2023-08-22 19:53:58
Mourning in Italian music for the death of Toto Cutugno, who died this Tuesday at the age of 80 in Milan. The Italian singer-songwriter and composer won the Sanremo and Eurovision festivals and was the author of ‘L’italiano’, a song that became a kind of hymn and one of the most beloved and representative Italian songs in the world. He presented it at the 1983 edition of the Sanremo Festival, in which he was a regular presence. Lyricist for other greats of Italian song, such as Adriano Celentano, Cutugno sold more than one hundred million records and had a notable international projection.
Cutugno died at the San Raffaele hospital in Milan where he was admitted due to “a long illness aggravated in recent months,” according to what Danilo Mancuso, the artist’s representative, told the Italian media, without giving further details.
With the theme ‘Insieme: 1992’ Cutugno became the second Italian winner of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1990, something that had not been achieved in Italy since 1964 with the participation of the legendary Gigliola Cinquetti and that would not be repeated until 2021 with the Roman Maneskin group. In 1980 he had won the Sanremo Festival with ‘Solo noi’ and would repeat in the mythical Italian competition up to fifteen times, either solo or together with other artists.
Salvatore Cutugno was born in Fosdinovo, a small Tuscan town on July 7, 1943, during World War II, but his family moved to the Liguria region. He showed musical aptitudes from an early age and with the support of his family he began playing drums in the group Toto ei Tati in the sixties. He later went through the band Albatros, in which he began his career as a vocalist. His powerful and soulful voice made him a versatile singer capable of interpreting deep ballads and upbeat pieces with equal mastery.
In the seventies of the last century, he began his solo career and achieved success with albums such as ‘Voglio l’anima’ (1979), ‘La mia musica’ (1981) and ‘L’Italiano’ (1983). This album included the eponymous song in which Cutugno cried out “let me sing guitar in hand” (Lasciatemi cantare, with the chitarra in hand) that ended up becoming a kind of hymn for several generations of Italians.
In Spain, Sergio Dalma included the song ‘Soy un italiano’ on the album ‘Vía Dalma’ in 2010. The Catalan artist interprets an album in Spanish with twelve classics from the Italian ‘canzone’ rendered in Spanish and only one sung in Italian.
Cutugno was a multifaceted artist. He presented television shows, such as the mythical ‘Domenica In’ in 1987, where he demonstrated his charisma and skills as a communicator.
#Singersongwriter #Toto #Cutugno #dies