Songs for Dassin, Mathieu and Celentano
In 1974, the creative duo of composer Toto Cutugno and Italian lyricist Vito Pallavicini created their first composition – “Afrika” (“L’ete indien”). The piece entered the repertoire of French artist Joe Dassin and became one of the most popular hits of the 20th century. Cutugno and Pallavicini also wrote their best songs “Et si tu n’existais pas” and “Salut” for Dassin.
Chatting with Russian musician Yuri Loza “socialbites.ca” He noted that Cutugno contributed to the formation of many artists:
“Toto Cutugno is a melodist from God. These do happen, but rarely. It seems that people who can make melody from the same notes, from the same combinations … He practically gave a biography to many artists. For the same Joe Dassin, it is now impossible to imagine Joe Dassin without his songs. Many people should thank him. Almost everyone sang from him.
In the 1970s the Italian composer began working with other popular artists. Their songs were performed by Adriano Celentano (“Amore no”, “Soli”, “Un’po’ artista, un’po’ no”), Mireille Mathieu (“Ciao, bambino, sorry”), Michel Sardou (“En chantant). “, “Musica”, “6 billion 900 million 980 miles”) and others. Cutugno’s melodies were included in the set lists of the orchestras of Paul Mauriat, Franck Pourcelle and James Last.
“I wrote songs for different people. It is not easy, you need to feel the person, the mood. Vocal data is often the last thing. But when you feel that it is better for him to sing about lost love or new love, this is the real connection, ”the composer admitted.
In the late 1970s, Cutugno created the first soundtrack of his career for The Taming of the Shrew, in which Adriano Celentano played the main role.
Rejected hit “L’italiano”
Cutugno won the Sanremo Festival with “Solo noi” in 1980 and also won the Grand Prize at the Tokyo Song Contest. Three years later, he wrote the hit “L’italiano”, which took only fifth place in Sanremo. However, according to the results of the audience vote, the composition performed better than the other songs and the album “L’italiano” became “gold”. As a solo artist, Cutugno participated in the San Remo festival 13 times (twice – as part of the Albatross group).
Cristiano “Popi” Minellono was the co-author of the composition “L’italiano”, about stereotypical Italian life. There is a misconception that the song was performed by Celentano. This is not the case, but Cutugno said that the song was originally written specifically for Celentano, but he denied it.
russia love
In 1984, Cutugno’s popular composition “Serenata” was released, for which he was loved in the USSR. A year later, the singer went on a tour of the Soviet Union for the first time and performed in Moscow and Leningrad. The musician wrote the song “Buona notte”, inspired by the capital of the country.
In March 2006, a large solo concert of Toto Cutugno took place in the Moscow Kremlin. Many stars of domestic show business went to the main stage of the country to congratulate the master of the world stage, among whom were Diana Gurtskaya, Igor Nikolaev, Alexander Marshal, Tatyana Ovsienko. Over the years, Cutugno has performed duets (including in Russian) with Russian artists such as Mikhail Boyarsky, Irina Allegrova and Nadezhda Kadysheva.
in conversation with “socialbites.ca” Svetlana Svetikova recalled her performance with the Italian musician:
I will never forget the duet with Toto Cutugno. Naturally he is a legend. But when I went on stage with her, maybe for the first time I felt like a really attractive woman.
I was just 23 years old. I did not expect such an open and passionate attitude. This both scared and fascinated me. His incredible inner drive, his passion, his admiration for women. The music speaks for itself. Women still ask me and scold me for not marrying him. But to be honest, I’m sure it’s a very nice flirtation.”
It is known that Cutugno was friends with Alla Pugacheva. In 2009, the artist visited Moscow to attend the Retro FM Legends show, and in 2011, he took the stage with Mark Tishman and the Prime Minister’s group at the Kremlin Congress Palace.
In an interview, Cutugno explained that Russia is his second homeland: “I fell in love with this country at first sight in 1985 and have carried that love in my heart ever since.”
The composer also expressed that he dreams of marrying a Russian woman in his future life: “I really like Russian women. It’s not that hard to be a man with them!”
Victory at Eurovision 1990
In 1990, Cutugno represented Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest in Zagreb with the song “Insieme: 1992”, dedicated to the unity of Europe. The first-place singer won the right to host the country’s next song contest in Rome, and was co-hosted with Gigliola Cinquetti.
52 years of marriage
The singer has been married to his only wife, Carla Cutugno, since 1971. She could not bear a child to her husband, and at the same time forgave the novels. In 1989, the artist had an illegitimate son, named Niko, from flight attendant Christina Lanci.
“I had several women, but only one heart wife,” the artist said of Karl.