Italy’s beloved singer Ornella Vanoni dies aged 91

Italian Singer Ornella Vanoni arrives to attend La Scala opera house's gala season opener, Giuseppe Verdi's opera 'Don Carlo' at the Milan La Scala theater, Italy, Thursday Dec. 7, 2023. The season-opener Thursday, held each year on the Milan feast day St. Ambrose, is considered one of the highlights of the European cultural calendar. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ornella Vanoni, one of Italy’s most prolific singers whose career spanned six decades, died on Friday at the age of 91, Italian media said.

The singer died at home in Milan following a cardiac arrest, the Corriere della Sera daily and Agi news agency reported.

Vanoni was one of the most accomplished and beloved singers of “musica leggera”, popular music from the 1960s onwards.

She was instantly recognizable for her red curls and voice that shifted effortlessly from a smoky alto to clear, penetrating heights.

With over 50 million records sold, Vanoni frequently collaborated with other high-profile artists from George Benson and Herbie Hancock to Franco Califano and Gino Paoli, with whom she had a long artistic collaboration and romantic affair.

Vanoni enjoyed some of her biggest commercial successes in the late 1960s and 1970s with hits such as “La Musica e Finita” (“The Music is Over”), “Eternita” (“Eternity”), “L’Appuntamento” (“The Date”), and “Una Ragione di Piu” (“One More Reason”).

Born September 22, 1934, in Milan, Vanoni started her career on the stage but began singing songs about the Milanese underworld in her 20s under the tutelage of Giorgio Strehler, the renowned theatre director who became her lover and mentor.

In 1964, she won the Festival di Napoli, a now-defunct song competition in Naples, and went on to participate eight times at the Sanremo Festival, coming second in 1968 with “Casa Bianca” (“White House”).

She was the first singer in the history of the prestigious annual song festival to receive a career award, in 1999.

Italian Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli said in a statement that the nation had lost “one of its most original and refined artists”.

“Thanks to her unique voice and unparalleled talent as a performer, she has left her mark on the history of Italian song, theatre and entertainment,” he said.

In later years, the outspoken Vanoni was frequently featured in gossip magazines, revealing secrets of her former affairs, and she continued to perform and record, with the studio album “Unica” (“Unparalleled”) released in 2021.