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Mina Anna Mazzini (by marriage Quaini on the Swiss civil registry; born 25 March 1940), known mononymously as Mina, is an Italian singer and actress. She was a staple of television variety shows and a dominant figure in Italian pop and rock and roll music from the 1950s to the mid-1970s, 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. 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. 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.
Early life
Mina Anna Mazzini was born into a working-class family in Busto Arsizio, Lombardy. She listened to American rock and roll and jazz records and was a frequent visitor at the Santa Tecla and the Taverna Messicana clubs of Milan, both known for promoting rock and roll.
Career
Queen of Screamers (1958–1961)
While on a summer holiday in Versilia on 8 August 1958, Mazzini gave an improvised performance of the song "Un'anima tra le mani" to amuse her family after a concert at the La Bussola night club.
thumb|Mina with her Anelli piano and a Giemmei guitar at home in Cremona, 1959
In September, she started her solo career with the backing of the band Happy Boys. She soon signed with Davide Matalon, owner of the small record company Italdisc. Her first single, "Non partir"/"Malatia", was produced under the stage name Mina for the Italian audience. Simultaneously, "Be Bop A Lula"/"When" was issued under the name Baby Gate for the international audience. Baby was chosen as a contrast to her 178 cm height (5 ft 10 in) – exceptionally tall for an Italian woman – and Gate as a tribute to The Golden Gate Quartet. In December, her performance at the Sei giorni della canzone festival of Milan was described by the La Notte newspaper as the "birth of a star". It was Mina's last performance with the Happy Boys, as her family refused to let her skip college for a scheduled tour of Turkey.
Less than a month after the breakup with her previous band, Mina co-founded a new group called Solitari, which consisted of a singer, a saxophonist, a pianist, a contrabassist, and a guitarist. Her first hit with the band featured Mina performing an extra-loud, syncopated version of the popular song "Nessuno" ("Nobody"), which she performed at the first rock festival in the Milan Ice Palace in February 1959. Performances of the song on the TV game shows Lascia o raddoppia? and Il musichiere on 1 March and 4 April were hailed by Italian critics. The starlet signed with Elio Gigante, an experienced artist manager. In the following years, he organized her performances in the grand ballrooms of Italy. The idea for the song "Love can grow at any moment at any place" had come to Paoli while lying on a bed and looking at the purple ceiling. The single topped the list of annual sales in Italy and reached the Billboard Hot 100 as "This World We Love In".
200px|thumb|left|Mina performing at Sanremo Music Festival in 1961
At the 1961 Sanremo Song Festival, Mina performed two songs. "Io amo, tu ami" ("I Love, You Love") finished fourth and "Le mille bolle blu" ("A Thousand Blue Bubbles") placed fifth. Greatly disappointed by this, Mina declared her intention of never performing at the Sanremo song festival again.
As her songs and movies were already popular abroad, Mina started to tour Spain and Japan, and performed on Venezuelan TV in 1961. Mina performed on Spanish TV and at the Paris Olympia hall at the beginning of 1962. The presentation of her German single "Heißer Sand" on 12 March 1962 on Peter Kraus's TV show caused a boom of 40,000 record sales in ten days in Germany. The record went to No. 1 and spent over half the year on the German charts in 1962. Mina had six more singles on the German chart in the next two years. In May 1962, she performed in Buenos Aires. Meanwhile, her version of the mambo rhythm "Moliendo cafe" and the surf pop "Renato" peaked at No. 1 and No. 4 respectively on the Italian charts.
thumb|upright|Mina in the early 1960s
Mina refused to cover up her relationship and resulting pregnancy with the married actor Corrado Pani, so her TV and radio career was interrupted by the Italian public broadcasting service RAI in 1963, as at the time divorce was not yet legal in Italy. Mina's record sales were unaffected and due to public demand, RAI ended the ban. On 10 January 1964 she returned to the TV screen on the program La fiera dei sogni, and performed the song "Città vuota", a cover of Gene McDaniels' "It's a Lonely Town (Lonely Without You)", which was her first release on the RiFi label. was demonstrated again on the 11 December 1964 TV programme Il macchiettario, where she performed "Io sono quel che sono" ("I Am What I Am"). A reminder of her previous adolescent image, her single "Suna ni kieta namida" ("Tears Disappear in the Sand"), sung in Japanese, peaked at No. 1 on the Japanese singles chart and earned Mina the title of Best International Artist in Japan.
The first episode of the Studio Uno live Saturday night series showcased Mina's new blonde look with shaved eyebrows. The shows included the brooding songs "Un bacio è troppo poco" ("One Kiss is Not Enough") and "Un anno d'amore" ("A Year of Love"), a cover of Nino Ferrer's "C'est irreparable". In the same series she performed "Brava" ("Good"), a rhythmic jazz number specially written by Bruno Canfora to demonstrate Mina's vocal range and performing skills.
Independence (1966–1968)
thumb|left|200px|Mina with [[Totò on Studio Uno, 1966]]
Maurizio Costanzo and Ghigo De Chiara wrote the lyrics of "Se telefonando" ("If Over the Phone") as the theme for the TV program Aria condizionata in spring 1966. The lyrics were composed in a dark, Hal David mode. on an upright piano. He had copied the snippet of melody from the siren of a police car in Marseilles. After a few bars, Mina grabbed the lyrics sheet and started to sing as if she had known the tune before. Composed in this way, "Se telefonando" is a pop song with eight transitions of tonality that builds tension throughout the chorus.
250px|thumb|right|Mina and Adriano Celentano in 1967
In 1966, Mina started working with the Swiss Broadcasting Service and the Orchestra Radiosa in Lugano. She founded the independent record label PDU in collaboration with her father. The first record issued under the label was Dedicato a mio padre (Dedicated to My Father). Mina's growing interest in Brazilian music resulted in "La banda" ("The Band"), a Chico Buarque song, which reached No. 2 in Italy. Mina continued to perform on Italian TV, and presented "Zum zum zum" on the spring 1967 variety series Sabato sera, accompanied by the NATO naval band. The series also included "La coppia più bella del mondo" ("The Most Beautiful Couple in the World"), a duet with Adriano Celentano. The title of the song "Sono come tu mi vuoi" ("I Am, as You Want Me to Be") was taken from Luigi Pirandello's play Come tu mi vuoi. The lyrics talk about the manic attention of the press on an artist's private life. Another hit from Sabato sera was "L'immensità" ("Immensity"), which was re-scored by Augusto Martelli and released as "La inmensidad" in Spain and Latin American countries.
RAI broadcast the third episode of Senza Rete ("Without Safety Net") live on 18 July 1968 from the Auditorio A of the corporation's regional headquarters in Naples. The program presented Mina's homage to Luigi Tenco, who had recently died. She turned his song "Se stasera sono qui" ("If I Stay Here Tonight") into a rigorous piece of soul music in the score of Pino Calvi. She celebrated the 10th anniversary of her career with a concert at La Bussola, backed by the Orchestra Augusto Martelli. The concert was recorded and issued as Mina alla Bussola dal vivo.
Canzonissima 1968 was a Saturday night prime-time variety show that aired on Rai Uno from September 1968 to January 1969. It was hosted by Mina, Walter Chiari and Paolo Panelli. The orchestrations were scored by the conductors Bruno Canfora and Augusto Martelli. "Sacumdì Sacumdà", Mina's talking and laughing version of Carlos Imperial's bossa nova "Nem Vem Que Não Tem", narrowly escaped a ban by RAI because of its irreverent lyrics. The song was performed as part of a musical fantasy, back to back with "Quelli che hanno un cuore", her intense version of "Anyone Who Had a Heart". Another interpretation of a Dionne Warwick song was "La voce del silenzio" ("Silent Voices") by Paolo Limiti and Elio Isola, presented in a live session during the show. Each show was closed by Mina singing "Vorrei che fosse amore" ("Wish It Was Love"), a piece of atmospheric music by Bruno Canfora that was No. 50 on the best-selling singles chart for 1968 in Italy. The single became the third biggest-selling record of the year in Italy. Mogol and his fellow composer Lucio Battisti, along with the Premiata Forneria Marconi on backup instrumentals, worked with Mina on several songs as a result of the success of "Non credere". The team produced a set of songs including "Io e te da soli" ("You and Me Alone"), "Insieme" ("Together"), "Amor mio" ("Love of Mine"), "Io vivrò senza te" ("I'll Live without You"). " One of the first introductions of the new repertoire was the Senza Rete live televised concert from the Auditorio A in Naples on 20 January 1970. The material provided by Mogol–Battisti was the core for five albums. Among them, ...bugiardo più che mai... più incosciente che mai... was Mina's first independent album to reach No. 1 of the weekly Italian charts and was the biggest-selling album of 1969 in Italy. ...quando tu mi spiavi in cima a un batticuore... was seventh on the annual record chart of 1970. Del mio meglio... (My Best...) was second in 1971. Mina was the biggest seller of 1972. The latter two albums were recorded during a break from live performances to give birth to her daughter Benedetta.
Mina's comeback took place at RAI's variety series Teatro 10 in the spring of 1972. One of the highlights of the series was a selection of Battisti's songs performed in duet with the composer. The shows also included "Balada para mi muerte" ("Ode to My Death"), a nuevo tango duet with Astor Piazzolla at the bandoneón, backed by the Argentinian group Conjunto 9. "Grande grande grande", arranged by Pino Presti, was the second biggest-selling single of the year in Italy. The successes pushed Enrico Riccardi to take inspiration from Battisti's style in Riccardi's composition "Fiume azzurro", which earned another place in the top 100 of annual record sales in Italy.
The final number of the eight Teatro 10 episodes was "Parole parole" ("Words Words"), a duet with Alberto Lupo. The song is an easy listening dialogue between Mina's singing and Lupo's declamation. The lyrics' theme is hollow words. These intertwine the lady's lamentation of the end of love and the lies she has to hear with the male protagonist's recitation. In the dialogue she scoffs at the compliments he gives her, calling them parole – just words. The single was released in April 1972 and topped the Italian charts. It was covered by numerous Italian and French duets.
Mina said she would be retiring from public appearances after an exclusive concert at the La Bussola Club on 16 September. Thousands of people turned up at the nightclub's doorstep. Gianni Ferrio's Orchestra featured Gianni Basso on tenor saxophone and Oscar Valdambrini on trumpet. During the series, she explored different musical styles in the songs "Everything's Alright", "Mack the Knife", "Night and Day", and "Someday (You'll Want Me to Want You)". After "Non gioco più" ("The Game Is Over"), a blues duet with the harmonica player Toots Thielemans, Mina announced her withdrawal from public performances.
Her last appearance on TV was her performance of "Ancora ancora ancora". The video was the final number of the "Mille e una luce" show on 1 July 1978. Her last concert appearances, a series of thirteen fully booked concerts at La Bussola in 1978, were cut short due to her illness. Mina gave her last public performance on 23 August 1978 at the Bussoladomani theatre. It was recorded and issued as Mina Live '78.
Musical style and public image
thumb|upright|left|Mina at the [[Sanremo Music Festival 1960]]
Voice
Mina is a soprano with great agility and a range of three octaves. Swingy and anti-melodic in her early years ("Tintarella di luna", 1959), her singing later acquired high dramatic tones.
Queen of Screamers
Caught up in the wave of rock and roll sweeping across Italy in 1958, Mina listened to American records, and she was a frequent visitor at the Derby Club, the Santa Tecla, and the Taverna Messicana clubs of Milan, which promoted rock and roll music. for her distinctive timbre and power. Later, the public called Mina "the Queen of Screamers". The subsequent ban from performing on Italian TV and radio channels further developed Mina's image as an independent bad girl, which she emphasized with her choice of song themes. "La canzone di Marinella", and "L'importante è finire" (alluding to sex without love). Mina's cool act Her style was to interpret them in a highly dramatic way by using gestures and body language to bring the story alive.
To demonstrate Mina's vocal range, the composer Bruno Canfora penned the song "Brava", and Ennio Morricone wrote "Se telefonando" with numerous transitions of tonality. showcased Mina's blues and soul skills. Around the time of their collaboration, Mina turned toward middle-of-the-road pop. In 2007, Mina published Todavía, an album in Spanish and Portuguese, which reached No. 36 on the Spanish charts and No. 1 on the Italian charts. It included duets with Joan Manuel Serrat, Miguel Bosé, Diego Torres, Chico Buarque, and Diego El Cigala.
Collaborations
Collaborations with arrangers
- Ennio Morricone"Se telefonando"
- Detto Mariano"Insieme"
- Alberto Nicorelli"Ancora ancora ancora"
- Paul Buckmaster"Questione di feeling"
Collaborations with other performers
200px|thumb|right|Mina duetting with Giorgio Gaber in 1972
200px|thumb|right|Mina duetting with Lucio Battisti in 1972
- With Adriano Celentano:
- With Alberto Lupo: "Parole parole"
- With Alberto Sordi: "Fumo di Londra"
- With Andrea Mingardi:
- With Ángel "Pato" García: "Contigo en la distancia"
- With Astor Piazzolla: "Balada para mi muerte"
- With Audio 2:
- With Benedetta Mazzini: "More than Words"
- With Beppe Grillo: "Dottore"
- With Enzo Jannacci: "E l'era tardi"
- With Fabrizio De André: "La canzone di Marinella"
- With Fausto Leali:
- With Fred Bongusto:
- With Gianni Morandi:
- With Giorgio Gaber:
- With Johnny Dorelli and Renato Carosone:
- With Lelio Luttazzi: "Chi mai sei tu"
- With Lucio Battisti:
- With Lucio Dalla: "Amore disperato"
- With Massimiliano Pani:
- With Massimo Lopez: "Noi"
- With Mick Hucknall: "Someday in My Life"
- With Miguel Bosé: "Agua y sal"
- With Milva:
- With Mónica Naranjo: "Él se encuentra entre tú y yo"
- With Piero Pelù: "Stay with Me"
- With Renato Zero:
- With Riccardo Cocciante:
- With Seal: "You Get Me"
- With Toots Thielemans: "Non gioco più"
- With Voci Atroci: "Suona ancora"
Legacy
Mina has scored 77 albums and 71 singles on the Italian charts.
British singer Dusty Springfield referenced Mina in performance.
A number of Mina's songs were turned into hits by singers in other languages:
- The first of these was "Piano", scored by Matt Monro as "Softly, as I Leave You", which reached No. 10 in the UK Top 40. In 1964, the song reached No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the version by Frank Sinatra.
- "Se telefonando" was covered by several performers in Italy and abroad, most notably by Françoise Hardy
- "Grande grande grande", recorded by Shirley Bassey as "Never Never Never" in 1973, reached the Billboard Hot 100, UK Top 10, No. 1 of the Australian charts, No. 2 in South Africa and No. 3 in Singapore. <br>Celine Dion with Luciano Pavarotti also recorded a version of the song in 1997 (Released as "I Hate You Then I Love You").
- A year later, Dalida and Alain Delon recorded "Paroles, paroles", the French version of "Parole parole" and made it an international hit. It became one of the most recognizable French songs in the world.
- Mexican icon José José recorded the Spanish version of the hit "Sono, come tu mi vuoi", entitled "Soy como quieras tú".
- English musician Elvis Costello used a sample from Mina's "Un bacio è troppo poco" on his album When I Was Cruel.
- Tanita Tikaram covered Mina's "And I Think of You - E penso a te" in English as a track on the album The Best of Tanita Tikaram.
- Turkish singer Ajda Pekkan has covered more than a dozen of Mina songs.
- In 2010, Chicago band La Scala released a rock cover of her hit "Tu Farai" with Gretta Rochelle on vocals.
- Spanish artist Mónica Naranjo recorded the album Minage with Mina's covers in Spanish, published on 20 March 1999. The tracks included "Ancora, ancora, ancora", "Io é te da soli", "Fiume azzurro" (as "Sobreviviré") and "L'immensità". Mina collaborated with the album recording the duet "Él se encuentra entre tú y yo" ("He is between you and me").
- Irish dance music artist Róisín Murphy covered Mina's ″Non credere″ and ′Ancora, ancora, ancora″ (remixed into extended tracks by UK and Italian DJs) in her 2014 EP "Mi Senti", a reinterpretation of pop classic hits by various Italian music artists.
To celebrate Mina's 70th anniversary, the la Repubblica newspaper held a reader's poll to pick Mina's best song of all time. In a vote of 30,000 participants, "Se telefonando" emerged at the top of the list.
Awards, nominations, honours and records
1958
- Nomination and performance at Sei giorni della canzone with "Proteggimi"
- Second place
1959
- Nomination and performance at Canzonissima with "Nessuno" and "Tua"
- Juke Box d'oro Award
2001
80px – Grand Officer Order of Merit of the Italian Republic: Awarded the second highest civil honour in Italy, by President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi on 1 June 2001.
2015
- Ambrogino d'oro medal by the city of Milan
Records
- The web event, live on the portal Wind, which portrays some video clips of the artist in the recording studio, has recorded over 20 million hits and was one of the most followed of all times in Italy.
- She is the most charted artist in the Italian charts, and between albums and singles, she has scored 24 number one, 61 top-three, 86 top-five, 114 top-ten and 130 top-twenty, for a total of 79 albums and 71 singles in the chart.
Albums: records in Italy
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
!colspan="6" |Weekly chart
!colspan="6" |Year-end chart At 16 she met her first boyfriend, a fullback for the U.S. Cremonese football club, at the swimming pool. As her record sales were unaffected and audiences demanded to see Mina on the air, RAI was forced to end the ban and let Mina return to television on 10 January 1964. Within a year, her affair with Pani ended.
200px|thumb|Mina and Virgilio Crocco
Mina's brother Alfredo Mazzini died in a car accident in 1965. A year later she and her father moved to Lugano, Switzerland. Mina's intimate relationships, however, remained in Italy, as she had a brief affair with the actor Walter Chiari. A later relationship with actor Gian Maria Volonté ended after she found out about Volonté's affair with an actress. Mina's great love of the late 1960s, with whom she had a relationship that lasted three years and almost led to marriage, was the composer Augusto Martelli. Her second spouse was Virgilio Crocco, a journalist for Il Messaggero, in 1970. As a result of their marriage, her legal name was changed to Mina Anna Mazzini Crocco. Their daughter Benedetta Mazzini was born on 11 November 1971. Crocco died in a car accident in 1973.
Mina became engaged to her last husband, cardiologist Eugenio Quaini, in 1981. They were married on 10 January 2006 in Lugano. She obtained Swiss citizenship in 1989.
Discography
;Studio albums
Filmography
Films
{|class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:left;"
|+Film roles showing year released, title, role played, director and notes
|-
!Title
!Year
!Role
!Director
!Notes
|-
!scope="row"|Juke Box: Urli d'amore
|1959
|Singer
|Mauro Morassi
|Cameo appearance
|-
!scope="row"|I Teddy Boys della canzone
|1960
|Minuccia
|Domenico Paolella
|
|-
!scope="row"|Sanremo - La grande sfida
|1960
|Herself
|Piero Vivarelli
|Cameo appearance
|-
!scope="row"|Appuntamento a Ischia
|1960
|Herself
|Mario Mattoli
|Mid-credit cameo
|-
!scope="row"|Madri pericolose
|1960
|Nicky Improta
|Domenico Paolella
|
|-
!scope="row"|Howlers in the Dock
|1960
|Mina
|Lucio Fulci
|
|-
!scope="row"|Mina… fuori la guardia!
|1961
|Valeria
|Armando Tamburella
|
|-
!scope="row"|Io bacio… tu baci
|1961
|Marcella
|Piero Vivarelli
|
|-
!scope="row"|Appuntamento in Riviera
|1962
|Mina
|Mario Mattoli
|
|-
!scope="row"|Des haben die Mädchen gern
|1962
|Herself
|Kurt Nachmann
|Cameo appearance
|-
!scope="row"|Canzoni nel mondo
|1963
|Herself
|Vittorio Sala
|Documentary film
|-
!scope="row"|Per amore... per magia...
|1967
|Aichesiade
|Duccio Tessari
|
|}
Television
{|class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:left;"
|+Television roles showing year released, title, role played, network and notes
|-
!Title
!Year
!Role
!Network
!Notes
|-
!scope="row"|Studio Uno
|1961–1966
|Herself / Presenter
|Rai 1
|Variety show (seasons 1, 3–4)
|-
!scope="row"|Sabato sera
|1967
|Herself / Presenter
|Rai 1
|Variety show
|-
!scope="row"|TuttoTotò
|1967
|Night club singer
|Rai 1
|Episode: "Totò ye ye"
|-
!scope="row"|Canzonissima
|1968–1969
|Herself / Presenter
|Rai 1
|Musical/variety program (season 6)
|-
!scope="row"|Senza Rete
|1968–1970
|Herself / co-host
|Rai 1
|Variety show (seasons 1–3)
|-
!scope="row"|Non cantare, spara
|1968
|Wilhelmina
|Rai 1
|Episode: "Seconda puntata"
|-
!scope="row"|Noches de Europa
|1969
|Herself / Musical guest
|La 2
|Episode dated Nov. 8, 1969
|-
!scope="row"|Teatro 10
|1972
|Herself / Performer
|Rai 1
|Variety show (season 3)
|-
!scope="row"|Milleluci
|1974
|Herself / co-host
|Rai 1
|Variety show
|}
Bibliography
- Mina, come sono by Gianni Pettenati (Virgilio 1980)
- Mina, la voce by Mario Guarino (Forte 1983)
- Unicamente Mina by Flavio Merkel and Paolo Belluso (Gammalibri 1983)
- La leggendaria Mina (PDU Italiana Edizioni Musicali S.r.l./Curci 1983)
- Mina. Storia di un mito raccontato by Nino Romano (Rusconi 1986)
- Mina nelle fotografie di Mauro Balletti (Campanotto 1990)
- Mina – Le immagini e la storia di un mito (Eden 1992)
- Mina – Mito e mistero by Nino Romano (Sperling & Kupfer 1996)
- Mina – I miti by Antonella Giola, Daniela Teruzzi & Gherardo Gentili (Arnoldo Mondadori 1997)
- Mina – I mille volti di una voce by Romy Padovano (Arnoldo Mondadori 1998)
- Divina Mina by Dora Giannetti (Zelig 1998)
- Mina by Roberta Maresci (Gremese 1998)
- Mina – Una forza incantatrice by Franco Fabbri & Luigi Pestalozza (eds. Euresis 1998)
- Mina – La sua vita, i suoi successi by Gianni Lucini (Sonzogno 1999)
- Mina, il mito (Tempo Libro 1999)
- Studio Mina by Flaviano De Luca (ed. Elle U Multimedia 1999)
- Mina disegnata fotografata – Authors' copyright 2001
- Mina: Gli anni Italdisc 1959–1964 by Marco Castiglioni, Fulvio Fiore, Maurizio Maiotti, Stefania Fiore, Barbara Alari and Maurizio Maiotti (Satisfaction 2001)
- Mina 1958–2005 Ancora insieme by Marcello Bufacchi (Riuniti 2005)
- Mina talk. Vent'anni di interviste. 1959–1979 by Fernando Fratarcangeli (Coniglio 2005)
- Mina... il fascino della tigre by Ghea Irene (Lo Vecchio 2006)
- La Storia della Disco Music by Andrea Angeli Bufalini / Giovanni Savastano (Hoepli 2019)
- Mina, Una Voce Universale by Luca Cerchiari (Mondadori 2020)
See also
- List of best-selling music artists
- List of estimated best-selling Italian music artists