Corrado Lojacono (22 January 1924 – 23 October 2012) was an Italian singer, actor, record producer and songwriter.

Life and career

Born in

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

, Lojacono moved to

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

with his family in 1931. He started performing in 1945, specializing in a jazz and swing repertoire. In the early 1950s he debuted as an actor appearing in two

revue A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own duri ...

s alongside

Renato Rascel Renato Rascel (), stage name of Renato Ranucci (; 27 April 1912 – 2 January 1991), was an Italian film actor and singer. He appeared in 50 films between 1942 and 1972. He represented Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1960 with the s ...

, ''Attanasio cavallo vanesio'' and ''Alvaro piuttosto corsaro''.Enzo Giannelli. "Lojacono, Corrado" in Gino Castaldo (edited by). ''Dizionario della canzone italiana''. Curcio, 1990. In 1957, Lojacono reprised his musical studies and graduated from the Accademia Internazionale Musicale in Rome. In 1961 he got his main hit, "Giuggola", which peaked at the first place on the Italian hit parade. In 1962 he was entered into the competition at the 12th edition of the

Sanremo Music Festival The Sanremo Music Festival, officially the Italian Song Festival () and commonly known as just (), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria. It is the longest-running annual ...

with the song "L'anello". Also active as a songwriter, sometimes credited as Camicasca, Lojacono composed about forty songs, notably "Carina", which was covered by several artists including

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Sophia Loren Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone (; born 20 September 1934), known professionally as Sophia Loren ( , ), is an Italian actress. She was named by the American Film Institute as one of the greatest female stars of Classical Hollywood ci ...

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and

Caterina Valente Caterina Valente (born 14 January 1931) is a French multilingual singer, guitarist, and dancer of Italian ethnicity. Valente is a polyglot; she speaks six languages, and sings in eleven. While she is best known as a performer in Europe, Valente ...

. In the late 1960s he founded a record label and eventually retired from singing in the 1970s. Lojacono died of

kidney failure Kidney failure, also known as end-stage kidney disease, is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney failure is classified as eit ...

in his home in Milan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lojacono, Corrado 1924 births 2012 deaths Male actors from Palermo Italian pop singers Italian male stage actors Italian male songwriters Italian male composers 20th-century Italian male singers Musicians from Palermo