Rachel Haworth is a researcher of Italian popular music and culture of the twentieth century. She is interested in questions of stardom, gender, performance, and value in the Italian pop music context, and has published books and articles on Italian singer-songwriters of the 1960s, celebrity scandals, and Italian variety television.

'[An] extremely well-researched and well-informed volume... The Many Meanings of Mina goes a long way towards showing why popular music and its key performers merit attention from scholars of cultural history and cultural studies.This book is organised in terms of chapters that reflect a keen methodological awareness and also a desire to connect the subject matter with current debates and themes of study within cultural studies. The topics of analysis, beyond music and cinema, are scandal, television stardom, Mina’s uses in advertising, her changing image on album covers and her absent–presence in present-day Italian culture. All of these are eminently transferable investigations. In consequence, the question that a potential reader of this book without a professional interest in Italy might have in mind – ‘Is this going to have anything to offer me?’ – can be resoundingly answered in the positive on account of the choice of themes and topics. The Many Meanings of Mina is a profoundly innovative and relevant book that deserves to command attention well beyond the confines of Italian studies.'

• List of FiguresAcknowledgementsIntroduction1. Signore, Signori, Mina!: Mina as Popstar in Post-War Italy2. Mina, Rock ‘n’ Roll, and the Sanremo Festival3. Mina and the Musicarelli4. Scandal, Tragedy, and Mina’s Star Image5. A Star of the Small Screen: Mina and RAI6. Mina as Carosello Star7. Picturing a Star: The Changing Face of Mina on Album and Single Covers8. Mina Today: The Ever-Present Absent StarConclusionBibliographyIndex

Rachel Haworth is a researcher of Italian popular music and culture of the twentieth century. She is interested in questions of stardom, gender, performance, and value in the Italian pop music context, and has published books and articles on Italian singer-songwriters of the 1960s, celebrity scandals, and Italian variety television.

'[An] extremely well-researched and well-informed volume... The Many Meanings of Mina goes a long way towards showing why popular music and its key performers merit attention from scholars of cultural history and cultural studies.This book is organised in terms of chapters that reflect a keen methodological awareness and also a desire to connect the subject matter with current debates and themes of study within cultural studies. The topics of analysis, beyond music and cinema, are scandal, television stardom, Mina’s uses in advertising, her changing image on album covers and her absent–presence in present-day Italian culture. All of these are eminently transferable investigations. In consequence, the question that a potential reader of this book without a professional interest in Italy might have in mind – ‘Is this going to have anything to offer me?’ – can be resoundingly answered in the positive on account of the choice of themes and topics. The Many Meanings of Mina is a profoundly innovative and relevant book that deserves to command attention well beyond the confines of Italian studies.'

• List of FiguresAcknowledgementsIntroduction1. Signore, Signori, Mina!: Mina as Popstar in Post-War Italy2. Mina, Rock ‘n’ Roll, and the Sanremo Festival3. Mina and the Musicarelli4. Scandal, Tragedy, and Mina’s Star Image5. A Star of the Small Screen: Mina and RAI6. Mina as Carosello Star7. Picturing a Star: The Changing Face of Mina on Album and Single Covers8. Mina Today: The Ever-Present Absent StarConclusionBibliographyIndex

Rachel Haworth is a researcher of Italian popular music and culture of the twentieth century. She is interested in questions of stardom, gender, performance, and value in the Italian pop music context, and has published books and articles on Italian singer-songwriters of the 1960s, celebrity scandals, and Italian variety television.

'[An] extremely well-researched and well-informed volume... The Many Meanings of Mina goes a long way towards showing why popular music and its key performers merit attention from scholars of cultural history and cultural studies.This book is organised in terms of chapters that reflect a keen methodological awareness and also a desire to connect the subject matter with current debates and themes of study within cultural studies. The topics of analysis, beyond music and cinema, are scandal, television stardom, Mina’s uses in advertising, her changing image on album covers and her absent–presence in present-day Italian culture. All of these are eminently transferable investigations. In consequence, the question that a potential reader of this book without a professional interest in Italy might have in mind – ‘Is this going to have anything to offer me?’ – can be resoundingly answered in the positive on account of the choice of themes and topics. The Many Meanings of Mina is a profoundly innovative and relevant book that deserves to command attention well beyond the confines of Italian studies.'

• List of FiguresAcknowledgementsIntroduction1. Signore, Signori, Mina!: Mina as Popstar in Post-War Italy2. Mina, Rock ‘n’ Roll, and the Sanremo Festival3. Mina and the Musicarelli4. Scandal, Tragedy, and Mina’s Star Image5. A Star of the Small Screen: Mina and RAI6. Mina as Carosello Star7. Picturing a Star: The Changing Face of Mina on Album and Single Covers8. Mina Today: The Ever-Present Absent StarConclusionBibliographyIndex