Bella ciao

An Italian partisan in Florence, 1944

"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.[1] They worked at monda (weeding) 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, at times, to rebellious movements and riots in the early years of the 20th century.[2] 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 "Sciur padrun da li beli braghi bianchi" and "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.[3] The earliest written version is dated 1906 and comes from near Vercelli, Piedmont.[4]

"Bella ciao" was revived by the anti-fascist resistance movement in Italy between 1943 and 1945, with modified lyrics.[5] The author of the lyrics is unknown.

Italian folksinger Giovanna Daffini recorded the song in 1962.[6] The music is in quadruple meter.

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.

• 1964: Yves Montand as a single[9]
• 1965: Milva as a single taken from her album Canti della libertà
• 1965: I Marcellos Ferial from their first album
• 1975: Giovanna Daffini in her album Amore mio non piangere
• 1975: Leslie Fish, as ‘'It’s Sister Jenny’s Turn to Throw the Bomb'[10]
• 1989: Savage Rose on the album Ild og frihed
• 1993: Modena City Ramblers on the album Combat Folk[11]
• 1993: Banda Bassotti on the album Gridalo Forte Records [12]
• 1995: Thomas Fersen on the album Les Ronds de carotte[13]
• 2001: Red Army Choir on the album The Definitive Collection[14]
• 2005: Diego Moreno on the album Venceremos[15]
• 2010: Talco on the album Combat Circus[16]
• 2011: Boulevard des airs on their album Paris-Buenos Aires
• 2012: Goran Bregović on the album Champagne For Gypsies[17]
• 2016: David Guido Pietroni produced a Balkan version on the single ”La resistencia roja"
• 2018: Marc Ribot and Tom Waits on the album 'Songs of Resistance 1942 - 2018' by Marc Ribot[18]
• 2018: Hardwell and Maddix released a big room version
• 2019: DJ Oetzi melody only with rewritten lyrics in controversial approach
• 2019: Amparo Sánchez and Juan Pinilla released a Flamenca interpretation for the congress of the European Left[19]
• 2020: Diego Moreno on the album Singoli[20]

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,[21] Malayalam, Norwegian, Occitan, Punjabi, Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish, Syriac, Swedish, Tagalog, Telugu, Thai, Tibetan, Turkish, and Ukrainian.[22]

• Azerbaijani Soviet singer Muslim Magomayev performed the song at some of his concerts and he stated that it was Brezhnev's favorite by him.[23][24]
• The Chinese version of the song featured in the Chinese translation of the Yugoslavian film The Bridge.
• A rewritten version of the song can be heard on Chumbawamba's acoustic album A Singsong and a Scrap.
• Another version of the song was recorded by the punk rock band Dog Faced Hermans[25] on their album, Every Day Time Bomb.
• Former Yugoslav punk rock bands KUD Idijoti and later Goblini recorded their versions of the track.
• Hungarian punk rock band Aurora has performed the song.
• Folk musician Leslie Fish has written and performed several versions of the song, one of which can be found on the album Smoked Fish.
• Folk artist Mirah lent her voice to this song on her 2004 album, To All We Stretch the Open Arm.
• Anita Lane recorded a version in English for her 2001 album, Sex O'Clock.
• Breton folk punk band Les Ramoneurs de menhirs recorded a version in Breton and French but called it "BellARB".
• Danish psychedelic rock group Savage Rose have recorded a version of this song on the albums En Vugge Af Stål from 1982 and Ild Og Frihed (1989).
• San Francisco punk band La Plebe perform "Bella Ciao" on their album, Brazo en Brazo.
• French-born musician of Spanish origin Manu Chao has also recorded a version of the song.
• Singer Ciwan Haco has included the song in his album Çaw Bella 1989 – Bochum – Germany.[26]
• Music band Koma Dengê Azadî has also included the song with a different style in their album Çaw Bella 1991 – Istanbul – Turkey. The song was revived during ISIS attack on Kobane 2014.[27]
• The tune has been used in the song "Pilla Chao" from the 2011 Telugu language film Businessman, composed by S. Thaman and also dubbed as "Penne Chaavu" in the Malayalam version of the same film.[28]
• The 2013 Hindi language film Besharam starring Ranbir Kapoor uses the tune in the song "Love Ki Ghanti."[28]
• Italian ska punk band Talco recorded the song on their 2006 album Combat Circus.
• German Liedermacher Hannes Wader recorded a German version on Wader, Hannes (1977). Hannes Wader singt Arbeiterlieder [sings workers' songs] (in German). Mercury.
• Konstantin Wecker and Hannes Wader performed it live on their collaboration album Was für eine Nacht.
• Turkish band Grup Yorum have recorded a Turkish translation of the song on their 1988 album Haziranda Ölmek Zor / Berivan.[29]
• Turkish band Bandista has recorded a Turkish version, "Hoşçakal", on their album Daima!, in 2011.[30]
• Bosnian musician Goran Bregović has recorded one version on his album Champagne for Gypsies (2012).[31]
• German folk duo Zupfgeigenhansel recorded a free adaptation on their 1982 album Miteinander[32] that, instead of glorifying the death of the partisan, paints him as a reluctant anti-hero who is scared and despises war, but feels he has no other choice because of the atrocities he has seen.[33]
• Thai anti-fascism band, "Faiyen" (ไฟเย็น, "Cold Flame") recorded a Thai version of the song called "Plodploy Plianplaeng" (Thai: ปลดปล่อย เปลี่ยนแปลง, "Liberate and Change").[34] It has been used by the Red Shirts anti-fascism group since 2011.
• Spanish punk rock band Boikot recorded a modified version in Spanish.
• An a cappela version was recorded by the Swingle Singers in 1991 on their album "Folk Music Around The World"[35]
• Belarusian folk punk band Dzieciuki recorded a modified version in Belarusian under the name "Трымайся, браце!" ("Hold fast, brother!").
• Syriac (Aramaic) version created by Beith Souryoye Morounoye under the name "foosh bashlom (Bella ciao)".[36]
• Patric recorded Bèla Ciaò, a version in Occitan for his 2010 album, Colors.
• Mike Singer recorded an Electro dance version in June 2018.
• In August 2018, Škampi na Žaru, an occasional musical project of Slovak Radio Expres, published the song with Slovak lyrics.[37]
• Hardwell and Maddix released an EDM version of the song in 2018.
• American DJ Steve Aoki and Marnik also made an EDM version in 2018.
• Marc Ribot collaborated with Tom Waits to create their own version for 2018. It is the first song Tom Waits has done in 2 years. This appears on the Marc Ribot album Songs of Resistance 1942–2018.
• Algerian artist, Chibane recorded a swing jazz version with Italian and Algerian lyrics during a live studio session in 2018.[38]
• In 2019, Extinction Rebellion modified the text to suit their mission and named their new version "Rebella Ciao".
• In 2019, Spanish singer Najwa released her take on the Spanish version of the song, that later served as the music in the ending credits of the fourth season of Money Heist (in which she plays Alicia Sierra).
• In September 2019, Lebanese singer Shiraz released her remixed version of the song that topped the Lebanese Singles Chart.
• On 12 January 2020, Czech folk band Nahoře published the version of the song with Czech lyrics.[39]
• On 24 April 2020, musicians Dragan Spasov - Dac and Aleksandar Mitevski (known as “Dac & Aleksandar“) from North Macedonia released a cover version of the song in Macedonian, named “Corona, ciao”, with lyrics about the coronavirus. Within three days since its release, the video clip of the song (filmed on mobile phones) had generated 922,000 views on YouTube,.[40] A day later a video clip of the Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov listening to the song, while driving his car was shared on his official Facebook page and in the first 48 hours generated more than 12,000 likes, 3,800 comments, and 4,500 shares.[41]
• On 17 May 2020 Russian folk-punk Arkadiy Kots Band released new Russian version together with Italian musicians Enza Pagliare and Dario Muci as a part of Transeuropean Partisan Jam project [42]
• On 3 July 2020 DJ Frenzy released a version titled BHANGRA HEIST (Bella Ciao),[43] a fusion between Punjabi folk music and Bhangra.
• On 17 December 2020, with the rise of Farmers Protest in India, Poojan Sahil, made a rendition (not translation) of Bella Ciao in Punjabi strengthening the voice of unity against the fascist trends in India.[44][45]

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.[46][47]

• "Bandiera Rossa" – another Italian revolutionary song
• "Fischia il vento" – another song associated with the Italian partisans

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Bella ciao

• Text of "Bella ciao" in 50 languages, with commentaries