Italian singer Toto Cutugno died on Tuesday August 22 at the age of 80. He was particularly known for his title “L’Italiano”, released in 1983.
[Updated August 22, 2023 at 8:45 p.m.] Toto Cutugno, the unforgettable interpreter of the tube L’Italiano, died at the age of 80, at the San Raffaele hospital in Milan “after a long illness”, indicated, this Tuesday, August 22, 2023, the transalpine press agency Ansa, which echoed the manager of the artist. According to the latter, “the state of the singer had worsened in recent months”. The funeral will be held in Milan on Thursday, Il Corriere della Sera reported. He leaves behind his wife Carla and a 28-year-old son, Nico, from an extramarital relationship.
The singer had notably composed for many French artists, including Michel Sardou (En Chantant), Johnny Hallyday, Sheila, Dalida, and Gérard Lenorman. With his title Insieme: 1992, a song about Europe, Toto Cutugno won Eurovision in 1990.
A complete career
Born on July 7, 1943, Salvatore Cutugno, known as Toto Cutugno, achieved worldwide success in 1983 with the title Un Italiano vero (L’Italiano). The hit finished number one on the charts in Italy and Switzerland, and number two in France. The clip for the song, shot on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, is a succession of clichés about Italy and Italians: we see the singer eating pasta and flirting with the waitress. According to the newspaper Il Corriere della Sera, during his career he sold more than 100 million records.
In 1990, he became the second Italian to win the Eurovision Song Contest, with his song Insieme: 1992, a song about Europe. The singer-songwriter has also participated 15 times in the Sanremo song festival, a real institution, even going so far as to sing there with Ray Charles, in 1990.
He composed for many French singers, especially in the 1970s: from Michel Sardou (En chantant) to Mireille Mathieu via Gérard Lenorman, Joe Dassin (L’Été Indien), or even Johnny Hallyday. He also composed Adriano Celentano’s first song.
“After a long illness, the singer’s condition had worsened in recent months,” his manager Danilo Mancuso said on Tuesday, August 22. The singer had been hospitalized for several weeks for oncological treatment. The health of the singer-songwriter has deteriorated lately. He said he had his right kidney removed: “I can’t walk much. And I play on a stool. For 3 hours standing, I can’t play.”
In 2007, the singer had notably undergone surgery and then therapy, after prostate cancer had been detected in him.
“Ciao a Toto Cutugno, a real Italian” were the first words with which Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said goodbye to the singer. Among the other artists who have saluted his memory, we find the singer Laura Pausini, who speaks of “an artist, a man and a good and kind Italian”.
The Eurovision Song Contest paid tribute to him on the social network X (formerly Twitter), writing a simple “Rest in peace Toto Cutugno”, accompanied by the lyrics of the song with which he won the competition.
