Maria Carta

Who was Maria Carta?

Maria Carta was a Rome-based Sardinian folk music singer-songwriter. She also performed in film and theater and, in 1975, she wrote a book of poetry, Ritual Song.

She was born in Siligo, Sassari, Sardinia.

Throughout her 25-year career, she covered the richly diverse genres of traditional music of her native land, often updating them with a modern and personal touch. She succeeded in bringing Sardinian folk music into wider popular awareness, in demonstrations at a national level in Italy as well as internationally.

She caught the attention of such directors as Francis Ford Coppola and Franco Zeffirelli, who gave her the first two of her widely seen film roles, including that of the mother of Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II in 1974. Carta lived in Rome for many years and she served as Communal Councilwoman from 1976 to 1981 on the side of the Italian Communist Party.

In 1985, she was awarded, as songwriter, the Targa Tenco for dialectal/regional music.