Oh Mamma Mia by Guè and Rose Villain

Teaching Italian L2/FL Trough the Multilingualism and the Multiculturalism of the Urban Song

Abstract

The grammatical features of urban lyrics, the presence of rhyming verses, code-mixing and code-switching, and multicultural references make songs of this genre generally suitable for use in Italian L2/LS classrooms for teaching linguistic and cultural aspects. This paper aims to support this teaching perspective by analysing the song Oh Mamma Mia by Guè and Rose Villain and proposing its use as an effective tool for teaching linguistic elements and intercultural pragmatics. The analysis of the syntactic, metrical, and lexical structure of the text facilitates the learning of basic and everyday expressions such as “What’s your name?” or “How are you?” and encourages reflection on contractions (“m’ami”, “m’accompagni”), youth slang (“mami”, “papi”), and dialectal varieties (“guagliù”). It is also possible to examine the uses of the expression "mamma mia", the expressive imagery, and various examples of Italian-English code-mixing that enhance the song’s musicality and make the lyrics more accessible to a young audience. Furthermore, some stimulating multicultural references can be considered, such as the line “La-di-da-di, we like to party”, the sample from Pino Daniele's Che soddisfazione, which is an Italian cultural symbol, and references to the Pompidou Centre, the Louvre, and international figures like Kate Moss.