Mina Anna Mazzini (born in Busto Arsizio on March 25, 1940), known as Mina, is an Italian pop singer. She has recorded over 1000 songs, 110 albums and sold 76 million records.[1] Mina’s first TV appearances broke the rule of the motionless artist in Italy. Using her whole body to visualize the beat, she was the first Italian rocker on air. Her energetic act earned her the nicknames "Tiger of Cremona" and "Queen of Screamers". One and a half years after the start of her career, Mina introduced he...
Mina Anna Mazzini (born in Busto Arsizio on March 25, 1940), known as Mina, is an Italian pop singer. She has recorded over 1000 songs, 110 albums and sold 76 million records.[1] Mina’s first TV appearances broke the rule of the motionless artist in Italy. Using her whole body to visualize the beat, she was the first Italian rocker on air. Her energetic act earned her the nicknames "Tiger of Cremona" and "Queen of Screamers". One and a half years after the start of her career, Mina introduced her new sensual maner with the song "Il cielo in una stanza". In 1963 Mina got a ban from performing on the channels of the Italian Broadcasting Service (RAI) by refusing to hide her relationship with, and pregnancy from a married actor. The audience forced RAI to call her back. The Italian Broadcasting Service kept blocking some of her songs, that dealt boldly with secularity ("Sacumdi sacumda"), smoking ("Ta-ra-ta-ta") or sex ("L'importante è finire"). To the ’bad girl’ image Mina added her sexy appeal and the cool act, including public smoking, dyed blond hair and shaved eyebrows. The main theme of Mina's songs was dramatic interpretation of distressing love stories. Ennio Morricone, Bruno Canfora, and more composers working for RAI wrote songs with large vocal range and transitions of tonality to demonstrate her singing skills, including Morricone's pseudo-serial "Se telefonando". Pieces of music were exclusively composed and re-scored for Mina accompanied by an all-star orchestra of the TV variety series Studio Uno, Canzonissima and Teatro 10 and concerts at the Auditorio A of Naples and La Bussola nightclub of Marina di Pietrasanta. The performances gathered unprecedented audiences in Italy. Mina alla Bussola live was the first live album in the history of Italian singing. She featured 11 albums in the annual Top 5 of the sales in Italy, including Studio Uno 66, Bugiardo più che mai...più incosciente che mai... and Mina.
Mina combined the classic Italian melody with soul music, particularly "Un bacio è troppo poco", "Se stasera sono qui", "Un colpo al cuore", "La voce del silenzio" and Mogol-Lucio Battisti's "Insieme" and "Io e te da soli". Mina was appreciated by the composers for delivering their ideas and adding to them. She was also interested in bossa nova, performing "Sacumdi sacumda" and "Parole parole".
Mina lost her brother and husband in car accidents. She moved to Lugano and founded her own record label, PDU. The singer gave up public appearances in 1978, but has continued to release Italian Top 100 albums on a yearly basis to date.
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