Arow has erupted in Italy after one of its top journalists said the winning song at last week's Sanremo Song Festival sounded like the soundtrack to a mafia wedding.
Corriere della Sera Deputy Editor Aldo Cazzullo called Nepolitan crooner Sal da Vinci's winning entry Per Sempre Sì (Forever Yes) "the worst song in the festival's history, worthy of a soundtrack to a Camorra wedding," referring to the Naples mafia.
Da Vinci and his fellow Neapolitans rushed to social media to defend the song and said that the Piedmont-born Cazzullo was prejudiced against Naples and peddling stereotypes about southern Italy.
Da Vinci, who started out in the local 'neomelodic' Neapolitan musical tradition, will now represent Italy at this year's Eurovision Song Contest with his Sanremo-winning song.
Responding to a reader who asked him why he called the winning song at Sanremo the worst in the Festival's history, the journalist, in the newspaper's letters column, explained: "It's not about being against the people.
