Learn Italian with Italian music

In this article you will find a link to my Italian Spotify playlist. I want to tell you something about the Italian musicians I listen to a lot. Because these are classics that are not well known in the Netherlands, but are fun to get to know. In addition, I would like to tell you something about the possibilities of learning Italian yourself or improving your Italian through music.

Italian artists you should get to know

is really nice Mina Mazzini. Mina was a controversial singer in the 50s. A free-spirited woman who had only one child. That caused quite a stir, but because she was so loved as a musician, it helped the political climate for single mothers. She is very expressive. The song If phoning is a good song if you like the subjunctive are learning.

I really enjoy watching movies from those years. In black and white and of a natural beauty. Not as loud and intrusive as many artists today.

Ornella Vanoni is a singer of the same generation with a bit of the same style, but a little more modest. My favorite songs are l'Appuntamento en I'm not with you anymore.

I also want to introduce you to Rita Pavone, also performed in the 60s. She's a bit of a tomboy, but that really has its charm. Not all her songs are equally good. You have to really love the song of life to appreciate it. I am certainly not averse to melancholy, but I sometimes find real sentimentality just kitsch. I keep looking for it a bit in the songs with a slightly higher tempo, in order to avoid the life song.

Rita Pavone seems a bit of a nervous girl. The lyrics of the song give me a hammer is quite shocking. She wants to slap everyone she doesn't like with it. In the clip she walks around with the hammer. Cozy, but a bit unstable.

The clip is also special Partita a pallone. In it she pretends to be a little girl who wants to go to football with her boyfriend, at least she doesn't want him to go to the football and leave her at home.

She also has many songs in which her mother plays a role and she plays a child. Maybe men found that attractive at the time. Could they really feel like a man, with a woman/girl to take care of. Or am I exaggerating now?

In many clips she wears the same dress with tie. Also a wonderful combination. The song Il Geghege is fun again. The clip is also beautiful, especially for that time. Done with great care.

Gino Paoli is a well-known singer-songwriter. He made well-known interpretations of 'world famous' songs in Italy such as The sky in a room en What's up. A song that has been covered a lot, for example by Carla Bruni, the whisper girl who is married to Nicholas Sarkozy, former president of France.

Gino Paoli also worked a lot with other famous Italian artists for duets. He has beautiful calm songs with poetic lyrics. Today he is an old Italian grandfather.

An overview of all classics can also be found on the website Canzone Italiana. Definitely a nice place to get lost and improve your knowledge of Italian while getting to know the Italian culture better.

This is beautiful too extensive article on the website Lenius where the history of Italy is told through songs. In Italian yes, so good luck!

The best songs to learn Italian

Learning through music has many benefits. Mainly because it's fun. You are working on music that makes you happy and you forget that you are working on Italian in the meantime. Learn a song by heart and sing along.

You can find the lyrics of songs by typing in your favorite search engine the name of the song + the word lyrics of text. The first time you hear and read the song, don't try to sing along, just try to absorb the words.

Look at how you write something, how something sounds, look at the global meaning. Then try singing along with the lyrics in front of you. And again, and again. Until you know the song by heart.

I myself have made exercises by making so-called 'cloze tests'. You then listen to a song while having the lyrics in front of you. I made holes in that text. In the blanks, the student must then fill in the word he/she thinks he/she hears. I often use the Italian classics that are in the Dutch top 2000.

Take a look at the song for example Strani Amori by Laura Pausini.

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Note: songs are always poetic lyrics that are very difficult to translate, if not impossible. I made a translation here anyway, but only to convey an impression of the song's message and to help decipher the blanks.

More tips for learning Italian musically

Italian textbooks have also been released where you can practice the language through music. So appeared Espresso Canonni from publisher Alma Edizioni. I think it would be a lot of fun to use this in class. You can then listen to Eros Ramazzotti and meanwhile the periodo ipotetico practice (B1) or to Laura Pausini's Loneliness listen while practicing 'ci' and 'ne'. There are exercises and songs on 3 levels : A1, A2 and B1.

There is also the book Nuovo Canta che ti passa : a somewhat older textbook that uses music as a means to practice the language.

I also have a booklet for children with a CD with songs, but those are really more rhymes / songs for toddlers that children find childish by the time they can read (get to know me those kids)

More fun for kids than the Italian children's songs for children, (Zecchino d'Oro) which you can find on my YouTube playlist.

Op this website you will also find exercises for adults that belong to 100 Italian songs. Also classified by level, so that you can practice in an appropriate way.

You can also listen to Italian hits on Italy.fm.

What is your favorite Italian sing-along?