"Renting a house, that's dreaming, buying one, that's a German thing": the song against Airbnb in Mallorca
A group from Mallorca is also criticizing tourist rentals, overcrowding, and the difficulty of accessing housing.
PalmThe Mallorcan band The Deaf Buffalos has released a new song, a direct and frontal attack on Airbnb and its consequences for the island of Mallorca and its inhabitants. Titled God bless AirbnbThe group includes lines and verses like "don't go to the beach, let the foreigner go, he's the king of the island, he's the one who gives us our bread," making a reference to tourist rentals. In fact, this is also the central theme of the music video, where the band members are seen in front of ETV signs, the identifying mark for properties intended for tourist rentals.
The song's lyrics are 'God bless Airbnb, which makes so many Mallorcans happy, God bless Airbnb, how could we live before it existed?' Although vacation rentals are the focus of the song's criticism, their consequences are also very much present. In fact, The Deaf Buffalos address the problems of access to housing, the loss of island spaces to tourism, overcrowding, and the support and praise from the far right for a tourism model that only benefits hoteliers and business owners.
The song also alludes to how, thanks to this tourism model and the current situation, Mallorcans have become "social outcasts" in their own country, and asserts that if you don't have an inheritance or property, you have no other option but to try to survive.