In 2019 Mahmood released Soldi a song about his complicated relationship with his father and the effects money can have on a family. The half-Egyptian half-Sardinian singer received quite a bit of backlash when he won the Sanremo Music Festival contest which meant he would go on to represent Italy at Eurovision that year. Many Italians were not happy with that decision and started to question whether Mahmood’s music should even be considered “Italian Music” because of its elements of Middle Eastern sounds and its references to aspects of Arab and Muslim culture. This then extended into whether Mahmood should be considered an Italian himself even though his mother is Italian, and he grew up in a suburb of Milan. 

Eurovision is a song contest within Europe that was created after World War II to encourage cooperation between European nations and uses music to do so with the belief that music has the ability to transcend national borders and cultural boundaries. Nationalism and Benedict Anderson’s idea of “imagined communities” directly conflict with the globalization aspect of Eurovision that Mahmood’s music represents. 

In the end, Soldi placed second and became one of the most streamed Eurovision songs ever on Spotify.