«Everyone has their favorite singers… mine was Lei. Rest in Peace wonderful Ornella, your voice, your personality, your light, will never leave us. Unique” he writes Laura Pausini; and again, «Hello legendary Ornella thank you for this interpretation for the voice for the constant irony”, the words of Vasco Rossi in a story to the tune of Every time. «Hi Ornella indelible voice of art, of life» comments Georgie. «Hi Ornella we will miss you so much» he writes Eros Ramazzotti. «Immense Ornella, knowing you and being your friend, talking to you, listening to you, was a great privilege. You leave an unfillable void. But also an invaluable artistic and human legacy. I love you. Happy travels in the cosmic light, happy return home, among the stars» Elisa. «Goodbye beloved Ornella, I will miss you so much» the farewell on social media Mara Venier. “My beloved darling” is the tweet from Luciana Litizzetto. «I can’t say anything. I’m speechless and I wasn’t ready for all this” is the reaction of Fabio Fazio. «It doesn’t seem possible to me. I can’t say anything at all.” Annalisa taken aback, she added: «It was a horrendous surprise, I’m immensely sorry. Ornella was immense with all her artistic and human manifestations. I send her a hug, I hope it reaches her.” For Simona Ventura it was «the greatest, an immense disappointment. Your music will remain in our hearts forever.”
Emma Dante on stage these days at the Grassi theater in Milan with The Angel of the Hearth underlines: «She promised me that she would come to see my new show in Milan. I was waiting for it with emotion. I learned the news of his death from a dear friend of mine and his who called me shocked, Ornella is dead and a piece of our life goes with her. With her goes her voice, her irony, her curiosity, her cheekiness, her teasing way of interpreting songs, her melody, her beauty and her passion for music, for young people, for new things. We will miss you very much, Ornella. Very much.”
Ornella Vanoni with Pippo Baudo in the show Fantastico 86 (in 1986)
Ornella Vanoni passed away on the evening of November 21st due to a sudden illness in his home in Milan. The singer had He turned 91 last September 22nd but it had already been a true myth for some time, recently reborn thanks to its regular presence on Sundays What’s the weather like?, where she expressed her sympathy, her intelligence, the free character and the beauty that had always distinguished her, without restraint. In fact, she has always been a myth and not because she was an unattainable figure shrouded in mystery, but precisely for his ability to be present on the scene for just under seventy years with his pyrotechnic personalityhis class as an artist and an incredible career so full of encounters with formidable characters that it seems like a novel.
It is no coincidence that she was a highly sought after guest on television programs until her last day, for the anecdotes she told, for her unpredictability and total indifference towards political correctness and the rules of television etiquette. For her ninetieth birthday she had given herself a gift, engraving I love you with Elodie and ditonellapiaga and then also Differenta new recording project for BMG. To then realize with Pacifico, Winner or losera sentimental diary rather than an autobiography of 90 spectacular years of life.
A human and artistic adventure born in the name of extraordinaryness: she, daughter of the rich Milanese bourgeoisie, becomes, at the age of twenty, the girl of Mala, in the environment of the Piccolo, a jewel of that Milan that was experiencing the season in which it taught the world a new idea of culture. To the great scandal of the right-thinking, Ornella becomes Giorgio Strehler’s partner who, with a brilliant intuition and the complicity of characters such as Dario Fo, Fausto Amodei, Fiorenzo Carpi and Gino Negri, stitched together a repertoire that has gone down in history: “The Songs of the Mala”, a work of intellectual ends, but presented as the result of research on ancient manuscripts of popular ballads.
Masterpieces like this are born But me And The cloaks. Having left the association with Strehler and the Piccolo environment, Vanoni came into contact with the first true generation of singer-songwriters, the Genoese School: love was born with Gino Paoli immortalized by one of the most beautiful songs in the history of Italian music, Endless. They remained friends with Gino Paoli all their lives, their concerts together were a great show and great fun due to the meeting-clash of two such strong personalities. From that moment, having entered the universe of song, she finds a unique expressive register, far from melodic conventions which allows her to range from covers of Roberto Carlos, The appointment to those of Piaf, The hotel by the houror Tammy Wynette, Tomorrow is another day until that brilliant intuition of Sergio Bardotti that makes them impact Desire, madness, recklessness and joy with Vinicius De Moraes and Toquinho, songs written by Jobim and Chico Buarque, a historic album that contributed to the popularization of Brazilian music in Italy.
Her sensuality and refined elegance contribute to the creation of an interpreter with unique characteristics in our panorama, an artist naturally devoted to an international scope who has collaborated with practically all the greatest Italian authors and artists, Lucio Dalla and Fabrizio De Andrè including and that she was also the first woman to win the Tenco Award for “best songwriter” because in the meantime she had also started writing songs.
The proof of creativity outside the traditional box is Ornella &an album recorded in the mid-80s in New York, after having collaborated several times with Gerry Mulligan, with artists of the caliber of Gil Evans, Herbie Hancock, George Benson, the brothers Michael and Randy Brecker, Ron Carter, which represents another memorable page in Italian discography, together with a songbook that is part of the collective memory. The greatness of Ornella Vanoni lies in her ability to never lose contact with musical realitybeyond fashions and the succession of trends, while avoiding the danger of being just a classic with an extraordinary vitality and a superior awareness that comes from a memorable life. Until the last day, when she passed away suddenly in her home in Milan.
