Ornella Vanoni has died at 91

E’ morta a Milano Ornella Vanoni. Aveva 91 anni. La notizia è stata diffusa dal sito del Corriere della Sera. Poco prima delle 23, la cantante milanese ha avuto un arresto cardiocircolatorio nella sua abitazione. I soccorritori del 118 sono arrivati quando purtroppo non c’era più niente da fare.

Interprete originale e raffinatissima, Ornella Vanoni è stata una delle regine della musica italiana, con una carriera molto lunga durante la quale è riuscita a cimentarsi in generi diversi, dalle Canzoni della Mala al jazz alla bossa nova, alla canzone d’autore, riuscendo a rendersi popolare grazie a uno stile interpretativo e un timbro vocale fortemente riconoscibili.

Durante la sua carriera sessantennale hanno scritto per lei molti tra i più importanti autori, non solo italiani, e ha collaborato con numerosi artisti, tra i quali Gino Paoli, Dario Fo, New Trolls, Paolo Conte, Fabrizio De André, Ivano Fossati, Lucio Dalla, Sergio Bardotti, Mogol, Giorgio Calabrese, Franco Califano, Bruno Lauzi, Grazia Di Michele, Renato Zero e Riccardo Cocciante.

The daughter of a pharmaceutical industrialist, after studying with the Ursulines she attended various boarding schools in Switzerland, France and England, studying languages and initially harbouring the ambition of becoming a beautician. In 1953 she enrolled at the Accademia di arte drammatica of Giorgio Strehler's Piccolo Teatro. She began performing as a singer during breaks between the acts of theatrical productions, singing ballads from the French Revolution in a raw, unusual voice.

In 1956 she made her debut as an actress in Pirandello's "Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore". The following year, writers such as Strehler, Dario Fo, Fiorenzo Carpi and Fausto Amodei drew on old dialect ballads to create the so-called "Canzoni della Mala", in which she sang of the fates of boys killed in the mines, crooks, the down-and-out and prisoners ("Canto di carcerati calabresi", "La Zolfara", "Senti come la vosa la sirena"). Strehler put together a show for her that reached the Festival di Spoleto in 1959, and curiosity and mystery grew around this singer, fuelled also by the fact that Strehler pretended these songs were rediscovered old ballads.

This is how the image of Ornella Vanoni as an "intellectual singer" was born, one who underscores the lyrics of the songs through her interpretation and gestures. The "Singer of the Mala" earned solid critical acclaim but ran into broadcast censorship and some accusations of upper-middle-class snobbery.

Ornella began recording with the historic label Ricordi, which launched its popular music division with her, releasing several singles from the mala repertoire ("Ma mi", "Hanno ammazzato il Mario").

Her meeting with Gino Paoli in 1960 drew her closer to the singer-songwriter tradition and led to a songwriter-performer collaboration that produced memorable tracks. From this point on, it was all music, records, TV and festivals. She won the San Genesio award for best actress in 1961 for Achard's "L'idiota" and Anton's "La fidanzata del bersagliere". The following year she was called on by Garinei and Giovannini to bring "Rugantino" to New York as well. In the meantime, she married the manager and former singer Lucio Ardenzi.

She won first prize alongside Modugno at the Festival di Napoli with "Tu sì na cosa grande", and also took second prize singing "Ammore mio" with Nunzio Gallo.

She scored two major hits in 1963 with "Senza Fine" and "Che cosa c'è", both written for her by Gino Paoli. In the following years she took part in several editions of the Sanremo Festival with the songs "Abbracciami forte" (1965), "Io ti darò di più" (1966), "La musica è finita" (1967), "Casa Bianca" (1968), written by Don Backy, and "Eternità" (1970).

At the end of the 1960s Vanoni recorded "Una ragione di più", "Un'ora sola ti vorrei", "L'appuntamento" (a cover of the Brazilian song "Sentado à Beira do Caminho" by Erasmo Carlos and Roberto Carlos) and "Non Dirmi Niente", a cover of Burt Bacharach's "Don't Make Me Over". In 1972 she sang "Quei giorni insieme a te", the theme from Lucio Fulci's thriller film "Non si sevizia un paperino".

In the meantime, she hosted 5 episodes of the TV show Studio Uno.

For a few years she moved to Rome and founded her own record label, “Vanilla”, while her musical activity continued with concept LPs, alongside the long-standing artistic and personal partnership with Sergio Bardotti, who led her to write the lyrics she performed and to collaborate — to great success — with New Trolls. It was also with Bardotti that Ornella drew close to the fantastical Brazilian world of Vinicius de Moraes and Toquinho, distilled in the 1976 album “La voglia la pazzia l'incoscienza l'allegria”. Her collaboration with Bardotti came to a close with the album “Ornella e….”, recorded with some of the world's leading jazz musicians: George Benson, Herbie Hancock, Steve Gadd, Gil Evans, Michael Brecker, Ron Carter.

In the 1980s she released “Ricetta di donna”, “Uomini” and “Ti lascio una canzone” (with Gino Paoli). In 1989 she returned to the Sanremo Festival with the song “Io come farò”. In 1999 she recorded “Alberi”, a duet with Enzo Gragnaniello. In 2004 she released an album of duets with Paoli to celebrate his seventieth birthday.

The inclusion of her song “L’Appuntamento” (1970) in the soundtrack of Steven Soderbergh's “Ocean's Twelve” in 2004 sparked an international rediscovery of her music.

In the summer of 2020 she signed a contract with record label Bmg and announced she was preparing a new album of original material, preceded by the single “Un sorriso dentro al pianto”, written by Francesco Gabbani. Titled “Unica”, the album was released on 29 January 2021 and consists of eleven tracks arranged and produced by Fabio Ilacqua; it features songwriting collaborations with Pacifico, Renato Zero, Giuliano Sangiorgi (who wrote the second single, Arcobaleno, also released on 29 January) and Gabbani, along with three duets: “Carezza d’autunno” with Carmen Consoli, “Tu/me” with Virginia Raffaele and “La mia parte” with Fabio Ilacqua. The same year saw the release of the witty, polished summer hit “Toy Boy”, with Colapesce e Dimartino, whose music video was directed by Luca Guadagnino. In September, the documentary film “Senza fine”, directed by Elisa Fuksas and produced by Tenderstories, premiered as a special event in the official selection of the “Giornate degli autori” at the 78th Venice International Film Festival; a meeting-turned-clash between the singer and the director woven through memories and songs, the film also features appearances by Paolo Fresu, Samuele Bersani and Vinicio Capossela.

In February 2023, Ornella Vanoni returned as a guest on the final night of the 73rd edition of the Sanremo Festival.

On 21 November 2025, the sad news of her passing arrived, at the age of 91.

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