“Ninna Nanna” may sound like a sweet lullaby, yet Ghali turns the bedtime song idea on its head. Over a hypnotic trap beat he fires off dream-like images—from “an igloo bubble” to “moonwalking shrimp”—that mirror the dizzy rush of fame. The chorus rocks back and forth like a cradle, but the verses are wide awake, packed with pop-culture nods, playful wordplay and streetwise swagger. That contrast captures the feeling of drifting between sleep and reality, between childhood fantasies and the hard, flashing lights of success.
At its core the song is Ghali’s self-portrait. The Milan-born son of Tunisian parents remembers coming “from a stall to a star,” a kid of modest means whose father was in jail and mother worked as a cleaner. Now he buys her a villa and dreams even bigger, yet he still feels lost—“I’m losing the route and my compass is broken.” “Ninna Nanna” celebrates the improbable ascent while warning that celebrity can be as fragile as a baby’s dream. It is a lullaby for grown-ups, rocking the listener with booming bass while whispering: keep your eyes open, even when the world tells you to drift off.