‘Non sono / una señora’: Gender representations through interlingual cover versions

Abstract

This study examines the song ‘Non sono una signora,’ originally released by Loredana Bertè in 1982, and its three Spanish-language covers recorded by Latin American singers Lucía Méndez, Lissette, and Melisa in 1984. While several Italian pop songs from the 1980s became part of the Latin American soundscape through Spanish-language adaptations, this case stands out due to the shifting gender representations across versions. Framed within Translation Studies, this research engages with Susam-Sarajeva’s (2019) concept of interlingual cover versions and Prato’s (2007) theory of coverability to analyze how these versions negotiate gender, societal roles, and popular music discourses. Using a collective case study approach (Yin, 2018), the analysis contrasts thematic and narrative shifts across the adaptations, revealing how translation and performance interact to reframe gender and sexuality.