Ornella Vanoni (; born 22 September 1934) is an Italian singer-songwriter and actress. She is one of the longest-standing Italian artists, having started performing in 1956. She has released about 112 works between LP, EPs and greatest hits albums, and is considered one of most popular interpreters of Italian pop music. During her long career she has sold over 65 million records.
Artistic career
Vanoni started her artistic career in 1960 as a theatre actress. She mostly performed in
Bertolt Brecht
Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...
works, under the direction of
Giorgio Strehler
Giorgio Strehler (; ; 14 August 1921 – 25 December 1997) was an actor, Italian opera and theatre director.
Biography
Strehler was born in Barcola, Trieste; His father, Bruno Strehler, was a native of Trieste with family roots in Vienna and died ...
at his
Piccolo Teatro in
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 ...
. At the same time, she started a music career. The folklore and popular songs she explored in her early records, especially the ones about the criminal underworld in Milan, resulted in her receiving the nickname ("Underworld Singer").
Vanoni scored two major hits in 1963 with "
Senza Fine" and "Che cosa c'è", both written for her by
Gino Paoli
Gino Paoli (; born 23 September 1934 in Monfalcone) is an Italian singer-songwriter. He is a seminal figure who has written a number of songs widely regarded as classics in Italian popular music, including: " Il cielo in una stanza", "Che cosa ...
. In 1964 she won the
Festival of Neapolitan song
The Festival della Canzone Napoletana ("Festival of Neapolitan Song"), commonly known as the Festival di Napoli, is a Neapolitan song contest. The first edition was held in 1952 and the last in 2004. From 1952 to 1970 the show was broadcast on RAI ...
with "Tu si na cosa grande". In the following years, she took part in a series of
Festivals of Italian song in San Remo with the songs "Abbracciami forte" (1965), "Io ti darò di più" (1966), "La musica è finita" (1967), "Casa Bianca" (1968), and "Eternità" (1970). "Casa Bianca", which finished second in 1968, was the subject of a copyright dispute between the composer of the song,
Don Backy
Don Backy (real name Aldo Caponi; born 21 August 1939) is an Italian singer, songwriter and actor. He collaborated with Sofia Rotaru for "Grey Bird" – Ukrainian version of Italian song " L'immensità"— "Сизокрилий птах".
Select ...
, and the Clan
Celentano label.
In the late 1960s, Vanoni recorded "Una ragione di più", "Un'ora sola ti vorrei", "
L'appuntamento
''L'appuntamento'' (''The date''), also known as ''L'appuntamento (...dove, come, quando?)'', is a 1977 Italian comedy film written and directed by Giuliano Biagetti.
Plot
Adelmo is a Florentine employee who has an appointment with Adelaide, t ...
" (a cover of the Brazilian song "
Sentado à Beira do Caminho" by
Erasmo Carlos
Erasmo Carlos (born Erasmo Esteves; 5 June 1941 – 22 November 2022) was a Brazilian singer and songwriter, most closely associated with his friend and longtime collaborator Roberto Carlos (no relation). Together, they created many chart hits ...
and
Roberto Carlos
Roberto Carlos da Silva Rocha (born 10 April 1973), commonly known as Roberto Carlos, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who now works as a football ambassador. He started his career in Brazil as a forward but spent most of his care ...
) and "Non Dirmi Niente", a cover of Burt Bacharach's "
Don't Make Me Over". In 1972 she sang "Quei giorni insieme a te", the theme from
Lucio Fulci
Lucio Fulci (; 17 June 1927 – 13 March 1996) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. Although he worked in a wide array of genres through a career spanning nearly five decades, including comedies and Spaghetti Westerns, he garn ...
's critically acclaimed mystery thriller film ''
Don't Torture a Duckling
''Don't Torture a Duckling'' ( it, Non si sevizia un paperino) is a 1972 Italian giallo film directed by Lucio Fulci, starring Florinda Bolkan, Tomas Milian and Barbara Bouchet. The plot follows a detective investigating a series of child murders ...
''.
In 1976, Vanoni collaborated with
Vinicius de Moraes
Marcus Vinícius da Cruz e Mello Moraes (19 October 1913 – 9 July 1980), better known as Vinícius de Moraes () and nicknamed O Poetinha ("The little poet"), was a Brazilian poet, diplomat, lyricist, essayist, musician, singer, and playwright ...
and
Toquinho
Antônio Pecci Filho (born July 6, 1946), better known as Toquinho (), is a Brazilian singer and guitarist. He is well known for his collaborations, as composer and performer, with Vinicius de Moraes.
Childhood and musical studies
Toquinho was b ...
on the song "La voglia, la pazzia, l'incoscienza e l'allegria". During the 1980s, she released "Ricetta di donna", "Uomini", and "Ti lascio una canzone" (with Gino Paoli). In 1989, she returned to the Sanremo Music Festival with the song "Io come farò". In 1999, she recorded "Alberi", a duet with
Enzo Gragnaniello
Enzo Gragnaniello (born 20 October 1954) is an Italian singer-songwriter and composer.
Life and career
Born in Quartieri Spagnoli, Naples, Gragnaniello began playing the guitar at the age of 12 and began composing his first songs at 18 years o ...
. In 2004 she released an album of duets with Paoli to celebrate her 70th birthday.
In addition to her music career, Ornella Vanoni was active in other creative fields, starring in stage and TV shows, movies. In January 1977 she posed nude for the Italian edition of
Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother.
K ...
magazine. The inclusion of her song "L'Appuntamento" (1970) in the soundtrack of
Steven Soderbergh
Steven Andrew Soderbergh (; born January 14, 1963) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer and editor. A pioneer of modern independent cinema, Soderbergh is an acclaimed and prolific filmmaker.
Soderbergh's direc ...
's
''Ocean's Twelve'' in 2004 sparked a worldwide renewal of interest in her music.
Discography
*''Ornella Vanoni'' (1961)
*''Caldo'' (1965)
*''Ornella'' (1966)
*''Ornella Vanoni'' (1967)
*''Ai miei amici cantautori'' (1968)
*''Io si - Ai miei amici cantautori n°2'' (1969)
*''Ah! L'amore l'amore quante cose fa fare l'amore'' (1971)
*''Un gioco senza età'' (1972)
*''Dettagli'' (1973)
*''Ornella Vanoni e altre storie'' (1973)
*''A un certo punto'' (1973)
*''La voglia di sognare'' (1974)
*''Quei giorni insieme a te'' (1974)
*''Uomo mio, bambino mio'' (1975)
*''La voglia, la pazzia, l'incoscienza, l'allegria'' (1976)
*''Più'' (1976)
*''Io dentro'' (1977)
*''Io fuori'' (1977)
*''Vanoni'' (1978)
*''Oggi le canto così, vol.1'' (1979)
*''Oggi le canto così, vol.2'' (1980)
*''Ricetta di donna'' (1980)
*''Duemilatrecentouno parole'' (1981)
*''Oggi le canto così, vol.3'' (1982)
*''Oggi le canto così, vol.4'' (1982)
*''Uomini'' (1983)
*''Insieme'' (1985, live with Gino Paoli)
*''Ornella &...'' (1986)
*''O'' (1987)
*''Il giro del mio mondo'' (1989)
*''Quante storie'' (1990)
*''Stella nascente'' (1992)
*''Io sono come sono...'' (1995)
*''Sheherazade'' (1995)
*''Argilla'' (1997)
*''Adesso'' (1999)
*''Un panino una birra e poi...'' (2001)
*''...e poi la tua bocca da baciare'' (2001)
* ''I concerti live @RTSI: Ornella Vanoni 5 Maggio 1982'' (2001, live from a tv show)
*''Sogni proibiti'' (2002)
*''Noi, le donne noi'' (2003)
*''Ti ricordi? No non mi ricordo'' (2004, with Gino Paoli)
*''Più di me'' (2008, duets album) (ITA: 3× platinum)
*''Più di te'' (2009, duets album) (ITA: gold)
*''Meticci (Io mi fermo qui)'' (2013)
*''Un pugno di stelle'' (2018)
*''Unica'' (2021)
Filmography
References
Much of the content of this article comes from
the equivalent Italian-language Wikipedia article (retrieved 28 March 2006).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vanoni, Ornella
1934 births
Living people
Singers from Milan
20th-century Italian women singers
21st-century Italian women singers