Italian Disco Pill: Raffaella Carrà’s “Luca”
Italy’s first explicitly and mainstream gay anthem appeared on primetime TV in 1978.
It’s 1978 and a cha cha cha groove undergirds the plight of a woman whose boyfriend left her for another guy. When she first introduced the song during her own variety show Ma Che Sera, she first emerged in the orchestra. Clad in a crimson gown with a hint of shoulder pads and wing-like motif on the bustier, she slowly made her way to the stage, stopping among audience members while singing the refrain. She was acting as if she was letting them in on a secret.
The tone is not plaintive or accusatory: rather, Carrà sings of this experience with irony and levity.
At first, She excuses herself for being low-spirited and admits to needing to vent: Non mi mandate a quel paese / ma sono un poco fuori fase / se non mi sfogo con qualcuno / un giorno o l’altro scoppierò.
She was smitten with this golden-haired guy to the point that she never cheated on him even in her fantasies: Era un ragazzo dai capelli d’oro / e gli volevo un bene da morire / io lo pensavo tutto il giorno intero / senza tra…