Katy Perry retweeted a video captioned “A whole neighborhood in Italy is singing ‘Roar’ by Katy Perry while they’re on lockdown and self-quarantined.” Perry added: “You cannot break the human spirit. We are one in this.”
Madonna also fell for the meme, sharing the same video as featured in the Katy Perry clip, but with the Italians on their balconies singing her song “I Rise.” Madonna tweeted: “Let Us All RISE UP. everywhere around the world!!”
British singer and former Girls Aloud member Cheryl tweeted the same (now deleted) video but with the soundtrack of her song “Fight for this Love” and said: “I’m not crying.”
Twitter user @sarahellenjack responded to Cheryl’s mistake in believing the video was real by tweeting: “I can only strive to have the overconfidence of Cheryl Cole thinking that “Fight for this Love” is internationally recognized enough for a little Italian village to be singing it from their balconies.”
Other singers have had their songs used in the video include Rihanna, as Twitter user @fentygemini shared a video of the Italians on their balconies seemingly singing ‘Bitch Better Have My Money.’
Twitter user @burnrvbber shared a fake video of the Italian village singing “Track 10” by Charli XCX.
@yannhuatchel on Twitter shared a video of with the soundtrack of Britney Spears’ song “Sometimes,” with the caption “So beautiful seeing Italians under quarantine united by the power of Britney Spears.”
Some Twitter users are taking the meme a step further by creating videos that are more clearly fake and outlandish.
@ephwinslow shared a video with the caption: “A whole neighborhood in Italy is reciting the ‘I Am Your Mother’ monologue from Hereditary while they’re on lockdown and self-quarantined,” with Toni Collette’s speech from the movie playing.
Twitter user Leonardo Carella shared the original video and said that it was filmed in Salerno, a city southwest of Naples.
While Italy is in lockdown and Italians are quarantined in their homes, people all over the country have been singing on their balconies, with videos coming out of Turin, Naples, Benevento, Siena, Florence, and Nuoro.
Many have been singing traditional or popular local songs, such as “Viva La Nostra Siena” (“Hooray for Our Siena”) in Siena, but some have gone for more left-field options, such as the man who took to his balcony to play The Champs’ song “Tequila” on his saxophone, while a neighbor joined in and shouted the song’s one lyric.
However, while Italians seem to be enjoying each other’s singing and musicianship, it would seem that not everyone’s contribution is appreciated.
