In search of the last Italian female pop singers
Italians always have a good taste of music. Like the french, they are independent and don’t need to sing in English to have listeners. Started from early 30s Italy has a huge influence on Europe’s pop culture. Their female swing solo artists, duos and trios were even in competition with US giants such as Maxine Sullivan, Edythe Wright, and Mahalia Jackson. There’s a story about Lescano Trio, which music was admired by Nazis during WWII, and they started to perform in jails. In 2010 RAI television released a TV movie about that phenomena.
So it was in the late 30s. Later in the 50s, 60s many great female singers held these high positions and finally the Italian disco scene of 70–80s — rhythmic hits of Donatella Rettore, Raffaella Carra and many others gave a peak to Italian music and are still being listened/covered.
This was a little report from the past. What we have now? Started from the 90s Italian female music has a recession. I mean the mood and lyrics of the songs. Instead of joyful rhythms, there’re blues and sadness, instead of easy lyrics, there’re thoughts about love and its consequences.
But we should always have hope. That’s why I went to dig down into the bowels of the internet. Everything was started from the Italian movie called “L’ora legale”. There’s a song that became the main cause and inspiration of this article — “Democrazia”.
It was an ordinary cover of Arisa’s song, specially made for this movie. But the original song was really genius and also was exactly what I wanted. So I started to listen to other songs from Arisa. Almost 90 percent of them were a medley of sadness and broken hearts, but they’re such songs that I liked. (I’ll list them at the end of this article.) Later YouTube started to give me recommendations, I’ve listened to them all.
So there’re two possible ways — cheap and elegant. The cheap way is the artists such as Betta Lemme, Luna, Anna Tatangelo or Baby K, who copies/localize the western style and makes money. I think we’re mostly interested in another group — the last Italian female pop artists (true artists). Here’s the promised list of what I’ve found so far and by which direction to go.
Arisa — Malamorenò
Arisa — Te Lo Volevo Dire
Arisa — Quando c’erano le lire
Arisa — Nel regno di chissà che c’è
Arisa — L’Uomo Che Non C’è
Celeste Gaia — Carlo
Giorgia — Credo
Giorgia — La mia stanza
Elodie, Michele Bravi, Guè Pequeno — Nero Bali
Elodie — Verrà Da Sé
Francesca Michielin — L’amore esiste
Francesca Michielin — Vulcano
Le Deva — Grazie a te
Malika Ayane — Senza Fare Sul Serio
