Italian singer Milva, in concert in Germany in 2000. – GEILERT / GAFF / SIPA
Famous Italian singer Maria Ilva Biocati, better known as Milva, has died at the age of 81, Italian media reported on Saturday citing her family.
Milva, ill for years, died Friday evening in Milan (north), her daughter told the Ansa agency. She had performed some of the greatest Italian song hits of the 1960s and 1970s and her red hair was known far beyond the borders of the peninsula.
“Milva was one of the most intense performers of Italian song. Her voice has aroused intense emotions in entire generations. A great Italian, an artist from her native land who has risen on the international stages ”, commented the Minister of Culture Dario Franceschini.
Controversies and rivalries
Born on July 17, 1939 in the village of Goro in Emilia-Romagna (North), Milva entered the artistic landscape of Italy on the occasion of the 1961 edition of the San Remo song festival, the great rendezvous of the transalpine song, where it was ranked third. In addition to her vocal qualities, the public also discovers the volcanic temperament of the one who was already nicknamed “the panther of Goro”.
The controversies, often resounding, accompanied a career that went far beyond Italian borders, her talent having been recognized in Latin America, Spain, France (where she has been compared to Edith Piaf) and especially in Germany, a country whose she learned the language.
Her rivalry with Mina, another icon of Italian song from the 1960s and 1970s, also marked a whole generation of Italians even if this artistic competition, which was blown up by the press, has always been denied by Milva herself.