STRAPLINE OBITUARY
STRAP XXXXXXXXX OBITUARY
Insieme United Together Toto Cutugno 7 July 1943 – 22 August 2023
One of the most successful Italian singer- songwriters, who also won the 1990 Eurovision Song Contest,Toto Cutugno, has died almost seven weeks after celebrating his 80th birthday. Salatore Cutugno, who became affectionately known as Toto, was born in Tuscany but, while he was still young, his parents moved to the region of Liguna where he spent his childhood. His early life was not without personal tragedy and, at the age of five, he witnessed the death of his seven-year-old sister, Anna, who died from choking. Another sister,
Rosanna, developed heart complications and became the first child in Italy to successfully receive heart surgery.Toto also had a brother named Roberto. Always interested in music,Toto learned to play the drums and started the band Toto e i Tati.This was followed by another band, Albatros, together with Lino Losito and Mario Limongelli. Known for its disco style, Albatros entered the Samremo Music Festival in 1976 and came joint third with Volo AZ 504 ( Flight AZ 504 ). Part spoken and part sung, with the incorporation of electronic synthesised
sounds that would become more commonplace during the late 1970s and early 1980s, the song was about two people saying goodbye as one of the couple boarded Alitalia Flight 504.The following year, Albatros failed to qualify with Gran Premio ( Grand Prize ). By the mid-1970s,Toto was also making his mark as a songwriter, working with French-American singer, Joe Dassin, on hits such as L’été Indien ( Indian Summer ), Et Si Tu N’existais Pas ( What IfYou Didn’t Exist ) and Le Jardin Du Luxembourg ( The Garden Of Luxembourg ). This
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