performed in both English and Italian. 

To most, the song seems rather unassuming with jokes littered throughout. However, many Italians reject this song because it enforces Italian stereotypes several times throughout the song. Lines like “Ciao bella, I’m Tomaso, addicted to tobacco. Mi like mi coffè very importante,” and “Mi money numeroso, I work around the clocko. That’s why I’m sweating like a mafioso.” 

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While many fans find this song to be a silly joke with a fun beat, numerous others are very concerned about its involvement in the song contest. One consumer organization company, Codacons went as far as insisting on the removal of the song from being included in Eurovision at all. 

Though this controversy seems small and likely not to result in the removal of the song from the contest, more recent events have made the removal of the song even more questionable. 

Following Cash’s performance in Eesti Laul, the official Eurovision YouTube channel posted his performance, which days later was taken down. This raised several questions among fans about Cash’s inclusion in the song contest. 

Further information on disqualification is unknown at the moment. As of right now Tommy Cash remains listed as a participant on the Eurovision Website.