She was born in Goro, province of Ferrara.
In 1959 Milva won a contest for new voices, and was named the overall winner from more than seven thousand participants. In 1960 she recorded her first 7" single with Cetra records: Édith Piaf's song "Milord". Her real debut was on the stage of the Sanremo Music Festival in 1961, where she took third place. She competed many times at the Festival (14 times in total, the last time in 1993). The highest position she has reached is second place in 1962, but she has never won to date.
In 1965, a fortunate meeting led to a definitiive change in her career: Italo-German actor, dramatist and director Giorgo Strehler helped to develop her skills in staging and singing in Italian theatres (especially the Piccolo Teatro in Milan) and she began to perform a more committed repertoire (songs of Italian resistance movement, songs from Bertold Brecht's pieces, etc.). In the following years she alternated success in singing (especially in Germany where she won platinum and gold records for top sales) and success in theatre, where a remarkable 1973 edition of The Threepenny Opera met with success all over Europe.
In 1962 Milva was the first singer to successfully sing Édith Piaf's repertoire at the prestigious Olympia theatre in Paris. In 1983 she performed again and again received a real ovation by the public and the French press, very surprised how a non-French artist could interpret with such a feeling and energy the songs of their most beloved French singer.
She was a highly eclectic artist, performing everything from pop music to opera (with Luciano Berio), from comedy theatre to committed theatre (she is the first non-German actress to achieve a huge success in Bertold Brecht plays, putting in a shadow the former actresses of the same roles), TV shows (Al Paradise in 1981 won the Rose d'Or at the Montreaux Festival) and musicals. She also occasionally appeared in some Italian movies of the 1960s, like The beautiful Ippolita with Gina Lollobrigida.
Her singing career has become more complex and various year by year, thanks to the collaboration with some of the most talented composers and musician in European scene: Ennio Morricone in 1965, Francis Lai in 1973, Mikis Theodorakis in 1978 (Was ich denke best selling album in Germany), Enzo Jannacci in 1980, Vangelis in 1981 and 1986, Franco Battiato in 1982 and 1986.
Her theatre career has also gone from success to success, touring the world's most prestigious theatres with Bertold Brecht's recitals and Luciano Berio's operas. She has performed in La Scala in Milan, in the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, in Paris Opera, in Royal Albert Hall in London, at the Los Angeles Olympic Games, at the Edinburgh Festival, and many others.
In 1984 she performed (with Ástor Piazzolla) the show El tango in the Les Bouffes du Nort Theatre in Paris. This was just the beginning of an important new collaboration, interpreting the tangos of revolutionary Piazzolla all over the world.
In the 1990s her mentor Giorgio Strehler died. She temporarily reduced her theatre activity and focused on music only. She received new inspiration collaborating with Thanos Mikroutsikos, James Last and Shinji Tanimura. She performed her tour number 14 in Japan.
In 2004 her last CD and tour was dedicated to set to music of the poetry of Milan poetress Alda Merini.
She had a relationship with actor Luigi Pistilli the ending of which contributed to his suicide.
She had a daughter named Martina, born after the marriage with Maurizio Corgnati in the early 1960s.
La Cumparsita
Milva Lyrics
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Non smette mai di tormentarmi
E so che non potrò fermarlo mai
Perché l'ho dentro al cuore
Questo tango suona sempre
E sempre io lo ascolterò
Sempre ovunque andrò
Perché mi parla di noi
Tu lo sai
Che penso a te
Rivedo te
Sentendo questo tango
Il tango che ballavo
Felice insieme a te
Ogni volta che lo sento
Io ripenso al nostro amore
Adesso tu non sei più qui
E so che non ritornerai
Ma questo tango ti terrà
Legato a me
So che anche tu
Sentendo questo tango
Non puoi scordare i giorni
Trascorsi insieme a me
The Italian lyrics of Milva's song "La Cumparsita" describe the intense and everlasting power of a tango. The song implies that the haunting melody continues to play and affect the singer, even though she can never stop it because it resides in her heart. She acknowledges that she will always listen to it because the tango speaks to her about the memories of her former relationship. The singer explicitly addresses her ex-partner by saying, "You know that I think of you, and I see you again while listening to this tango; the tango we danced happily together." Milva's deep voice and the slow tempo of the song emphasize the pain and nostalgia that the melody evokes, concerning the lost love.
The lyrics portray the interconnection between music and love as both are intangible and universal. Although the song is in Italian, "La Cumparsita" is actually an instrumental tango composition written in 1916 by Argentine musician Gerardo Matos Rodríguez. The melody is one of the most recorded and iconic tangos worldwide, symbolizing Argentina's artistic and cultural heritage. Its popularity made it a significant symbol of the golden age of tango, and it reached an unprecedented level of fame when it was played as part of the tribute for the victims of the Titanic. This song represents another way of communicating the unsaid, unexplainable feelings that we have for loved ones, making it a timeless piece of art.
Line by Line Meaning
Questo tango suona sempre
This tango plays incessantly
Non smette mai di tormentarmi
It never stops tormenting me
E so che non potrò fermarlo mai
And I know I'll never be able to stop it
Perché l'ho dentro al cuore
Because it's inside my heart
E sempre io lo ascolterò
And I will always listen to it
Sempre ovunque andrò
Always, wherever I go
Anche se non vorrò
Even if I don't want to
Perché mi parla di noi
Because it speaks to me of us
Tu lo sai
You know
Che penso a te
That I'm thinking of you
Rivedo te
I can see you again
Sentendo questo tango
Hearing this tango
Il tango che ballavo
The tango we danced
Felice insieme a te
Happy together with you
Ogni volta che lo sento
Every time I hear it
Io ripenso al nostro amore
I think back to our love
Adesso tu non sei più qui
Now you're not here anymore
E so che non ritornerai
And I know you won't come back
Ma questo tango ti terrà
But this tango will keep you
Legato a me
Tied to me
So che anche tu
I know that even you
Sentendo questo tango
Hearing this tango
Non puoi scordare i giorni
Can't forget the days
Trascorsi insieme a me
Spent together with me
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Peermusic Publishing, RESERVOIR MEDIA MANAGEMENT INC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Gerardo Hernan Matos Rodriguez, Pascual Contursi, Enrique Pedro Maroni
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind