Malafemmena, Totò and the music

The song was first assigned to Mario Abate and later brought to success by Giacomo Rondinella. It also inspired the films “Totò, Peppino e la Malafemmena” (Totò, Peppino and the Malafemmena), where it is sung by Teddy Reno, and “Malafemmena”, where it is instead reinterpreted by Nunzio Gallo.

by Alessia Giannino

The Neapolitan song "Malafemmena" (Wicked woman) was written, in 1951, by Totò, for the Piedigrotta song competition "La Canzonetta 1951".

The first verses were written in Formia, where the actor was filming one of his many films, and the first person to read them was his driver, who didn't like them at all, probably because he couldn't grasp the depth and suffering embedded in those words. The song was first assigned to Mario Abate and later brought to success by Giacomo Rondinella. It also inspired the films “Totò, Peppino e la Malafemmena” (Totò, Peppino and the Malafemmena), where it is sung by Teddy Reno, and “Malafemmena” (Wicked woman), where it is instead reinterpreted by Nunzio Gallo.

Trivia and history

The piece, of course written in Neapolitan, speaks of an unrequited love for a malafemmina (wicked woman), who treats her smitten man with cruelty and coldness. For a long time it was believed that the woman who inspired it was Silvia Pampanini, whom Totò had met on the set of “47 morto che parla” (47, the Dead Man Speaks), and who had turned down his marriage proposal; only later, thanks to Liliana De Curtis, the artist's daughter, was it discovered that the song was actually dedicated to Diana Bandini Lucchesini Rogliani, the actor's wife. Confirming this is the dedication attached to the song's lyrics, deposited by Totò with SIAE (the Italian copyright society). It seems Diana had broken a promise: although separated, the couple were supposed to live in the same house and sleep in the same bed until their daughter's eighteenth birthday, but the woman, tired of her husband's continual infidelity, is said to have left him to marry the lawyer Michele Tufaroli. The actor, feeling betrayed, poured his heartache into the notes and words of this song. To this day, it is considered one of Totò's greatest successes and continues to be reinterpreted by countless singers.