Senegalese-born comedian and the most followed TikTok Khaby Lame, has been granted Italian citizenship.

The 22-year-old who has lived in Italy since age one, said he “always felt Italian” during his citizenship ceremony in Chivasso, his home town, close to Turin in the northern Piedmont region, on Wednesday.

“I am very proud”, Lame said. His Senegalese parents settled in Italy when he was still a child, so after more than 15 years spent in the Alpine nation, he ”already felt Italian”. ‘It is not that before signing, I did not feel Italian, so very little has changed”, he confessed.

Lame lost his factory work during Covid pandemic and turned to social media only to become a superstar.

“It’s very different because I have always lived in the slums, but there, in our having nothing, we were happy, we were glad, we played in the courtyard, even though we had nothing. Anyways, yes, it’s another reality, it’s a whole new world to which I still need to get used to, but I am gradually adapting”

Lame, like many children of migrant parents in Italy, had to wait until he was an adult to become a citizen.

It is a new chapter in the life of the public figure who now works with brands and get sponsorship and endorsement contracts. He has 148.5 million followers on Tik Tok.