Claudio Villa

Claudio Villa (born Claudio Pica; 1 January 1926 – 7 February 1987) was an Italian singer and actor. He recorded over 3000 songs, sold 45 million records, and appeared in 25 musicals during his career.

Biography Claudio Villa was born Claudio Pica in the Trastevere quarter of Rome in 1926. His parents named him after Claudio Serio. Many songs made famous by Villa, like ", were recorded for the Fonit Cetra label.

Villa performing "" at the Sanremo Music Festival 1962. In the lower right corner: orchestra conductor Cinico Angelini. At the top centre: Pino Rucher at the guitar and Pierino Munari at the drums.

Together with Domenico Modugno Villa holds the record for the most wins at the Sanremo Music Festival, where he won the competition in 1955, 1957, 1962 and 1967. In 1963, he won the Festival di Napoli with the song "". He also sang at another Italian music competition, , a television event shown on RAI from 1956 to 1974. He won in 1964 with " and in 1966 with "Granada". He competed in the Eurovision Song Contest in with "" and came in ninth; in , he was again at Eurovision with "", finishing eleventh. His compositions "" and "" featured on the soundtrack of Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese's 1973 film, Mean Streets, thus gaining him a broader appreciative international audience.

In 1957, he was subjected to a curious "trial" by the magazine, after one of his declarations was deemed presumptuous and immodest, in which the public was asked to vote for guilt or acquittal. He was acquitted. The same procedure was repeated in 1960, and from the pages of the magazine, he received a defensive harangue by Pier Paolo Pasolini, who took sides for the singer's acquittal. He was acquitted with the vote of 138,225 readers.

In 1981, Claudio Villa's name was included in a member list found in police raids of properties owned by Licio Gelli, showing Villa's membership in the clandestine neofascist criminal organization Propaganda Due.

His death in 1987 by a heart attack was announced live by the host Pippo Baudo during the last night of that year's Sanremo Festival.

In 1976, however, Villa did cross the Atlantic for a tour of eastern Canada, notably in Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa. He also travelled to perform in New York. In Montreal, he played three consecutive nights at Cinema Riviera. He performed with his regular band except for the guitarist and bassist who were local musicians. The former was a well-known Italian Montreal musician named Franco Barbuto.

Selected filmography Song of Spring (1951) (1952) (1952) Love Song (1954) (1955) (1956) (1957) (1958) Fountain of Trevi (1960)