Italy's It-Girl: Mina

Watching Mina’s music video Ancora ancora ancora for the first time, I remember me and my friend were laughing so hard to her gestures and the overly dramatic attitude without knowing any background story with the today’s perspective. Now the historic context in the back of my mind, her attitude in the video mean so much for me and I find it very iconic. 

Growing up as a rock’n’roll girl, Mina Anna Mazzini occupied the Italian music for fifteen years until now and her success is mostly by the dint of her TV appearances on RAI. Like the most of the Europe, in Italy, there were only the channels RAI and RAI2 until the 1960’s. RAI channels were and still are directly controlled by the parliament as public service broadcast. In 1961, Mina gained public recognition with the song Il cielo in una stanza which was featured in the musical movie, Io bacio… Tu Baci and eventually she became the co-host of the show Studio Uno on RAI. She performed several songs on Studio Uno and got more and more famous among Italy until 1963. In that particular year, Mina got pregnant by the actor Corrado Pani who was separated from his wife but still married, she refused to hide her affair and this caused to a scandal which led to her ban from RAI which is dominated by the catholic delegates in the parliament due to the moral excuses. After the ban, her career started to shatter, she couldn’t get her contract renewed. Her label betrayed her to avoid the political pressure. However, the public was already lured by her talent and unique charisma and due to the public demand RAI, invited her back to the program Studio Uno and she continued to ascend.

After the ban and the accusations that followed the ban, she embraced the role of it-girl which was given to her by the media and the political authorities. She shaved her eyebrows, made songs about love affairs, smoking and even the Satan, basically most of the taboos by then. In her song Sacumdi, Sacumda, she teases the religion by flirting with the Satan and in the video she carelessly dances in front of a fire. She knew who was against her and surely, the song was a statement, it was immediately banned. In her video for the song Viva Lei, it’s not hard to notice that she poses as a winner against the Italian State and her glances at the camera are much like a threatening. The man she was talking about in the song can be interpreted as Italians who were afraid of her courage once and tried to shut her down. She named one of her albums, Salomé referring to the character in the Bible with the same name who depicted as the most perverted person, full of worldly desires. In the cover of the album, she posed with a beard on.

She took part in Barilla’s Carosello’s and worked with lots of famous Italian directors and architects for the short video clips for these Carosello’s. Carosello is a commercial method in Italian TV to avoid the tough restrictions on TV ads. They presented the labels with short comedic sketches or music videos. In 1978, she got retired both from TV and live performances and secluded herself from the public. She still continues to produce music but doesn't serve any visual content. As an odd detail, Turkish star, Ajda Pekkan's almost all famous songs are covers of Mina. 

I find her struggle important because it demonstrates how it’s likely for the free market occupiers to win against the oppressive states. Mina got her support from the protestant Italian public who actually runs the country’s economy at any field and knows how to enjoy a sensual, talented lady who is free as men are. It's an instance on TV, but the same success can be achieved on any field. It's not possible to impose any 'ethics' on TV if no one watches it.

So that’s why, the video clip that I’ve mentioned at the beginning of this post, Ancora Ancora Ancora means a lot for me. The video was her last TV appearence in 1978. In the video she embraces the pervert role, the media and the political authority which I prefer to call as phallus, and in a way reproduces it proudly, being provocative and alluring. It’s the celebration of her victory, with the flirty, passionate attitude that gave her an authentic presence. This type of an image of a strong woman was really new to italian media by then and it made the public even more curious avbout her.