Tony Cucchiara

Personal

Vocation

Italian folk singer-songwriter, playwright and composer. Cucchiara debuted in the late 1950s, mainly recording cover versions of American hits, before starting in 1962 as a singer-songwriter. His first hit was the song "Annalisa," named after Cucchiara's first daughter, which was chosen as the closing theme of the RAI variety show "Alta pressione." In the following years he embraced folk music, first recording some classics of the Sicilian tradition, then starting with his wife Nelly Fioramonti as the musical duo 'Tony e Nelly,' entirely devoted to a folk repertoire. Not entirely abandoning pop music, in 1971 Cucchiara had his first major commercial success with the song "Vola cuore mio", which peaked at eleventh place on the Italian hit parade. After having debuted as a playwright in 1970 with the musical "Cassandra 2000," in 1972 Cucchiara found a large national and even international audience and critical success with the musical comedy 'Caino e Abele' ("Cain and Abel"). In 1973, his wife died after a difficult birth, in which his second son was born. In later years Cucchiara focused his career on the stage, as author of other successful plays such as "Pipino il Breve" (1978) and "La baronessa di Carini (1980)," and also worked as a television writer. He died on 3 May 2018, aged 80, in Rome. Link to Wikipedia biography