Mina (Italian singer)

Mina
Grande Ufficiale OMRI
Mina on the Teatro 10 television programme in 1972
Background information
Birth nameMina Anna Mazzini[1][2]
Also known asBaby Gate
Born (1940-03-25) 25 March 1940
Busto Arsizio, Kingdom of Italy
OriginCremona, Italy
Genres
Occupations
  • Singer
  • actress
  • television presenter
Years active1958–present
Labels
Spouses
  • Virgilio Crocco
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1970; died 1973)​
  • Eugenio Quaini
    ​
    (m. 2006)​
Websiteminamazzini.com

Mina Anna Mazzini (by marriage Quaini on the Swiss civil registry;[2][4] born 25 March 1940), known mononymously as Mina, is an Italian singer and actress. She was a staple of television variety shows[5] and a dominant figure in Italian pop music from the 1960s to the mid-1970s,[6] known for her three-octave vocal range,[7] the agility of her soprano voice,[7] and her image as an emancipated woman.[8]

In performance, Mina combined several modern styles with traditional Italian melodies and swing music, which made her the most versatile pop singer in Italian music.[5] With over 150 million records sold worldwide, she is the best-selling Italian musical artist, as well as one of the best-selling music artists of all time.[9][10][11][12] Mina dominated the country's charts for 15 years and reached an unsurpassed level of popularity. She has scored 79 albums and 71 singles on the Italian charts.[13][14]

Mina's TV appearances in 1959 were the first for a female rock and roll singer in Italy. Her loud syncopated singing earned her the nickname "Queen of Screamers".[15] The public also labelled her the "Tigress of Cremona" for her wild gestures and body shakes. When she turned to light pop tunes, Mina's chart-toppers in West Germany in 1962 and Japan in 1964 earned her the title of the best international artist in these countries.[16][17][18] Mina's more refined sensual manner was introduced in 1960 with Gino Paoli's ballad "This World We Love In", which charted on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1961.

Mina was banned from TV and radio in 1963 because her pregnancy and relationship with a married actor did not accord with the dominant Catholic and bourgeois morals.[19] After the ban, the public broadcasting service RAI tried to continue to prohibit her songs, which were forthright in dealing with subjects such as religion, smoking and sex.[19] Mina's cool act combined sex appeal with public smoking, dyed blonde hair, and shaved eyebrows to create a "bad girl" image.[15]

Mina's voice has distinctive timbre and great power.[20][21] Her main themes are anguished love stories performed in high dramatic tones. The singer combined classic Italian pop with elements of blues, R&B and soul music during the late 1960s,[22] especially when she worked in collaboration with the singer-songwriter Lucio Battisti. Top Italian songwriters created material with large vocal ranges and unusual chord progressions to showcase her singing skills, particularly "Brava" by Bruno Canfora (1965) and the pseudo-serial "Se telefonando" by Ennio Morricone (1966). The latter song was covered by several performers abroad. Shirley Bassey carried Mina's ballad "Grande grande grande" to charts in the U.S., UK, and other English-speaking countries in 1973. Mina's easy listening duet "Parole parole" was turned into a worldwide hit by Dalida and Alain Delon in 1974. In 1982 her disco single "Morirò per te" entered in the Billboard Hot Dance/Disco Top 100.[23][24] Mina gave up public appearances in 1978 but has continued to release popular albums and musical projects on a yearly basis to the present day.

  1. ^ Marcello Giannotti (2001). L'enciclopedia di Sanremo (Encyclopedia of Sanremo) (in Italian). Rome, Italy: Gremese. ISBN 9788884403797.
  2. ^ a b "Mina si è sposata a Lugano la cerimonia il 10 gennaio" [Mina got married in a ceremony in Lugano on 10 January]. la Repubblica (in Italian). 1 March 2006.
  3. ^ Kouvarou, Maria (2015). "American Rock with a European Twist: The Institutionalization of Rock'n'Roll in France, West Germany, Greece, and Italy (20th Century)". Historia Crítica (57): 75–94. doi:10.7440/histcrit57.2015.05. ISSN 0121-1617.
  4. ^ "Mina ha sposato Quaini dopo 25 anni" [Mina married Quaini after 25 years]. Corriere della Sera. 2 March 2006. p. 46.
  5. ^ a b Carrera, Alessandro (2001). "Folk music and popular song from the nineteenth century to the 1990s". In Zygmunt Guido Baranski, Rebecca J. West (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Modern Italian Culture. Cambridge University Press. pp. 325–336. ISBN 9780521559829.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference biography was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference callas was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference feminista was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ "Italian Super-Diva Mina Still Going Strong at 84". The Hollywood Reporter. 18 November 2024. Retrieved 5 December 2024.
  10. ^ Di Gino Castaldo (25 March 2010). "E Mamma Mina cestinò i complimenti dei Beatles". La Repubblica. Retrieved 15 October 2012.
  11. ^ "The 10 Italian artists who have sold the most records in the world". spyit.it. 29 December 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
  12. ^ "The 10 Italian artists with the most records sold: Mina". hitparades.it. 20 September 2022. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference singles was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference album was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference cool was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference german was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference germania was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference fratarcangeli was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ a b Mina. Storia di un mito by Nino Romano (Rusconi 1986)
  20. ^ Cite error: The named reference canzone was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  21. ^ Cite error: The named reference tintarella was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  22. ^ Cite error: The named reference Se stasera sono qui was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  23. ^ "1982 - Il singolo su Mina 1958 - 2011". Archived from the original on 29 May 2014.
  24. ^ "Dance Club Songs". Billboard.
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