Heather Elizabeth Parisi (born January 27, 1960) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

-born

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

dancer, singer and television personality. She was one of the most popular personalities of Italian television from the late 1970s to the 1990s.

Life and career

Born in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, Parisi worked in the United States for the

San Francisco Ballet San Francisco Ballet is the oldest ballet company in the United States, founded in 1933 as the San Francisco Opera Ballet under the leadership of ballet master Adolph Bolm. The company is currently based in the War Memorial Opera House, San Franc ...

and the

American Ballet Theatre American Ballet Theatre (ABT) is a classical ballet company based in New York City. Founded in 1939 by Lucia Chase and Richard Pleasant, it is recognized as one of the world's leading classical ballet companies. Through 2019, it had an annual ei ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. During a vacation in Italy, she was noticed by the choreographer Franco Miseria, who made her audition for

RAI RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...

. In 1979, Parisi debuted on the show ''Luna Park'', hosted by

Pippo Baudo Giuseppe Vittorio Raimondo Baudo (born 7 June 1936), known as Pippo Baudo, is one of the most famous Italian television presenters, with a career spanning six decades. He is often nicknamed "Superpippo" (referencing the Italian name of Super Go ...

.Aldo Grasso, Massimo Scaglioni, ''Enciclopedia della Televisione'', Garzanti, Milano, 1996 – 2003. . Her rise as a television star took place in the fall of the same year, with the first edition of the Saturday night show '' Fantastico'', which had very high ratings (an average of 23.6 million viewers). In each episode, Parisi performed a ballet and interpreted the opening song "Disco Bambina." The song became a hit, peaking several weeks at first place on the Italian hit parade. Parisi was cast in four more editions of ''Fantastico'' and in other successful variety shows, and she also had several other musical hits, including the song "Cicale" which ranked first at the hit parade for four weeks between 1981 and 1982. She slowed down her activities in the mid-'90s. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Parisi chose to remain unvaccinated. On her website in December 2021, Parisi logged an entry entitled "Damned for Eternity" in which she told women that they "should be ashamed" of having children vaccinated against COVID-19 and that it was "criminal". In a different post, Parisi stated that "For me, being socially responsible is one of the most overestimated virtues."

Filmography

As an actress

As a director and screenwriter

Other appearances

Discography

;Album * 1981 - ''Cicale & Company'' (CGD, CGD 20276) * 1983 - ''Ginnastica fantastica'' (Polydor, 815 721 1) * 1983 - ''Il fantastico mondo di Heather Parisi'' (reprint of ''Cicale & Company'' with three new songs) * 1991 - ''HP'' (Mercury, 846 417-1) * 1991 - ''Io, Pinocchio'' (Mercury, 510 738-2) ;Singles * 1979 - Disco bambina/Blackout (CGD, CGD 10200) * 1981 - Ti rockerò/Lucky girl (CGD, CGD 10302) * 1981 - Cicale/Mr. pulce (CGD, CGD 10349) * 1981 - Quando i grilli cantano (CGD, CGD YD 601) promo juke box * 1983 - Radiostelle/Alle corde (CGD, CGD 10456) * 1983 - Ceralacca/Raghjayda (Polydor, 815-750-7) * 1984 - Crilù/No words (Polydor, 881-420-7) * 1984 - Ciao ciao/Maschio (Polydor, 821697-7) * 1985 - Crilù in Bangkok/Morning in Tokyo (Polydor, 881 924-1, 12") (as Angel Program) * 1986 - Teleblù/Videolips (Polydor, 883-952-7) * 1987 - Dolceamaro/All'ultimo respiro (Polydor, 887-180-7) * 1987 - Baby come back/I'm hot (White Records, 109 428) * 1989 - Faccia a faccia/Feelings come and go (Polydor, 871-572-7) * 1989 - Livido/Livido (Instrumental Version) (Polydor, 873-192-7) * 1991 - Pinocchio/Se te ne vai (Polydor, 866 194 7)

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Parisi, Heather 1960 births Living people People from Los Angeles Italian television personalities Italian women singers American emigrants to Italy American people of Italian descent People of Calabrian descent American expatriates in Italy