"For us you have already won."
Geolier's supporters wrote it on one of the many banners that appeared in the Gescal district of Naples, cheering for their boy who is expected to make his debut on the Sanremo stage in a few days.
Here, among the streets that divide the suburban neighborhoods of Miano and Secondigliano, Emanuele Palumbo, aka Geolier, was born and raised, the last of 5 children who still live, despite the rapper's popularity, in one of the many modest homes in the area.
"This is where Emanuele came to play video games", recalls the manager of an arcade, Giuseppe, busy on a ladder with others hanging out dozens of flags with photos of the rapper from one side of the street to the other.
Everyone remembers Emanuele and now that he has become a Geolier for everyone, the photos of him also attached to road sign poles take away space from the images of the scudetto and Maradona of whom - everyone says - he is a big fan.
"He gave that to the neighborhood," another person busy with the festoons explains to ANSA, pointing to a four-story-high mural of Maradona.
And another, which will be inaugurated in the next few days, is practically already finished, nearby: it once again depicts Maradona kissing Geolier on the forehead and is the work of the young Neapolitan writer Filospry.
"I'm sorry that this controversy arose over the song", says Marco Quercia, councilor of the seventh municipality, returning to the criticisms that the writer Maurizio De Giovanni and others have leveled at the Neapolitan grammar of the lyrics of the song "I p 'me tu p' you".
"I'm sure - he adds - that De Giovanni didn't want to attack Geolier. He represents a moment of redemption for this suburb and he must be helped in this mission. Do you know how many of the neighborhood, how many kids, have approached music after he became famous ?".
Everyone wants to take part in the party and it is obvious that during the days of Sanremo the neighborhood will be glued to the television, even if for all of them the outcome is obvious: Geolier has already won.
On a poster it says: "From neighborhood to the roof of the world", and this, says the boy who has just put it up, "is already a victory. Then - he concludes - we'll take what comes".
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