Vita gazette – Toto Cutugno, “true Italian” music legend, has died. Thursday, the funeral in Milan.

Toto Cutugno, one of the most famous Italian songwriters of the twentieth century and author of songs representing Italy worldwide, such as L’italiano del 1983, has died. His manager, Danilo Mancuso, gave the news to the Ansa agency. Cutugno was originally from Fosdinovo, in Tuscany, and was 80 years old.

He participated in fifteen editions of the Sanremo Festival (a record shared with four other singers), winning it in 1980 with the song Solo noi and arriving many times in the top three. In 1990 he also won the Eurovision Song Contest, the leading European music competition, with the song Together: 1992. He was one of the three Italian singers or groups to have succeeded so far (the others are Gigliola Cinquetti and the Maneskin).

After studying music as a child, Cutugno, born with the name Salvatore, began playing in various groups, mainly as a drummer. The first in which, in addition to playing, he began to sing were the Albatros, with whom he participated in the Sanremo Festival in 1976 with the song Volo AZ504, which finished third. That same year he also made his debut as a soloist with the 45 Laps Like yesterday, like today, like always / Mother Girl, and the following year he wrote the song Soli for Adriano Celentano, which was a success with the public. His debut album, I Want the soul, was released in 1979.

The great success came in the eighties, above all thanks to his seven participations in the Sanremo Festival: in addition to the one won in 1980, we remember the one in 1983 in which he presented L’italiano, which came in fifth place, and the one in 1986 with Azzurra melancholy, which came fourth. The Italian was a massive success in Italy and abroad, particularly in the countries of the then Soviet Union, where Cutugno became very popular.

In the nineties, he also conducted several television broadcasts on Rai, including your facts. In 2007 he had prostate cancer, and the following year he returned to Sanremo with the song A Falcon closed in a cage. His last participation dates back to 2010 with Aeroplani.