2023-08-22 23:08:26
The Italian singer and composer Toto Cutugno, on the occasion of the 38th international festival of Cartagena, at the Roman theater in Tunis, July 26, 2002. FETHI BELAID / AFP
« Let me sing/With guitar in hand… » Let me sing, with guitar in hand. So begins the song The Italian. First a single voice, slightly hoarse, that of its interpreter and composer Toto Cutugno, then an acoustic guitar, violins, a countermelody of mandolin further on. Composer of more than three hundred melodies for himself and for others, including his compatriots Ornella Vanoni or Adriano Celentano and several stars of French variety, but who will remain known by the general public for this great success that was The Italian in 1983 (text by Cristiano Minellono) Salvatore Cutugno, known as Toto Cutugno, died on Tuesday August 22, in Milan, at the age of 80. The announcement was made by his manager, at the end of the afternoon, specifying “that after a long illness, the state of the singer had worsened in recent months”.
Born July 7, 1943, in Fosdinovo, Tuscany, the second of three children, Toto Cutugno grew up in La Spezia, Liguria. His father, a Sicilian non-commissioned officer in the navy, is a trumpeter in his spare time in the municipal brass band. During a meeting with The worldin 2018, Toto Cutugno had condensed in a few words, his entry into music: ” My father (…) took me when I was 8 to a rehearsal and the conductor asked if I could drum. From the drum, I moved on to the drums, then to the accordion and the piano. »
The drums will be the instrument he plays in the first two groups in which he participates, Ghigo and Goghi, which leaves hardly any traces, and Toto ei Tati, founded in 1965. The latter records, until the end of the 1960s, a handful of 45s, and obtained a small success in Italy with The Beach Girl, pop fantasy with choirs, organ, violins. The following group, founded in 1974, Albatros, has a little more consistency, with the help of lyricist and producer Vito Pallavicini.
“Dedicate a song” to the Italians
Cutugno is the singer of the group which records until 1978 several 45-turns and an album. Some of the band’s songs will be adapted into French. The most famous is Africa (story of an African-American singer who encourages a return to Africa, sung in English by Cutugno) which in 1975 becomes Indian summer for Joe Dassin (adapted by Claude Lemesle and Pierre Delanoë). Which Dassin will also sing in 1976 Monja Monja become Once upon a time there were two of us while In the heart in the senses is transformed into Here are the keys for Gerard Lenorman.
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