Ghali Amdouni

I just discovered a great new musician from an article in one of my magazines, titled, “Music for the Migrant Crisis; A fiercely anti-immigrant country falls for a Tunisian Italian rapper” https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/04/ghali-rapper-italy/583207/

He’s Italian, born to Tunisian immigrants, and his music is becoming really popular in Italy. And he also sounds like a great guy (unlike a lot of rappers who deliberately cultivate a not-a-great-guy persona).

His lyrics encourage open mindedness about immigrants and there’s hope that his music could help mitigate the anti-immigrant issues in Italy. The article says, “Ghali is so popular that even far-right voters are being dragged to his concerts by their children.”

The article says, “Ghali is careful to avoid talking about religion or politics publicly—yet if you listen to his lyrics, you’ll hear plenty that’s subversive. “The newspaper … talks about the foreigner as if he were an alien,” he announces in his most popular song, “Cara Italia” (“Dear Italy”), a love letter that envisions an open-arms nationalism. “When they tell me, ‘Go back home!’ … I reply, ‘I am already here.’ ” Other lyrics are equally pointed: “You think that Islam equals ISIS,” he raps in “Wily Wily,” a song whose chorus Italian fans delight in joining, even though it’s in Arabic.”

I just bought an album of his and I really like it. It sounds like Hispanic rap to me, which only proves that I know nothing about music. (And I also can’t tell the difference between Spanish and Italian.) I always enjoy the Hispanic fusion (rap, rock, etc.) that’s common in New Mexico. Ghali sounds to me like something I would hear here. I wouldn’t have guessed it was Tunisian-Italian.

Go Ghali!