The most loved by Italians. Raffaella Carrà ( in the photo), queen of Italian television, passed away today, July 5, at the age of 78, after battling a disease which he had preferred to keep secret. The sad news was given by his lifelong companion, Sergio Japino, with a few touching words: “She left us. She went to a better world”. Italian showgirl, singer, dancer, actress, TV presenter, radio and television author: “Raffa” – born Raffaella Maria Roberta Pelloni, in ’43, proudly from Romagna – was all over the course of her long and amazing career started when she was just 8 years old: in 1952, in fact, she was already in front of the camera as an actress in the film “Torment of the Past” by Mario Bonnard and hasn’t stopped since.
The film debut was followed by the television debut in “Tempo di danza” (1961) alongside Lelio Luttazzi and, after various participation in radio broadcasts, in 1969 with the show “Io, Agata e Tu” (with Nino Taranto and Nino Ferrer) launched a new style of showgirl, snappy and modern, destined to inspire many television showgirls such as Heather Parisi and Lorella Cuccarini in the following decades.
In 1970 she was alongside Corrado in “Canzonissima” where she gave scandal by showing her navel in the opening theme “Ma che musica maestro!”, a song that reached the top of the charts and consecrated her as the new star of the Italian show: actress, showgirl, presenter, dancer and also successful singer with songs destined to become eternal catchphrases (“Tuca tuca”, “Rumore”, “Tanti auguri”, “A far l’amore comincia tu”, “Ballo ballo”) which also launched her as a sexy icon, both for her sensual way of dancing and for the risqué lyrics (at that time …) so as to push the British newspaper The Guardian, in the autumn of 2020, to crowning her as a European sex symbol, calling her “the cultural icon who taught Europe the joys of sex” (the article: Raffaella Carrà: the Italian pop star who taught Europe the joy of sex).
After all, Raffaella, in addition to being sexy, was beautiful and, inevitably, also desired by the “big names” of the show: among the relationships that were attributed to her when her career was taking off, the one with Frank Sinatra with whom starred in Mark Robson’s “Colonel Von Ryan” (1965). A story never confirmed by Raffaella, very confidential about her private life. A beautiful and sexy woman, yes: but old-fashioned.
In the 1980s Carrà was definitively consecrated as the undisputed queen of Italian television, with hugely successful programs such as “Pronto, Raffaella”, “Domenica in”, “Fantastico”. Then, after a fortunate interlude in Madrid (with the program “Hola Raffaella” for Spanish television), he returned to Italy in 1995 successfully proposing himself again in “Carramba! What a surprise” and continuing to gather support until he conquered the stage of the Festival di Sanremo, which he conducted in 2001.
Always ready for new artistic experiences, he launched original television “formats” and in 2013 he got back into the game as coach of the talent show “The Voice of Italy”.
Impossible to list all the other programs with which he was the absolute protagonist of the small screen in Italy and all his successes as a 360 ° artist. Suffice it to recall that, in the course of her career, Raffaella Carrà has sold more than 60 million records, obtaining over 20 platinum and gold records.
Despite an artistic “curriculum” that perhaps no one in Italy has, Raffaella has always remained simple and modest. Until the end. In his latest dispositions, he asked for a simple unfinished wooden coffin and an urn to hold his ashes. Nothing else. After all, Raffaella needs nothing else. Because she will remain forever in all Italians’ hearts.
