Italian media, including Corriere della Sera, La Stampa and the AGI news agency, reported that she suffered cardiac arrest late on Friday.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni paid tribute on Saturday, calling Vanoni’s voice “unmistakable” and saying Italy had lost “a unique artist who leaves us with an unrepeatable artistic heritage.”
seven-decade career made her a defining voice of Italian music, bridging styles and generations. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni paid tribute to Vanoni and her “unmistakable” voice.
Ornella Vanoni (in black and white) raises a finger in a tight photo to her face
Tributes from across Italian music poured in for Ornella Vanoni [File: December 7, 2023]Image: Piero Cruciatti/AFP/Getty Images
Ornella Vanoni, one of Italy’s most distinctive singers whose voice helped define generations of popular music, has died at her home in Milan at the age of 91.
Italian media, including Corriere della Sera, La Stampa and the AGI news agency, reported that she suffered cardiac arrest late on Friday.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni paid tribute on Saturday, calling Vanoni’s voice “unmistakable” and saying Italy had lost “a unique artist who leaves us with an unrepeatable artistic heritage.”
A defining voice of ‘musica leggera’
Vanoni was born in Milan in 1934 and grew up in a well-to-do family that sent her to schools in Italy and across Europe.
Her first artistic home was the theatre: Milan’s Piccolo Teatro, where director Giorgio Strehler became her mentor and, for a time, her partner.
Later in life, she wrote that stepping onto the Piccolo’s stage for the first time was a moment when she “became who [she] truly was.”
The turn toward music was unexpected, but after being encouraged by Strehler, Vanoni began performing songs about Milan’s criminal underworld, earning her the nickname “Cantante della mala” (“singer of the underworld”).
