Leggerezza translates to "lightness" or "lightheartedness." It's a beautiful and somewhat poetic word that goes beyond just physical weight.
In the context of this song, Mina sings about missing "quella tua leggerezza per affrontare il mondo" (that lightness of yours to face the world). It refers to a carefree, optimistic, and resilient spirit that helps one navigate life's challenges, making it a deeply evocative and desirable quality.
Have you ever missed someone so much it feels like they are a part of you? In "Non Smetto Di Aspettarti," which means "I Don't Stop Waiting for You," the singer expresses a deep and powerful longing for a person who is absent. She misses everything about them, from the way they laugh until they cry ("quando ridi fino alle lacrime") to the comforting look in their eyes ("i tuoi occhi che sanno accarezzarmi"). This person's presence brought a special lightness that helped her face the world and even her own sadness.
But there's a fascinating twist in this story of longing. The singer wonders if this person she misses so intensely even exists in reality. She sings, "Sarà che non esisti / E allora io ti invento," which translates to "Maybe you don't exist / And so I invent you." It seems she creates this perfect person in her mind and through her song, making them feel real. The song explores the idea that the need to love and be loved is so essential that if we can't find it, we might just create it for ourselves.
Mina was born Anna Maria Mazzini in Busto Arsizio, Lombardy, in 1940 and grew up in Cremona, which is why Italians still call her "la Tigre di Cremona". She started out in 1958 singing rock and roll in clubs, and within a couple of years she was all over Italian radio and television, with a three-octave voice that could go from a whisper to a roar in one phrase.
She is known for songs like "Tintarella di luna", "Se telefonando", "Grande, grande, grande" and "Parole parole", her talking duet with Alberto Lupo. In 1978 she gave her last public concert at Bussoladomani in Versilia, recorded as "Mina Live '78", and then stopped performing live for good. She moved to Switzerland and kept releasing an album almost every year from the studio, including a best-selling duet album with Adriano Celentano in 1998, and she is the only artist to top the Italian album chart in every decade since the 1960s.