Antonio Lardera (born 30 June 1936), better known by his stage name Tony Dallara, is an Italian former singer, actor and television personality.

Biography

Dallara was born in

Campobasso Campobasso (, ; nap, label= Campobassan, Cambuàsce ) is a city and '' comune'' in southern Italy, the capital of the region of Molise and of the province of Campobasso. It is located in the high basin of the Biferno river, surrounded by ...

in southern Italy, but grew up 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 ...

. After working as barman and clerk, he began his musical career in the band Rocky Mountains (the future group

I Campioni I, or i, is the ninth letter and the third vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''i'' (pronounced ), plural ...

); his singing style was inspired, in particular, by American singers such as

Frankie Laine Frankie Laine (born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio; March 30, 1913 – February 6, 2007) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor whose career spanned nearly 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final ...

and Tony Williams. In 1957, he signed a contract as singer with the Italian label Music, where he was working as delivery man. His first single " Come prima", although refused for admission to the Sanremo Festival, was published in December 1957 and sold 300,000 copies, becoming the biggest selling single in Italy up to that point. In 1960 Dallara won 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 ...

and the ''

Canzonissima ''Canzonissima'' was an Italian musical variety show broadcast by Rai 1 from 1958 to 1974, aired on Saturday evening except for the last two editions in which it was aired on Sunday afternoon. The program was referred to as "the synthesis and the ...

'' competition with the song "Romantica"; the following year he won again ''Canzonissima'' with the song "Bambina bambina".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dallara, Tony 1936 births Living people People from Campobasso Italian male singers Italian television personalities Sanremo Music Festival winners