Lorella Cuccarini Persili (born August 10, 1965) is an Italian showgirl, television personality, dancer, singer, and actress.

Life and career

Born in Rome, at nine years old Cuccarini started to attend the dance school of (choreographer and husband of

Carmen Russo ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the Opér ...

). After some experiences as a

chorus girl A chorus line is a large group of dancers who together perform synchronized routines, usually in musical theatre. Sometimes, singing is also performed. Chorus line dancers in Broadway musicals and revues have been referred to by slang terms su ...

, Cuccarini made her television debut at twenty years old alongside

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 ...

in the sixth edition of ''Fantastico'', then she worked 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 ...

and Mediaset in many successful variety shows, including

Festivalbar The Festivalbar was an Italian singing competition that took place in the most important Italian squares during summer, such as the Piazza del Duomo, Catania or Piazza Bra, Verona. The first edition took place in 1964 and was broadcast by RAI. ...

, seven editions of '' Paperissima'' and of '' Trenta ore per la vita'', three editions of ''Buona Domenica''.Giorgio Dell'Arti, Massimo Parrini. ''Catalogo dei viventi''. Marsilio, 2009. . Cuccarini is also a singer, with several top-ten charting singles and albums; in 1995 she entered the competition at 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 annua ...

(she had hosted two years earlier), ranking tenth with the song "Un altro amore no".

Beyoncé borrows heavily from her work

Following her performance at the 2011 Billboard Music Awards, American pop star Beyoncé initially received widespread praise from fans and critics. Critics, however, voiced concerns about similarities to Cuccarini's in February 2010 performance at the 60th

. Billy Johnson, Jr of

Yahoo! Music Yahoo! Music was a brand under which Yahoo! provided a variety of music services, including Internet radio, music videos, news, artist information, and original programming. Previously, users with Yahoo! accounts could gain access to hundreds o ...

wrote: "Kenzo Digital, who spent a month creating Beyoncé's interactive video, told

Yahoo! News Yahoo! News is a news website that originated as an internet-based news aggregator by Yahoo!. The site was created by a Yahoo! software engineer named Brad Clawsie in August 1996. Articles originally came from news services such as the Associate ...

that Lorella concert footage is only part of the inspiration for Beyoncé's show: " he Cuccarini artistsare awesome and do incredible work as well, but there are a lot of different inspirations for where our piece came from." Beyoncé responded two days later through an interview with

AOL Music AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo! Inc. ...

, saying she was inspired after finding Cuccarini's performance online:"My makeup artist showed me the performance of Lorella Cuccarini a year ago, and it inspired me so much. I then met with the talented people who worked on it. The technology and concept were so genius. She was inspired after discovering Cuccarini's performance online. Thank God for

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

or I would have never been exposed to something so inspiring. I never worked so hard on anything in my life as that performance for the Billboard Awards."

Personal life and family

Cuccarini married the composer Silvio Testi in 1991. They have four children. Her father, Vero Cuccarini, has been repeatedly convicted of

usury Usury () is the practice of making unethical or immoral monetary loans that unfairly enrich the lender. The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning taking advantage of others' misfortunes—or in a legal sense, where an interest rate is c ...

. In January 2019 she openly spoke in favour of the anti-refugee policies of

Matteo Salvini Matteo Salvini (; born 9 March 1973) is an Italian politician who has served as Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Minister of Infrastructure and Transport since 2022. He has been Federal Secretary of Italy's Lega Nord (Northern League) party s ...

, leader of Lega Nord. Meanwhile, she also expressed opinions against the appeals for reception of

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

Discography

Studio albums

Compilation albums

Singles

Other appearances

Filmography

As an actress

Other appearances

Stage

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cuccarini, Lorella 1965 births Living people Actresses from Rome Italian female dancers Italian women singers Italian television actresses Italian television presenters Singers from Rome Italian women television presenters Mass media people from Rome