About to turn 80, Rita Pavone criticizes current music

By Angela Majoli - About to turn 80 on August 23, Italian singer Rita Pavone said that her greatest pride "is having come this far as a self-taught artist."

In an interview with ANSA, the artist, who still maintains the same energy that has led her to cross generations as she transformed from a "little girl from Turin" to an icon of Italian pop music, criticized the current music scene: "Achieving success is easy, maintaining it is difficult."

Regarding this, Pavone said she was "proud to have come this far as a self-taught artist." "After school, I went to work in a shirt factory, studied on my own, tried to understand what the world was like. And to think that, when I was very young, in my first interviews, I asked [singer and husband] Teddy Reno to answer [for me] because I was afraid of saying something stupid," revealed the Italian singer at the height of her 63-year career.

"I like to remember the successes born in a time when social networks and artificial intelligence didn't exist," added the singer, who was just 17 years old when she won, in 1962, the first edition of the festival for unknown artists in Ariccia, Lazio, which earned her her first record deal.

"A few months later, I recorded my first album, "La Partita di Pallone": I didn't even have a photo on the cover," recalled Pavone, who has just been awarded the Lunezia prize for her career.

The artist, who had her father as her first and greatest supporter, had an "unforgettable" year in 1963 with the release of the hits "Alla mia età"; "Sul cucuzzolo"; "Come te non c'è nessuno"; "Il ballo del mattone"; "Non è facile avere 18 anni" and "Datemi un martelo".

"And then [came] my favorite [song]: 'Cuore', the Italian version of 'Heart'", the American hit composed by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and performed by Wayne Newton.

But she wasn't limited to the stage, also acting in front of the cameras, as in the series "Il giornalino de Gian Burrasca", directed by Lina Wertmüller, with a soundtrack by Nino Rota and orchestrated by Luis Bacalov, who made the song "Viva la pappa col pomodoro" tour the world in 1964.

As if that weren't enough, Pavone also shone in musicals with other great Italian names, such as Totò, Giancarlo Giannini and Giulietta Masina.

Abroad, his voice has traveled to numerous countries: Brazil, Argentina, Spain and the United States, where he still has fans.

"I'll never forget when, on March 7, 1965, my name was written on the billboard after those of Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald," Pavone revealed in reference to a show in the US, where the American composer and singer, two landmarks of the country's music, also performed.

Married for 57 years to Italian-Swiss singer and producer Teddy Reno, creator of the Ariccia Unknowns Festival, the artist commented on the initial controversy surrounding her 1968 marriage in Switzerland: besides being 19 years younger, her husband was also civilly married in Italy to Vania Protti, with whom he had a son—at the time, divorce was illegal in Italy. The couple had two sons: Alessandro and Giorgio.

"Meeting Teddy changed my life. We've been married for 57 years and we live for each other and our children. It couldn't be better," Pavone said.

Regarding current music, the veteran says: "Talent wins, and success comes easily. These young artists put on impressive numbers, but they may only have two or three songs under their belt, and then they have to work on songs by other people or important guests."

"I used to dance, going from the mazurka to the tango, from the waltz to the tchá-tchá-tchá... Getting there is easy, maintaining it is what is difficult," added Pavone, comparing the current context with the height of his time.

Regarding her 80th birthday, she wants to celebrate it with her family.

"The best thing is to laugh together, to share happiness with two or three friends that we keep in our hearts," concluded the singer.

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