One of the true Italian music legends Milva has passed away. Besides her immense international career she also holds the record of Sanremo festival presences: 15. No other artist, male or female, has done 15 festivals solo. She also holds the record of consecutive participations: 9 (from 1961 to 1969. Her last participation was in 2007.
Born Maria Ilva Biolcati in summer 1939 she won a contest organized by Rai in 1959 for new voices and the rest is history in Italian pop, German schlager and French chanson. Add theater, films, television, Brecht, Morricone, Battiato, Theodorakis, Vangelis....
She has recorded and releases a total of 173 albums, another record for an Italian artist, in various languages when counting studio (35), live and various compilations.
She met success especially in Germany but also France, Japan, South Korea and Latin America.
To this blogger personally she's known thanks to her collaborations with Franco Battiato, and obviously Sanremo. of those entries my favorite remains this one from 1990, Sono felice.
I do hope she's now happy, apparently her last years haven't been so kind to her as she had Alzheimer. She said goodbye to her career in public in 2013 with exception in July 2019 with an interview with Corriere della sera in occasion of her 80th birthday, and an appearance in Covid-19 related Dario Gay's video clip in May 2020.
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