it’s macho. But the fans rebel – Corriere.it

The song must be banned and you mustn’t sing it anymore. Not in the stadium (where it had been excluded from the pre-match playlists as early as 2015) and possibly not even outside. The answer was not long in coming: thousands of Wales fans in the streets of Cardiff who, before the opening match of the Six Nations rugby union with Ireland (34-10 victory for the Irish), chanted at the top of their voices Delilah by Tom Jones. A song written in 1968, which in 1969 reached the No. 2 place in the charts of the time, which essentially tells of what we now call femicide and that at the time someone would instead have called honor killings, given that it tells of a husband who stabs his wife to death because she was cheating on him and who ends up in prison for this (in Italy, but with a completely different text, became The our fairy tale brought to success by Jimmy Fontana and the Rebels).

A song that after almost 50 years of being broadcast at every home match of the national team and always sung in chorus by the fans in the stadium, is now seen as inappropriate by the Welsh Rugby Union grappling with the scandal that overwhelmed its former CEO Steve Phillips, forced to resign because he is accused of tolerating sexist behavior and harassment against female employees and managers.

Scandal that motivated the creation of a task force which is investigating sexist, racist or homophobic behavior within the Federation. And that among the first measures taken, he decided to ban the singing of a song in the stadium which ideally is part of a male chauvinist, toxic and homophobic culture within Welsh rugby and which ideally he wants to crush. The Welsh Rugby Union condemns domestic violence of all kinds. We have previously sought the views of subject matter experts on the issue of censorship of the song and are respectfully aware that the song is problematic and upsetting to some supporters due to its subject matter, writes the Welsh Federation in a statement. It’s a pity that the fans don’t agree at all and the vast majority have continued to sing Delilah inside and outside the stadium, by the tens of thousands. For the joy of Sir Tom (Jones) who has publicly warned that the song is not to be taken literally and that its popularity at national rugby union matches makes him proud to be Welsh. And with Wales fans who declare themselves proud of their musical traditions and who answered questions to journalists outside the stadium about how they would react to the ban ordered by the Federation: Try to stop us, there are 50 thousand of us.

Meanwhile, British newspapers and TV broadcasts are wondering: is banning Delilah from singing a wrong example of cancel culture or a right invitation because a sexist and toxic working climate is created even by considering normal songs that celebrate the murder of a woman? With this step we would end up wanting to prohibit the reading Shakespeare (Othello) and Stendhal (The Red and the Black) the defenders of the mainstream reply (late because in reality on the web there are already those who are asking to ban the two masterpieces). Delilah’s problem is not her existence, but her success.

After all, the fan and even more the ultras have always wanted to scandalize. Using all available weapons. Choirs, songs, insults, banners. It remains to be understood first whether the fan is fond of the tradition, or if instead in some way he adheres to the reality described by the words of the song. Forgive me Delilah, I couldn’t take it anymore sings in the song Tom Jones. Now for the problem that the millions of Delilahs of this world are fed up with it.