Papa Nero (song)

"Papa Nero" ("Black Pope") is a song by the Venetian reggae band Pitura Freska, with lyrics in the Venetian language.

"Papa Nero ("Black Pope")"
Song by Pitura Freska
Published	1997

It was performed at the 1997 Sanremo Music Festival, and became very popular throughout Italy. It is notable for being one of the very few songs (if not the only song) in Venetian that got significant media exposure outside the Veneto region.

The lyrics are inspired on a prediction by Nostradamus that the next-to-last Pope will come from Africa. They can be read as a light-hearted anti-racist and anti-xenophobic message. Some famous verses were:

	[...]		[...]
	Perchè xe scrito, dito, stradito, dai oracołi		"Since it's written, said, confirmed, by the oracles
	La piovra perderà i tentacołi		The octopus[1] will lose its tentacles
	E cascarà i tabù col penultimo Gesù		And the taboos will crumble with the next-to-last Jesus
	E el sarà un omo dal continente nero		And he will be a man from the Black Continent
	Sarà vero?		Could it be true?
	Dopo Miss Italia aver un Papa nero?		After Miss Italy,[2] shall we have a black Pope?
	No me par vero		It's hard to believe[3]
	Un Papa nero		A black Pope
	che scolta łe me canson in venessian		who listens to my songs in Venetian
	Perché el xe nero african		Because he is black African"

Notes

1. Piovra ("octopus") is an Italian slang term for the Mafia, whose demise would be an apocalyptical sign
2. The election of Denny Méndez, a native of the Dominican Republic, as Miss Italy on September 7, 1996 caused a minor scandal throughout Italy, tinted with xenophobia and racism .
3. Lit. "It doesn't seem true to me."

External links

• video of the Sanremo performance on YouTube