Mina

For some time I wanted to write a little essay about Mina - who is celebrating 70th birthday this year, so I might as well do it now.

Mina is italian pop goddess - there is no other word to describe this enigmatic and enormously talented & influential singer who had left huge mark on italian culture for five decades now. At first, she was a young rocker who brought new rebellious music into tradition known for sedate bel canto voices - if rockers were known as "screamers" Mina was the Queen of screamers - than in late 1960s she was the biggest star of TV variety shows, eclectic and versatile enough to spread her wings into more serious music. During 1970s Mina recorded some of the most beautiful LPs of her career and italian music in general , changed her image into icy,distant and elegant lady and suddenly decided to stop performing live concerts - from 1978 she creates music from her own studio in Switzerland, refuses live performances and releases albums annually that almost always top italian music charts. There is a whole industry of songwriters and album cover designers waiting at her door because Mina is also known as a talent scout and can recognize new potentials - she had recorded so many albums that they usually fill the wall of CD shops in Italy and it can be intimidating not knowing where to start.

Her 1960s period is the young,upbeat and cheerful one - "Tintarella di Luna" was her first rock hit and she had recorded a lot of bouncy, peppy music during this time. Together with Adriano Celentano, she was the symbol of glorious time in italian culture when italian music, movies,fashion and art were recognized internationally - italian actors were winning "Oscars", italian fashion became a big deal, italian music was IN. There were some long forgotten scandals (she got pregnant by a married man, got banned from TV, audience insisted she should come back) and some old black & white TV clips from that time showing Mina as full-fledged star singing everything from bossa nova to Puccini to current pop covers. If 1960s were frantic, they were good for her.

In early 1970s Mina hooked up with some of the best songwriters in Italian music ever - cheerful little ditties were long gone and from now on Mina focused on serious,melancholic ballads reinventing herself totally as a different artist: voice became much deeper, music and lyrics more demanding (poetic), her image glamourous and     refined. Clearly she grew up and luckily the audience grew up with her, rewarding her with huge million-selling hits like "Parole,parole", "Grande,grande,grande", "Amor mio" and my own favorite "Insieme"- this is just a top of an iceberg, because she really build a brilliant discography during this time.

From 1980s onwards Mina worked exclusively from her own recording studio. That means avalanche of studio albums, released every year and eagerly awaited. The best modern production and always new songwriters - it also means a certain music meandering because now Mina did what she wanted, a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Sometimes (quite often actually) these double LP albums could probably have been edited to make one good LP instead but the lady had such a loyal fan base that she could really do as she pleased, so she recorded whatever came to her mind, including tributes to The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, sacred music, jazz, traditional neapolitan folk and a multitude of covers that shows musical curiosity - she would cover Michael Jackson,Madonna or Patsy Cline on the same album, always avoiding to fall into category of nostalgia - where other 1960s artists have long stopped to be relevant, Mina continued in big style. Her son Massimiliano Pani became her producer during this time and for better or worse he is responsible for the way music sounds, some says maybe she would be better with somebody else - to me he appears as passionate about music as his mother and brave enough to experiment with unexpected.

If you ask me, for the last 20 years Mina has not really recorded anything spectacular - "Bula Bula" (2005.) was excellent  return to form but almost everything else was really kind of disappointing. I got already used to discover great Mina album and than several mildly interesting to follow - a curse of huge discography - the lady works hard all her life and its wonderful that she still wants to do it but sometimes I wonder why does she bother. Than I realize that she had long lost the interest in pop music as such and what she does is select music that sounds somehow deeper, poetic, more serious - the more you listen, the more beautiful it sounds. Her last album "Piccolino" is a perfect example - it sounds depressing at first and than slowly it starts to show all the nuances with each repeated listening. She is elderly lady now and of course the voice has changed with time, we can't expect the same sound as in 1970s - most of the time she sounds world-weary, heart broken and dead serious - but every now and than the old magic is back again and I marvel how good she sounds when she gets inspired. Give her a good song and she can still do wonders.

I salute you,Mina. Happy 70th birthday. There are not many people in your profession who continued to work with a passion, full heart and constant need for something new,like you do. I will continue to buy your albums because it's a never ending adventure and pleasure, sometimes it takes me longer to appreciate what you do, but it works,how it works. You are one of my all-time favorite music artists.