At almost 85 years old, Mina has chosen to call "Gassa d'amante" the new record, which, as every time, is a decisive date for Italian singer-songwriter music. "The gassa d'amante is the maritime knot par excellence and also refers to the idea of two lovers intertwining," explains her son Massimiliano Pani as he looks at the album cover "elaborated" as per tradition by the inimitable Mauro Balletti. There are ten songs on the set list, nine of which are previously unreleased and one is a "reinterpretation" of Fabio Concato's "Non smetto di aspettarti” (“I don't stop waiting for you”). The common thread is novelty, surprise: something not so obvious for an artist who became known in the late 1950s and has remained central to music ever since. "What is surprising," the son says again, "is how she manages to remain contemporary. She has not appeared on TV since 1978, yet there are so many young people who seek her out and recognize her. Just think that in Japan there are some websites that 'teach' how to do makeup like Mina did in the 1960s". But also surprising is how her voice still manages to reach sharp peaks and well-defined colors. "Perhaps the fact that she stopped touring 200 concerts a year early helped her keep her voice as we still hear it today". After all, if she is still considered the "best performer of jazz standards" and even the "best bossa nova performer in the world", there is indeed something unique and imponderable about her ease in turning thought into voice.