Totò’s best-known song is ‘Malafemmena’, written in 1951, during a break between takes in the film ‘Totò terzo uomo’.
The song was an immediate success and was interpreted by several international artists. “Malafemmena” earned the sum of eight million that Totò paid to Diana Rogliani, his ex-wife, explaining to her that she was the main character in the song and therefore, in some way, the money he earned belonged to her more than it did to him. The reason that prompted Totò to write such a song was the promise broken by his wife. Although officially separated, they had promised to live in the same house until their daughter Liliana came of age. Rogliani, tired of her husband’s continuous escapades and, above all, tired of hearing from the magazines that Totò had fallen madly in love with another woman, a colleague of his, decided to abandon him, thus breaking the pact. The abandonment of his ex-wife, the estrangement of his daughter Liliana and the rejection of the woman he had fallen in love with plunged Totò into deep sorrow and from this complex situation he drew the inspiration for the lyrics of “Malafemmena”.
Malafemmena testo
Si avisse fatto a n’ato
chello ch’e fatto a mme
st’ommo t’avesse acciso,
tu vuò sapé pecché?
Pecché ‘ncopp’a sta terra
femmene comme a te
non ce hanna sta pé n’ommo
onesto comme a me!…
Femmena
Tu si na malafemmena
Chist’uocchie ‘e fatto chiagnere..
Lacreme e ‘nfamità.
Femmena,
Si tu peggio ‘e na vipera,
m’e ‘ntussecata l’anema,
nun pozzo cchiù campà.
Femmena
Si ddoce comme ‘o zucchero
però sta faccia d’angelo
te serve pe ‘ngannà…
Femmena,
tu si ‘a cchiù bella femmena,
te voglio bene e t’odio
nun te pozzo scurdà…
Te voglio ancora bene
Ma tu nun saie pecchè
pecchè l’unico ammore
si stata tu pe me…
E tu pe nu capriccio tutto
‘e distrutto, ojnè,
Ma Dio nun t’o perdone
chello ch’e fatto a mme!…
