Name: Maria Ilva (Milva)

Surname: Biolcati

Milva, pseudonym of Maria Ilva Biolcati (Goro, July 17, 1939 - Milan, April 23, 2021), was an Italian theater singer and actress.
She was endowed with a very ductile contralto voice, capable of peculiar timbral sounds, as well as a solid vibrato and a precise and very personal melisma, she was nicknamed the Panther of Goro; she was in fact one of the protagonists of Italian music in the sixties and seventies, together with Ornella Vanoni, Patty Pravo, Mia Martini, Mina (the Tiger of Cremona), Iva Zanicchi (L'Aquila di Ligonchio) and Orietta Berti (the Nightingale of Cavriago). Very popular in Italy and Germany, it has trod the largest stages in the world, from the Scala to the Piccolo Teatro in Milan from the Châtelet to the Opéra in Paris and from the Schauspielhaus in Zurich to the Konzerthaus in Berlin, from the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam to the Suntory Hall in Tokyo. , up to Carnegie Hall in New York. You have also successfully released records in France, Japan, South Korea, Greece, Spain, Russia, Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Uruguay, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Austria, Portugal, Yugoslavia, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United States. In total, she has sold over 80 million records worldwide. To date she holds the record as an Italian artist with the highest number of albums ever made: 173 between studio albums, live albums and collections, of which 39 for the Italian market alone and 126 singles. Her repertoire ranged between very different genres: in fact, she is one of the few Italian singers to have worked both in the world of pop music and in the busy theater of Brecht and Strehler. Her artistic stature has been officially recognized by the Italian, French and German Republics, which have bestowed on her some of the highest honors; Milva was in fact: Officer of the Ordre des arts et des lettres (order conferred on her in 1995), Officer of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (conferred on her in 2006), Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (conferred on her in 2007) and Knight of the Legion of Honor of the French Republic (awarded in 2009). Due to the color of her hair she was also known as La Rossa (title of a famous song written for her by Enzo Jannacci, to whom she dedicated her 1980 album La Rossa); her color also characterized her leftist political faith, claimed on numerous occasions. Among Milva's numerous successes it is worth mentioning: Milord (Italian cover of the homonymous song by Édith Piaf, to which the singer dedicated an entire LP); La filanda, cover of the song É ou não é by the fado singer Amália Rodrigues; Alexander Platz, by Franco Battiato, Giusto Pio and Alfredo Cohen; Song, by Don Backy, presented at the 1968 Sanremo Festival, where she finished third; For too long, one of the most representative and famous interpretations of her, later translated (like other pieces of Milva's repertoire) also into Japanese.

Autograph type: Autograph on postcard