Bella ciao


"Bella ciao" is an Italian protest folk song that originated in the hardships of the mondina women, the paddy field workers in the late 19th century who sang it to protest against harsh working conditions in the paddy fields of North Italy. The song was modified and adopted as an anthem of the anti-fascist resistance by the Italian partisans between 1943 and 1945 during the Italian Resistance, the resistance of Italian partisans against the Nazi German forces occupying Italy, and, during the Italian Civil War, the Italian partisan struggle against the fascist Italian Social Republic and its Nazi German allies. Versions of "Bella ciao" are sung worldwide as an anti-fascist hymn of freedom and resistance.

History

"Bella Ciao" was originally sung as "Alla mattina appena alzata" by seasonal workers of paddy fields of rice, especially in Italy's Po Valley from the late 19th century to the first half of the 20th century with different lyrics. They worked at the rice fields in northern Italy, to help the healthy growth of young rice plants. It took place during the flooding of the fields, from the end of April to the beginning of June every year, during which the delicate shoots needed to be protected, during the first stages of their development, from temperature differences between the day and the night. It consisted of two phases: transplanting the plants and pruning the weeds.
Monda was an extremely tiring task, carried out mostly by women known as mondinas, from the poorest social classes. They would spend their workdays with their bare feet in water up to their knees, and their back bent for many hours. The atrocious working conditions, long hours and very low pay led to constant dissatisfaction and led, at times, to rebellious movements and riots in the early years of the twentieth century. The struggles against the supervising padroni was even harder, with plenty of clandestine workers ready to compromise even further the already low wages just to get work. Besides "Bella ciao", similar songs by the mondina women included ":it:Sciur padrun da li beli braghi bianchi|Sciur padrun da li beli braghi bianchi and ":it:Se otto ore vi sembran poche|Se otto ore vi sembran poche.
Other similar versions of the antecedents of "Bella ciao" appeared over the years, indicating that "Alla mattina appena alzata" must have been composed in the latter half of the 19th century. The earliest written version is dated 1906 and comes from near Vercelli, Piedmont.
"Bella ciao" was revived by the anti-fascist resistance movement in Italy between 1943 and 1945, with modified lyrics. The author of the lyrics is unknown.
In 2015, the song was banned in some municipalities of Northern Italy, ruled by the right-wing League.

Melody

Italian folksinger Giovanna Daffini recorded the song in 1962. The music is in quadruple meter.

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Lyrics

Mondine version

Partisan version

Recordings

One of the most famous recordings is that of the Italian folk singer Giovanna Daffini who recorded both the mondina and the partisan versions. It appears in her 1975 album Amore mio non-piangere. Many artists have recorded the song, including Herbert Pagani, Mary Hopkin, Sandie Shaw, and Manu Chao.
In addition to the original Italian, the song has been recorded by various artists in many different languages, including Albanian, Arabic, Belarusian, Bosnian, Breton, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, English, Esperanto, Finnish, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Hebrew, Japanese, Kashmiri, Kurdish, Persian, Macedonian, Malayalam, Norwegian, Occitan, Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish, Syriac, Swedish, Tagalog, Telugu, Thai, Tibetan, Turkish, and Ukrainian.
As an internationally known hymn of freedom, it was intoned at many historic and revolutionary events. The song originally aligned itself with Italian partisans fighting against Nazi German occupation troops, but has since become to merely stand for the inherent rights of all people to be liberated from tyranny.

Renewed popularity

In 2017 and 2018, the song received renewed popularity due to the singing of "Bella ciao" multiple times in the Spanish television series Money Heist. The character Tokyo recounts in one of her narrations, "The life of the Professor revolved around a single idea: Resistance. His grandfather, who had fought against the fascists in Italy, taught him the song and he taught us." The song is played in emblematic moments in the series as a metaphor for freedom. The part 2 finale is also titled "Bella ciao."
As a result of the popularity of the series, there was a flood of music releases in 2018:
In 2012, the melody of "Bella ciao" has also been adopted with adapted lyrics as a worldwide environmental activist song, demanding political action against global warming.
The melody is often used as a football chant by Italian ultras groups of Cosenza Calcio, A.S. Livorno and also outside of Italy by A.E.K., Portland Timbers, Motherwell, Aris Thessaloniki, Panathinaikos F.C. and FC Zürich fans.
In April 2018, supporters from the Portuguese soccer club F.C. Porto adapted the song with the lyrics "Penta Xau", referring to the lost opportunity by rival club S.L. Benfica to win a fifth national championship in a row, a feat only F.C. Porto has achieved in the country.
The song was also adapted by Brazilian fans during World Cup 2018 to tease and taunt Argentina about their possible exit in the first round, which eventually did not occur, with references to Argentine players Di María, Mascherano, and Messi.
The song was the inspiration for the #EleNão movement against extreme right wing Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro.
The song was adapted by people in Colombia, who in 2019, participated in nationwide protests against the government.
In March 2020, the song once again gained international attention after Europeans and Italians in lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic in Italy and Europe sang "Bella ciao" from the balconies of their housing complexes.
As of 2020, the Chinese version of the song has been often used to accompany videos showing Uyghurs in state-run concentration camps or in forced labour that are uploaded to Douyin, the Chinese version of the TikTok app.

Filmography

"Bella Ciao" has been used many times in soundtracks of films. Examples include: