Gigliola Cinquetti is an Italian singer and TV presenter.
Biography
Cinquetti was born in Verona. At the age of 16 she won the Sanremo Music Festival in 1964 singing "Non ho l'età", with musiccomposed by Nicola Salerno and lyrics by Mario Panzeri. Her win enabled her to represent Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 1964 in Copenhagen with the same song, where she claimed her country's first ever victory in the event. Cinquetti became the youngest winner of the contest to date, aged 16 years and 92 days. Only one younger artist has triumphed since; Sandra Kim in 1986. The song became an international success, even spending 17 weeks in the UK Singles Chart and ending the year as the 88th best-selling single in the U.K. in 1964, something highly unusual for Italian-language material. It sold over three million copies, and was awarded a platinum disc in August 1964. In 1966, she recorded "Dio, come ti amo", which became another international hit. In 1974, Cinquetti took part in the Eurovision Song Contest again, this time held in Brighton, Sussex, United Kingdom. Her song was called "Sì", and came second to Swedish foursome ABBA with their song "Waterloo". Cinquetti scored a bigger UK hit single than she had ten years earlier, with an English-language version of "Sì" peaking at No. 8.
Sanremo performances
In the following occasions, Gigliola Cinquetti performed at the Sanremo Music Festival
She returned to fame in Eurovision Song Contest 1974, again representing Italy. Performing the song "Sì", the music and lyrics of which were written by Mario Panzeri, Daniele Pace, Lorenzo Pilat and Carrado Conti, she came second after "Waterloo", sung by Sweden's ABBA. According to author and historian, John Kennedy O'Connor's, The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History, the live telecast of her song was banned in her home country by the Italian national broadcasterRAI, as the event partially coincided with the campaigning for the 1974 Italian referendum on divorce which was held a month later in May. RAI censored the song because of concerns that the name and lyrics of the song could be accused of being a subliminal message and a form of propaganda to influence the Italian voting public to vote 'Yes' in the referendum. The song remained censored on most Italian state TV and radio stations for over a month. An English-language version of the song, "Go ", reached number 8 in the UK Singles Chart in June 1974.
Later career
One of her other songs, "Alle Porte del Sole", was re-recorded in English and Italian by Al Martino, two years after its initial release, and reached No. 17 on Billboard's Hot 100 in the United States. Cinquetti's own English version of the song was released as a single by CBS Records in August 1974, with her original 1973 Italian version on the B-side. Cinquetti went on to co-host the Eurovision Song Contest 1991 with Toto Cutugno, who had brought the event to Italy with his victory in Zagreb the previous year – the country's first win in the contest since her own twenty-six years earlier. In the 1990s she became a professional journalist and TV presenter, and she currently hosts the current affairs programme Italia Rai on RAI International.
