Libera

"Libera" (English translation: "Free") was the Italian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1977, performed in Italian by Mia Martini.

The song is a up-tempo soul-influenced track, with the singer describing herself as being "free" and listing a series of things she is free to do. Importantly, though, she tells her listeners that "I know well what I want, what I don't want/I have my pride, you don't even come into it/Find myself in love, but not bound to you/A woman who is used to walk on her own". The song, with its strong feminist content, came at a time in Italy when there were heated debates concerning the legalisation of abortions and controversially also included the lines "Free to become a mother - or not/Free to sin - or not to sin/and paying the price for it myself."

The original version of "Libera", as shown in the ESC previews video, was a slow ballad. The song was however later made into an up-tempo disco track with an arrangement loosely based on Boney M.'s 1976 interpretation of Bob Marley's "No Woman No Cry" and that was the version performed in the ESC and later released on record. Martini recorded no less than five versions of the song; the original ballad version, the disco version, the Spanish "Libre", the French "Libre Comme Une Femme" and the English "Freedom Is Today", the latter three all with the up-tempo arrangement. The original ballad version has yet to be commercially released.

In Sweden the "Libera" single, backed with the English language version "Freedom Is Today", was issued by ABBA's record label Polar Music.

The song was performed fifteenth on the night, following Spain's [Micky with "Enséñame a Cantar" and preceding Finland's Monica Aspelund with "Lapponia)". At the close of voting, it had received 33 points, placing it 13th in a field of 18.