Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Ennio Morricone was best known for his unforgettable movie soundtracks. In fact his music was featured in over sixty prize-winning films.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
The great Eros Ramazzotti sings Un'altra te (another you) written together with Piero Cassano and Adelio Cogliati. Italian actress Francesca Neri features in the video.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Fai rumore (you make noise) was written and performed by Italian singer-songwriter Diodato. He's trying to make some sense out of his life.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
This single, Vento sulla Luna (wind on the moon) provides plenty of expressions and modi di dire (ways of saying things) to boost your vocabulary. It was written and is performed by Italian singer-songwriter Annalisa in collaboration with Rkomi.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Two very important question words dove (where ) and quando (when) dominate this romantic summer song. This song is very ballabile (danceable) making it a very popular summer hit. From the Italian band, Benji & Fede.
Difficulty:
Beginner
Italy
L'Italiano (The Italian) was recorded by Toto Cutugno in 1983 and presented at the 33rd Sanremo Festival, where it didn't win. That didn't stop it from becoming a top hit and one of Italy's best-loved songs.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
In honor of Mother's Day, celebrated in May in Italy, here's a classic Italian song, Mamma, performed by Luciano Pavarotti.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
This is the famous aria for tenor from Puccini's Turandot, sung here by the legendary Luciano Pavarotti. Nessun is short for nessuno (no one) and dorma is the third person subjunctive of the verb dormire (to sleep) used as an imperative for the herald to proclaim that no one in the city may sleep.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Samuele Bersani relives the past when he was still a pre-teen, starting to have secret thoughts. The video contains plenty of illustrations of the words he is singing.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Ferzan Özpetek directed this video of images from his movie La Dea Fortuna, for which the song "Luna Diamante" (diamond moon) is part of the soundtrack. The song was written by Ivano Fossati and sung by Mina.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
There are various interpretations of this famous song sung by Mina. What or whom does il corvo (the crow) represent? A judge? A priest? An agent? Whoever is seen as an ugly black crow has the power but lacks wisdom.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
The poignant text of this song was inspired by the singer-songwriter's experience as a volunteer in a mental institution in Rome and meant to create awareness of the reality of mental illness. It is sung from the point of view of someone who had been deemed insane and shut into a manicomio (insane asylum) for most of his life.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
This song, written by Ivano Fossati and sung by Loredana Bertè with her scratchy voice, has never lost its popularity with Italians.
Difficulty:
Beginner
Italy
In this song, a child is very proud of his father whose job it is, out of choice, to do all the housework. There's some great vocabulary for beginners.
Difficulty:
Beginner
Italy
Italians have a reputation for stressing out about catching a cold or a chill. Thus parents will oblige their kids to wear an undershirt when they go out, like it or not.
Difficulty:
Beginner
Italy
This song about the sounds animals make was a prize winner at the Zecchino d'Oro, a festival featuring children's songs. When it comes to crocodiles, there are things known about them, but not how they go.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
This song is full of images of what the seaside is like in the winter and how alone one can feel.
Difficulty:
Beginner
Italy
Massimo Ranieri has never stopped being popular in Italy. Here he sings a song about a man who thought he had found love, but then lost it.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Marco Mengoni was greatly influenced by Muhammad Ali, by his stand on religious and racial freedom, as well as by his physical and mental courage in the ring. This song makes the connection.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
La primavera (the spring) is traditionally the season for falling in love, but things don't always work out for the best. This famous song curses the spring in 8 rhythmic syllables: Maledetta primavera (damned spring).
Difficulty:
Adv-Intermediate
Italy
This is Italian singer-songwriter Jovanotti's ode to life, in the characteristic hip hop style he is known for. The video was shot in Rome in the places where Jovanotti grew up.
Difficulty:
Beginner
Italy
This song is one guy's RSVP to a wedding invitation from his ex-girlfriend. He feels he should explain why he is not going to attend. The refrain uses the tricky verb dimenticare (to forget) in three different ways, first as an infinitive: dimenticare, then with a direct object pronoun attached to it: dimenticarti (to forget you), and finally, as a reflexive verb (to forget) with its pronoun attached: dimenticarmi di te (to forget you).
Difficulty:
Beginner
Italy
Lucio Dalla and Francesco De Gregori perform the song that was originally titled “Gesù Bambino” [Christ Child] but was changed to Dalla's date of birth after censure from the Sanremo music festival.
Difficulty:
Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Måneskin is a band with four musicians who began playing together as students at the J.F. Kennedy High School in Rome. Their participation on X Factor brought about their phenomenal success. The band's name Måneskin means moonshine in Danish, and was a word that Victoria de Angelis, the bassist, knew from her Danish ancestry.
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