Mina Anna Mazzini (by marriage Quaini on the Swiss civil registry; born 25 March 1940), known mononymously as Mina, is an Italian singer and former actress. She was a staple of television variety shows and a dominant figure in Italian pop and rock and roll music from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s, known for her three-octave vocal range, the agility of her soprano voice, and her image as an emancipated woman.
In performance, Mina combined several modern styles with traditional Italian melodies and swing music, which made her one of the most versatile pop singers in Italian music. 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. 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.
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". The public also labelled her the "Tigress of Cremona", after her hometown and 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. Mina's more refined sensual manner was introduced in 1960 with Gino Paoli's ballad "Il cielo in una stanza", which charted on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1961 as "This World We Love In".
Mina was banned from TV and radio in 1963 because her pregnancy from and relationship with married actor Corrado Pani did not accord with the dominant Catholic and bourgeois morals.Mina. Storia di un mito by Nino Romano (Rusconi 1986) 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's cool act combined sex appeal with public smoking, dyed blonde hair, and shaved eyebrows to create a "bad girl" image. She gave up public appearances in 1978, but has continued to release popular albums and musical projects on a yearly basis to the present day.
Mina's voice has a distinctive timbre and great power. 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, 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 the 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. Her 1982 disco single "Morirò per te" entered in the Billboard Hot Dance/Disco Top 100.
Early life Mina Anna Mazzini was born into a working-class family in Busto Arsizio, in the region of Lombardy. The family moved to work in Cremona, Lombardy, in her childhood. 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. After finishing high school in 1958, she attended college, where she majored in accounting.Mina. Biografia. Musicalstore.it site. In Italian. Retrieved 27 June 2007
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. During the following nights, Sergio Bernardini, the owner of the club, held her back in her attempts to get back on stage.P. Belluso- F. Merkel, Unicamente Mina, Gammalibri 1983, p. 12
In September, she started her solo career with the backing of the band Happy Boys. Her concert in September 1958, before an audience of 2,500 people at the Theatre of Rivarolo del Re, won enthusiastic approval from local critics.Rivarolo del Re, 24 settembre La Provincia newspaper, 24 September. In Italian. Retrieved 3 July 2007 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 heightexceptionally tall for an Italian womanand Gate as a tribute to The Golden Gate Quartet.Guai ai finiti. Maurizio Targa. Hit Parade Italia 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".Guido Gerosa Nascono le stelle a Porta Garibaldi [Birth of a star at Porta Garibaldi]. La Notte. 2 December 1958. In Italian 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.Marcello Bufacchi, Mina 1958–2005 Ancora insieme, Riuniti 2005, p. 13. In ItalianT. Crotti, G. Bassi, "Mina prima di Mina", Rizzoli Editore, 2007, p. 64. In ItalianNessuno. In TV esplode Mina. Galleria della canzone site. In Italian. Retrieved 27 June 2007 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. Her first Italian 1 hit was the up-tempo "Tintarella di luna" ("Moon Tan") in September 1959, which was performed in her first musicarello (musical comedy film), Juke box – Urli d'amore. In late 1959, Matalon had her drop the name Baby Gate in favour of Mina.
Growing up (1960–1965) In 1960, Mina made her Festival della canzone italiana debut in Sanremo with two songs. She turned to slow emotional love songs for the first time. The song "È vero" ("It's True") reached No. 4 on the Italian charts. Gino Paoli's song "Il cielo in una stanza" ("The Sky in a Room") marked the beginning of the young singer's transformation from a rock and roll shrieker to a feminine inspiration for cantautori.Il cielo in una stanza. Hit Parade Italia. In Italian. Retrieved 25 May 2010 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". Video performances of the song were included in the musicarellos Io bacio... tu baci and Appuntamento a Ischia, and in 1990, in the soundtrack of the film Goodfellas.
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.Sanremo 1961 (11ª Edizione). Hit Parade Italia. In Italian. Retrieved 25 May 2010 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,"Banzai Mina! Bentornata Mina!". Musica E Dischi. 25 June 1961. In Italian and performed on Venezuelan TV in 1961."Mina ha stregato il Venezuela". Gente 25 August 1961 In Italian. Mina performed on Spanish TV and at the Paris Olympia hall at the beginning of 1962."Mina ha conquistato dal vivo gli spagnoli" (In Italian). Oggi 1 February 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."Mina incide in tedesco" (In Italian). Musica e dischi, 1 April 1962 The record went to No. 1 and spent over half the year on the German charts in 1962.Mina. Ready Steady Girls website. Retrieved 21 February 2008Nummer-1-Singles 1962 RubyCon. Retrieved 25 May 2010 Mina had six more singles on the German chart in the next two years. In a listeners' poll conducted in July 1962 in Germany, Austria, and the German-speaking portion of Switzerland, Mina was voted the most popular singer in the world."Mina ha conquistato la Germania", ("Mina has conquered Germany", in Italian). Grand Hotel, 14 July 1962 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. "L'eclisse twist" appeared on the flip side of "Renato", and was used on the soundtrack of Michelangelo Antonioni's feature film Eclipse.
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.La fiera dei sogni Minamazzini.com. In Italian. Retrieved 22 February 2008 Her next single, "È l'uomo per me", a cover of Jody Miller's "He Walks Like a Man", became the biggest-selling record of the year in Italy. Her new melodic mannerMina nuova maniera Bella journal, 29 March 1964. In Italian 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.F. Fratarcangeli, "Mina talk", Coniglio, 2005, p. 87. In Italian
The first episode of the Studio Uno live Saturday night series showcased Mina's new blonde look with shaved eyebrows.Studio Uno Minamazzini.com. In Italian. Retrieved 30 July 2010 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"),Un anno d'amore Hit Parade Italia. In Italian. Retrieved 25 May 2010 a cover of Nino Ferrer's "C'est irreparable".Artist: Nino Ferrer. Secondhandsongs.com. Retrieved 25 May 2010 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. Her Studio Uno album topped the Italian chart that year. Her recordings of 1965 included the scatting performance of "Spirale Waltz", the theme song for the film The 10th Victim.
Independence (1966–1968)