Songfacts®:

• "Espresso Macchiato" is a brisk and bonkers dance-pop number by the Estonian rapper and visual artist Tommy Cash - or Tomas Tammemets if you happen to be his mother. Released on December 7, 2024, the song arrives dripping with espresso froth, multilingual wordplay, and much camp.
• Lyrically, the song is a dizzying swirl of broken English, Spanglish, and the kind of Italian one usually hears shouted across trattorias in sitcoms. Cash playfully mocks aspects of Italian culture such as amore, spaghetti, Mafia and the titular Italian espresso-based coffee drink, all treated with a reverent absurdity.
• To be clear, this is not Sabrina Carpenter's "Espresso." That track purrs with millennial cool. Tommy Cash's version is more closely related to Joe Dolce's 1980 novelty hit "Shaddap You Face," another musical love letter to exaggerated Italian caricatures.
• Cash co-wrote the song with Finnish producer Johannes Naukkarinen, who previously helped Käärijä turn piña coladas into Eurovision gold with 2023's "Cha Cha Cha." Here, Naukkarinen's production bubbles with brio - a kitschy, caffeinated swirl of Eurodance, electro swing, and musical mischief.
• The music video is classic Cash. He performs in a stripped-down space, dancing with himself in a kind of caffeinated duet, until the two versions of him eventually merge into one. There is also a homage to Andy Warhol's hamburger-eating scene in the 1982 movie 66 Scenes from America.
• Representing Estonia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 in Basel, Switzerland, "Espresso Macchiato" did rather well. It slotted itself comfortably into third place in the grand final, winning 356 points.
• In Italy, some weren't exactly tickled. The consumer association Codacons and assorted lawmakers protested what they saw as cultural mockery. Cash responded by saying the song was meant in good fun - a caricature, yes, but one born of affection. "I love Italy," he assured the press.
  
  So there you have it. A strange, effervescent ode to Italy, performed by an Estonian, co-written by a Finn, staged in Switzerland, and loved and loathed in equal measure across Europe. Only Eurovision.