Mina Anna Mazzini (by marriage Quaini on the Swiss civil registry; born 25 March 1940), known mononymously as Mina, is an Italian singer and former actress. She was a staple of television variety shows and a dominant figure in Italian pop and rock and roll music from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s, known for her three-octave vocal range, the agility of her soprano voice, and her image as an emancipated woman. In performance, Mina combined several modern styles with traditional Italian melodies and swing music, which made her one of the most versatile pop singers in Italian music. With over 150 million records sold worldwide, she is the best-selling Italian musical artist as well as one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Mina dominated the country's charts for 15 years and reached an unsurpassed level of popularity. She has scored 79 albums and 71 singles on the Italian charts. Mina's TV appearances in 1959 were the first for a female rock and roll singer in Italy. Her loud, syncopated singing earned her the nickname "Queen of Screamers". The public also labelled her the "Tigress of Cremona", after her hometown and her wild gestures and body shakes. When she turned to light pop tunes, Mina's chart-toppers in West Germany in 1962 and Japan in 1964 earned her the title of the best international artist in these countries. Mina's more refined sensual manner was introduced in 1960 with Gino Paoli's ballad "Il cielo in una stanza", which charted on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1961 as "This World We Love In". Mina was banned from TV and radio in 1963 because her pregnancy from and relationship with married actor Corrado Pani did not accord with the dominant Catholic and bourgeois morals. After the ban, the public broadcasting service RAI tried to continue to prohibit her songs, which were forthright in dealing with subjects such as religion, smoking and sex. Mina's cool act combined sex appeal with public smoking, dyed blonde hair, and shaved eyebrows to create a "bad girl" image. She gave up public appearances in 1978, but has continued to release popular albums and musical projects on a yearly basis to the present day. Mina's voice has a distinctive timbre and great power. Her main themes are anguished love stories performed in high dramatic tones. The singer combined classic Italian pop with elements of blues, R&B and soul music during the late 1960s, especially when she worked in collaboration with the singer-songwriter Lucio Battisti. Top Italian songwriters created material with large vocal ranges and unusual chord progressions to showcase her singing skills, particularly "Brava" by Bruno Canfora (1965) and the pseudo-serial "Se telefonando" by Ennio Morricone (1966). The latter song was covered by several performers abroad. Shirley Bassey carried Mina's ballad "Grande grande grande" to the charts in the U.S., UK, and other English-speaking countries in 1973. Mina's easy listening duet "Parole parole" was turned into a worldwide hit by Dalida and Alain Delon in 1974. Her 1982 disco single "Morirò per te" entered in the Billboard Hot Dance/Disco Top 100.