Modena City Ramblers - Bella Ciao

Today is Liberation Day, and Bella Ciao will be sung a lot, remembering the Partisan movement.

Modena City Ramblers made a popular version.

The song originated before the second world war, as a song sung by mondine, women seasonally hired, or rather exploited, to work in flooded rice fields.

Here's a performance of the original version sung by Milva.

It is said that they were forbidden to talk during their work, so they sang instead, developing a peculiar singing style that could carry across the fields.

Here's Coro delle Mondine di Bentivoglio performing Son la Mondina, son la sfruttata in the original style.