To preface the post: I don’t have anything against the song itself. It’s a beautiful and historically significant song about Italian antifascist partisans.
My point is that it’s been marketed by fucking Netflix show Money Heist, it’s been emptied and hollowed of all its meaning, and EVEN if it hadn’t, it’s again glorifying the role of western antifascists instead of those who won the fucking war: the Soviets.
It was NOT Italian Partisans who SAVED EUROPE from fascism. It was the Bolsheviks. I do not want a world where Bella Ciao isn’t sung, I want a world in which for every time we sing Bella Ciao, we sing 10 times Katyuscha, the Soviet Anthem, Svyaschyonnaya Voyna, or Krasnaya Armiya Vsyekh Sil’nyey. The Soviets were the only country that sold fucking weapons and sent trained soldiers, tank drivers and pilots to Republican Spain (the country where Money Heist was made), and yet we’re commercializing songs about the Italian partisans. FUCK ME SIDEWAYS.
Naturally, I’m pretty sure I first heard “Bella Ciao” because it was covered by Astemir Apanasov from Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia, and I thought when I heard Apanasov’s cover, “Oh, this is a very cool, energetic and catchy Circassian folk dance thing! But I wonder why the song’s partially in Italian, and why these guys are wearing Salvador Dalí masks?” — “…Oh, so this was originally an Italian antifascist song, and this Circassian cover was made as a result of a globally popular TV show from Spain using it? Huh. Wack.”
So yeah, it would appear that even in the former Soviet Union that “Bella Ciao” has come to be more associated with Money Heist than Italian antifascism. C’est la vie !
Apanasov’s cover was pretty cool though.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy: