Mina

Our pick of the pops

Mina is one of Italy’s biggest stars of all time, scoring dozens of hits from the late 1950s to the present day. Her mid-1960s material is, arguably, her best.

She was born Mina Mazzini in Busto Arsizio, in northern Italy, on 25 March 1940 and grew up in Cremona.

Her recording career began in 1958, initially under the name Baby Gate, and she enjoyed a small hit the following year with Dance darlin’ dance. After taking Mina as her stage moniker, she had a few more small hits, and at the end of 1959, she topped the charts with Tintarella di luna.

A string of top ten succeses followed, including Coriandoli, Due note and È vero (which she performed at the San Remo song contest) before Mina topped the charts again with Il cielo in una stanza, in October 1960, which became the biggest seller in Italy that year.

She enjoyed further hits and, in 1962, she launched a successful career in Germany, where Heißer Sand went to number one and spent over half a year on the charts.

At home, her career took a severe knock in 1963 after her relationship with the actor Carrado Pani who was married, though separated from his wife, became known. She was banned from state television RAI. Nevertheless she scored top five hits with Stessa spiaggia, stesso mare in late 1963 and Città vuota, a cover of Gene McDaniels’

It’s a lonely town, in early 1964.

Eventually, RAI relented and lifted its ban, and

Mina returned to the public’s television screens

performing È l’uomo per me, a cover of He

walks like a man, an American non-hit for Jody

Miller, which Mina took to the top of the charts

later that year and became the biggest-selling

single of 1964 in Italy. Its success prompted

her record company to launch her in Spain

singing Spanish versions of these songs.

In 1965 she presented the music television

programme Studio uno and topped the

charts in April with the excellent moody

Un anno d’amore, a cover of French

singer Nino Ferrer’s C’est irreparable. Even the

B-side, the more traditional E se domani,

charted in its own right and has gone on to

become considered something of a classic.

She scored several further top 20 hits that year, with Soli, Un bacio è troppo poco and Ora o mai più.

Top ten hits continued throughout 1966 and 1967 – with standout songs including Se telefonando in April 1966, Sono come tu mi vuoi in October 1966, and La banda, a cover of a Brazilian hit for Chico Buarque da Hollanda, in August 1967. (France Gall enjoyed a big German hit with a German-language version of the song, as A banda.)

However, by this time Mina’s records weren’t reaching the top ten with the same frequency as they had before, and it was another three years until she topped the charts again, this time with Insieme, in August 1970.

She went on to score hits throughout the 1970s, the occasional hit in the 1980s and 90s, before making a huge chart comeback in 2002.