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| Gigliola Cinquetti |
Today, The Watsons continue working in Rennette Watson's candidature to participate in the next Eurovision Song Contest.
The Grandma has offered them a new Cambridge Key English Test A2 Example and she has been talking to them about Gigliola Cinquetti, the Italian singer who became one of the youngest one to win the Contest in 1964 singing Non ho l'età a beautiful song that was a great hit in the 60's.
Gigliola Cinquetti is one of the singers who have participated twice in Eurovision. She returned in 1974 with the song Sì but it was the year of ABBA and their Waterloo and came second.
The Grandma wants to remember Gigliola Cinquetti, the artist who represented a country that is able to pass the most terrible of all catastrophes but continue as beautiful and strong as always. Forza Italia!
Gigliola Cinquetti (born 20 December 1947) is an Italian singer and TV presenter.
Cinquetti was born in Verona. At the age of 16 she won the Sanremo Music Festival in 1964 singing Non ho l'età, with music composed by Nicola Salerno and lyrics by Mario Panzeri.
Her win enabled her to represent Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 1964 in Copenhagen with the same song, where she claimed her country's first ever victory in the event.
Cinquetti became the youngest winner of the contest to date, aged 16 years and 92 days. Only one younger artist has triumphed since; Sandra Kim in 1986.
The song became an
international success, even spending 17 weeks in the UK Singles Chart
and ending the year as the 88th best-selling single in the U.K. in 1964,
something highly unusual for Italian-language material. It sold over
three million copies, and was awarded a platinum disc in August 1964. In
1966, she recorded Dio, come ti amo, which became another
international hit.
More information: Eurovision
In 1974, Cinquetti took
part in the Eurovision Song Contest again, this time held in Brighton,
Sussex, United Kingdom. Her song was called Sì, which translates as Yes in English, and which became quite controversial in Italy at the
time, with a referendum on the legalisation of divorce in the offing,
because of the title, and came second to Swedish foursome ABBA with
their song Waterloo.
Cinquetti scored a
bigger UK hit single, in terms of chart placing, than she had ten years
earlier, with an English-language version of Sì, entitled Go (Before
You Break My Heart), peaking at No. 8.
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| Gigliola Cinquetti winning Eurovision in 1964 |
According to author and historian, John Kennedy O'Connor's, The Eurovision Song Contest -The Official History, the live telecast of her song was banned in her home country by the Italian national broadcaster RAI, as the event partially coincided with the campaigning for the 1974 Italian referendum on divorce which was held a month later in May.
RAI censored the song because of concerns that the name and lyrics of the song, which constantly repeated the word Sì, could be accused of being a subliminal message and a form of propaganda to influence the Italian voting public to vote Yes in the referendum.
The song remained censored on most Italian state TV and radio stations for over a month.
An English language version of the song, Go (Before You Break My Heart), reached number 8 in the UK Singles Chart in June 1974.
More information: Elegancepedia
One of her other songs, Alle Porte del Sole, released in 1973, was re-recorded in English as Door of the Sun and Italian by Al Martino, two years after its initial release, and reached No. 17 on Billboard's Hot 100 in the United States. Cinquetti's own English version of the song was released as a single by CBS Records in August 1974, with her original 1973 Italian version on the B-side.
Cinquetti went on to co-host the Eurovision Song Contest 1991 with Toto Cutugno, who had brought the event to Italy with his victory in Zagreb the previous year -the country's first win in the contest since her own twenty-six years earlier.
In the 1990s she became a professional journalist and TV presenter, and she currently hosts the current affairs programme Italia Rai on RAI International.
More information: Eurovoix
Lascia che io viva un amore romantico
Nell'attesa che venga quel giorno
Ma ora no.
Leave me to live a romantic love
Waiting for that day to arrive
But not now.
Nell'attesa che venga quel giorno
Ma ora no.
Leave me to live a romantic love
Waiting for that day to arrive
But not now.
Gigliola Cinquetti
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