Incredible tale behind the memorable EasyJet ad song you can’t escape this year.

EasyJet has resurrected an Italian hit from 53 years ago (Picture: Peter Bischoff/Getty). The song featured in EasyJet’s new advertising campaign might be driving you a little mad by now—but its origin story is truly remarkable.

Launched late last year, EasyJet’s new ad campaign for 2025 encourages British holidaymakers to ‘get out there’ and book their holidays with the low-cost airline. However, music enthusiasts quickly recognized that a peculiar song, over 50 years old and never charted in the UK, plays prominently in the background.

The track in question—now garnering attention thanks to EasyJet—is from 1972 and has the unusual title of Prisencolinensinainciusol. Written by Italian artist Adriano Celentano, the song was a significant hit in Italy and some other European countries, yet it never made it to the UK charts. It seems 2025 is positioned to be the year of Prisencolinensinainciusol, with both EasyJet and an Italian lager brand utilizing the song in their recent ad campaigns.

Adriano Celentano performed the song alongside his wife, Claudia Mori (Picture: Vittoriano Rastelli/Corbis/Getty). In the Poretti ad, a man is seen relaxing on a speedboat while drinking the lager, accompanied by a group of animated foxes, one of whom even plays the harmonica.

The history surrounding ‘the EasyJet advert song’ dates back more than half a century, when Celentano was one of Italy’s most popular music stars at age 35. Cultural historians suggest that ‘Americanisation’ began influencing Italian music in the 1950s and 1960s, prompting some pop artists to adopt American accents. In 1956, Renato Carosone’s song Tu Vuo fa L’Americano (You Want to Be American) highlighted this trend.

Into this context, Prisencolinensinainciusol was created, with Celentano aiming to capture the sound of American music. In 1972, he devised a gibberish language designed to mimic American English for those who did not understand it, using this language for the song. Speaking to NPR in 2012, Celentano stated: ‘Ever since I started singing, I was profoundly influenced by American music and everything Americans did. I like American slang—it’s much easier to sing than Italian—so I thought I’d write a song where the theme was the inability to communicate.’

Celentano candidly remarked that to accomplish this, he needed a song with nonsensical lyrics. Some argue he crafted the song as a playful trick, aiming to mislead Italian listeners into believing it was sung in English. His hunch proved correct: Italians embraced the song, making Prisencolinensinainciusol a top-five hit in Italy, while it also reached similar success in Belgium and the Netherlands. Celentano was even referenced in Ian Dury and the Blockheads’ song “Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3.”

Eventually, Prisencolinensinainciusol received a UK release under the title “The Language of Love (Prisencol)” but failed to chart during the 20th century. However, recent weeks have brought new attention to the track, which has climbed to a peak of number 93, thanks to its usage in EasyJet and Poretti commercials.

As time passed, the song found its way into several American TV shows—including Fargo, Trust, and Ted Lasso—while Celentano ascended to become the second-biggest-selling Italian artist of all time. He has also re-recorded Prisencolinensinainciusol on multiple occasions and has been known to claim that he ‘invented rap’ with his rapid delivery on this 53-year-old song.