"Bella ciao" (Italian: [ˈbɛlla ˈtʃaːo]) is an anti-Nazi and anti-fascist Italian folk song dedicated to the partisans of the Italian resistance, who fought against the occupying troops of Nazi Germany and the collaborationist fascist forces during the liberation of Italy.
The exact origins are not known, but it is theorized to be based on a folk song of the late 19th century, sung by female workers (mondine) of the paddy fields in Northern Italy in protest against harsh working conditions. There is little evidence of the song being used during World War II, with the current partisan version becoming widespread only after it ended. Versions of "Bella ciao" continue to be sung worldwide as a hymn of resistance against Nazism, fascism, injustice and oppression.
Contents
History
The origins of the song are unclear, although one hypothesis is that "Bella ciao" was originally sung as "Alla mattina appena alzata" ("In the morning as soon as I woke up") 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. They worked at mondare (weeding) the rice fields in Northern Italy, to help the healthy growth of young rice plants. This work was performed during the flooding of the fields, from the end of April to the beginning of June every year. During this time, the first stages of the rice plants' development, the delicate shoots needed to be protected from the difference in temperature between the day and the night. It consisted of two phases: transplanting the plants and pruning the weeds.
This exhausting task was carried out primarily by women known as mondine, recruited from the poorest social classes. They spent their workdays barefoot in water up to their knees, their backs bent continuously. Poor working conditions, excessive hours and low pay led to constant dissatisfaction and, occasionally, rebellious movements and riots in the early 20th century. Struggles against the supervising padroni (an employer who completely controls his or her workers, especially one who exploits Italian immigrants) were 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 of the mondina included "Sciur padrun da li beli braghi bianchi" and "Se otto ore vi sembran poche".
Other 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. The earliest written version is dated to 1906 and comes from near Vercelli, Piedmont.
As a partisan song
There are no indications of the relevance of "Bella ciao" among the partisan brigades, nor of the very existence of the 'partisan version' prior to the first publication of the text in 1953. There are no traces in the documents of the immediate postwar period nor is it present in important songbooks. It is not found, for example, in Pasolini's 1955 Canzoniere Italiano nor in the Canti Politici of Editori Riuniti of 1962. The 1963 version of Yves Montand shot to fame after the group Il Nuovo Canzoniere Italiano presented it at the 1964 Festival dei Due Mondi at Spoleto both as a song of the mondine and as a partisan hymn, and the latter so "inclusive" that it could hold together the various political souls of the national liberation struggle (Catholics, Communists, Socialists, Liberals...) and even be sung at the end of the Christian Democracy (Democrazia Cristiana) 1975 congress which elected the former partisan Zaccagnini as national secretary.
As reported in the text by Roberto Battaglia History of the Italian Resistance popular songs of the era were Fischia il vento and the famous Soviet folk aria Katyusha, which became the official anthem of the Garibaldi Partisan Brigades.Even the well-known journalist, former partisan and historian of the partisan struggle, Giorgio Bocca publicly stated:
"Bella ciao"... song of the Resistance, and "Giovinezza"... song of the Fascist period... Neither one nor the other born from partisans or fascists, one borrowed from a Dalmatian song, the other from the Tuscan student spirit and over the years it has become the official or de facto anthems of anti-fascist Italy and that of the Mussolini regime... In the twenty months of the partisan war I have never heard people sing "Bella ciao", an invention of the Spoleto Festival.
These statements were later verified by Carlo Pestelli in his book Bella ciao. The song of freedom, in which he reconstructs the origins and spread of the song.
Historians of Italian music, including Antonio Virgilio Savona and Michele Straniero, agree "Bella ciao" was not sung or only rarely sung during the partisan war and became popular only after WW2 ended.
Only a few voices, such as that of the historians Cesare Bermani and Ruggero Giacomini, claim that some version of "Bella ciao" was sung by some brigades during the Resistance, although not necessarily in the now popular 'partisan version', of whose existence, as specified above, there is no documentary evidence until the 1950s.
Melody
A possible origin of the melody was identified by researcher Fausto Giovannardi, following the discovery of a Yiddish melody (Koilen song) recorded by a Russian Klezmer accordionist, Mishka Ziganoff, in 1919 in New York. According to the scholar Rod Hamilton of The British Library in London, "Koilen" is a version of "Dus Zekele Koilen" (The bag of coal), of which there are various versions dating back to the 1920s.
Italian folksinger Giovanna Daffini recorded the song in 1962. The music is in quadruple meter.
Lyrics
Covers
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, Goran Bregovic and Manu Chao.
1964: Yves Montand as a single
1965: Milva as a single
1969: Quilapayún in the album Basta, later connected to criticism of the regime of Augusto Pinochet
1975: Giovanna Daffini in her album Amore mio non piangere
1987: Leslie Fish and the Dehorn Crew in the album It's Sister Jenny's Turn to Throw the Bomb
1993: KUD Idijoti on the album Tako je govorio Zaratusta
1993: Modena City Ramblers on the album Combat Folk
1993: Banda Bassotti on the mini-album Bella Ciao
2001: Anita Lane on the album Sex O'Clock
2010: Talco on the album Combat Circus
2012: Goran Bregovic on the album Champagne For Gypsies
2018: Marc Ribot and Tom Waits on the album Songs of Resistance 1942–2018 by Marc Ribot
2018: Steve Aoki and Marnik published another EDM version
2018: Klischée released an Electro Swing version as a single.
International versions
In addition to the original Italian, the song has been recorded by various artists in many different languages, including Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Belarusian, Bosnian, Breton, Bengali, Bulgarian, Burmese, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, English, Esperanto, Finnish, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Hebrew, Japanese, Kashmiri, Kurdish, Persian, Macedonian, Malayalam, Marathi, Norwegian, Occitan, Punjabi, Russian, Serbian, Sinhalese, Slovak, Spanish, Syriac, Swedish, Tagalog, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Tibetan, Turkish, Ukrainian and Yiddish.
Azerbaijani Soviet singer Muslim Magomayev performed the song at some of his concerts and he stated that it was Brezhnev's favorite by him.
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.
Guadeloupean punk band The Bolokos recorded a version in Creole and French called "Bel Aw" on their eponymous album inspired by the Ramoneurs de Menhirs version.
Another version of the song was recorded by the punk rock band Dog Faced Hermans 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.
In popular culture
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 come to merely stand for the inherent rights of all people to be liberated from tyranny.
Renewed popularity
In 2017 and 2018, the song received renewed popularity due to the singing of "Bella ciao" multiple times in the Spanish television series Money Heist. The character Tokyo recounts in one of her narrations, "The life of the Professor revolved around a single idea: Resistance. His grandfather, who had fought against the fascists in Italy, taught him the song and he taught us." The song is played in emblematic moments in the series as a metaphor for freedom.
In the German protests against the rising right-extremist party AfD in January 2025, the song was chanted by around 600 people in Würzburg. The event produced a viral TikTok video with 3.4 million views within 4 days, documenting the chants during the protest.
Video of Italian Catholic priest Andrea Gallo singing the song during mass with the congregation was recorded in 2012. In 2016, Jacobin magazine uploaded the video to social media, receiving hundreds of thousands of views, and occasionally re-uploads the Don Gallo rendition.
In April 2018, supporters from the Portuguese football club F.C. Porto adapted the song with the lyrics "Penta Xau" ("Bye bye fifth"), as a taunt referring to the lost opportunity by rival club S.L. Benfica to win a fifth consecutive national championship, a feat realized in Portugal by F.C. Porto.
The song was the basis of a taunt by Brazilian fans used during World Cup 2018 exemplifying the Argentina–Brazil football rivalry, and the unrealized elimination during the first round in another attempt by Argentina at a 5th Cup title cut short if they were eliminated. The lyrics made references to Argentine players Di María, Mascherano, and Messi.
The song was the inspiration for the #EleNão movement against right wing Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro.
During nationwide protests in Colombia in 2019, the anti-fascist song was adapted by demonstrators to oppose the government of Iván Duque of the Centro Democrático party, who have been for years questioned or investigated for systematic violations of the Constitution, the environment, Human Rights and Crimes against humanity. As the presidential period of Duque ends in 2022, since 2019 the song, dubbed as 'Duque Chao', is sung and interpreted in protests in Colombia and by the diáspora, also during the national strike demonstrations of April and May 2021, in which citizens have been killed, injured and disappeared by state police forces.
Filmography
"Bella Ciao" has been used many times in soundtracks of films. Examples include:
1969: "Most (Savage Bridge)", directed by Hajrudin Krvavac, Yugoslavia.
1976: 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother directed by Isao Takahata, Japan.
2000: À l'attaque! directed by Robert Guédiguian.
2006: No Mercy for the Rude is a South Korean neo-noir action comedy film directed by Park Chul-hee.
2010: L'Immortel directed by Richard Berry, where "Bella Ciao" is sung by a prisoner.
2012: Businessman directed by Puri Jagannadh, where "Pilla Chao" is sung by Vijay Surya. Music director: S Thaman
2013: "Besharam" directed by Abhinav Kashyap, where "Love Ki Ghanti" is sung by Sujeet Shetty, Ranbir Kapoor, & Amitosh Nagpal.
2017: Money Heist, Spanish TV series, sung many times by the robbers.
2018: Bella Ciao!, a feature film. Whistled on soundtrack during the beginning title and performed by The Carnival Band in a scene.
2019: The Two Popes, a biographical film directed by Fernando Meirelles.
2020: There Is No Evil, Iranian drama film directed by Mohammad Rasoulof.
2022: R.M.N., Romanian drama film written and directed by Cristian Mungiu, where the villagers sing and dance to the song, ironic given the turn the village takes later.