“Lasciate me cantare, con la chittara in mano…” Who has not hummed one day, even in yogurt, The Italiano, hit by Toto Cutugno, released in 1983? This success will undoubtedly long survive the transalpine artist who died on Tuesday. His manager informed the Italian news agency Ansa that the star died around 4 p.m. in a hospital in Milan, as relayed La Repubblica.
If his name is not the most familiar to the whole of the French public, many of his compositions are nevertheless part of our musical heritage. Toto Cutugno thus signed the music of behind the love for Johnny Hallyday in 1976 and Singing for Michel Sardou in 1978. Several of his pieces have been taken up in French. So, The Italiano was revisited for Hervé Villard in Mediterranean. Let me dance by Dalida is none other than a cover of his Voglio the anime and Here are the keys by Gérard Lenorman an adaptation of Nel cuore nei sensi composed by the Italian. Several hits by Joe Dassin, and not the least – Whistle on the hill, Indian summer, And if you did not exist, Once upon a time there were two of us … – all come from Toto Cutugno’s repertoire.
Born in Liguria in 1943, Toto (Salvatore in civil status) Cutugno created his first band at the age of 19. It was with his second formation, Albatros, launched in 1975, that he achieved national notoriety. In group (twice) or solo, in all, Toto Cutugno has participated fifteen times in the Sanremo Festival. He finished second seven times but won only once in this major meeting of Italian song. It was in 1980, with the song Solo black.
Although particularly productive and with many international successes as a singer or composer, Toto Cutugno was not the musical prophet he should have been in Italy where Adriano Celentano, Al Bano or Gianni Morandi are much more celebrated. . In 1990, it was in virtual general indifference that he won Eurovision with the song First: 1992, the text of which evokes… the Treaty of Maastricht. Rai was so disinterested in the contest that it broadcast it on a delayed basis. A year later, however, the channel chose Toto Cutugno to co-host, with Gigliola Cinquetti, Eurovision organized in the Cinecittà studios. An exercise in which he had proved particularly inept.
Although he ranked second and fourth respectively at the Sanremo Festival in 2005 and 2008, Toto Cutugno has not really regained the success of previous decades with his compositions. He enjoyed