Mia Martini

Mia Martini was born Domenica Rita Adriana Bertè on 20 September 1947 in Bagnara Calabra, Reggio Calabria, the second of four daughters. Her father taught Latin and Greek, and her mother was an elementary school teacher. Nicknamed "Mimì," she grew up in Porto Recanati, Marche, and showed an early interest in music, performing at parties and entering song contests. In 1962, she convinced her mother to take her to Milan for an audition.

The beginnings as Mimì Bertè

Producer Carlo Alberto Rossi launched her as a yé-yé girl. She recorded her first song in 1963 and won the Bellaria Festival in 1964 with "Come puoi farlo tu." After her parents split, she moved to Rome with her mother and sisters. In 1969, she served four months in prison in Sardinia for possessing a marijuana cigarette—then a strictly prosecutable crime. A meeting with producer Alberigo Crocetta proved decisive.

1970s

He created her stage name: "Mia" after actress Mia Farrow, and "Martini" as one of the most recognized Italian words abroad. Her debut album, Oltre la collina, featuring "Padre davvero," is considered one of the best Italian albums by a female artist. Hits like "Piccolo uomo," "Donna sola," "Minuetto," "Inno," "Al mondo," "Che vuoi che sia se t'ho aspettato tanto," "Per amarti," and "La costruzione di un amore" made her one of the most popular Italian artists of the 1970s. She remains the only female artist to win the Festivalbar twice consecutively, in 1972 and 1973.

In the late 1970s, two important encounters occurred: a musical collaboration with Charles Aznavour, and an artistic and sentimental partnership with singer-songwriter Ivano Fossati. At the 1982 Sanremo Music Festival, she sang Fossati's "E non finisce mica il cielo" and received the Critics Award, created specifically for her.

After her death in 1995, that award was renamed the "Mia Martini" Critics Award. In 1983, she was forced to leave the music industry because colleagues and the music sector considered her a bringer of bad luck, barring her from events, shows, and concerts. This exile lasted seven years.

She returned to Sanremo in 1989 with "Almeno tu nell'universo," which brought renewed success. Later hits included "Gli uomini non cambiano," "