The song's most commonly known version is narrated from the point of view of a partisan fighter, who wakes one morning knowing he has to leave his loved one behind to fight an unspecified invader, realising he may never see her again. If I die as a partisan, he sings, You must bury me / bury me up there, on the mountain / under the shadow of a beautiful flower / and all those who will pass by / will say What a beautiful flower / This is the flower of the partisan / who died for freedom.
Bella Ciao is not only belted out across Italy every year on 25 April to celebrate the end of Benito Mussolini's fascist dictatorship and the German Nazi occupation. But in recent years, it has also been proclaimed at anti-government protests in Iran, chanted on the barricades of Ukraine, sung by women's rights protesters in Poland, and illicitly broadcast from mosque minarets in Turkey.
From Chile to Hong Kong, from Occupy Wall Street to Fridays for Future, it has become the ultimate musical expression of a yearning for freedom. The song's prominent use in the Spanish series La Casa de Papel (Money Heist), one of the most-streamed shows in Netflix's history, means it has reached less politically conscious audiences, transcending its original context.
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