Showgirl, singer, dancer, actress, television and radio presenter and television author. Raffaella Carrà has been and will remain a female icon on the Italian artistic and television scene.
In the beginning, when she was only 8 years old, her first love was dance. In Rome, she led to the film industry and made her first appearance when she was still a child. Then she began to study, and in 1960 she graduated from “The Experimental Cinematography Center Foundation “ (Centro sperimentale di cinematografia). She will appear in some milestones of Italian cinema. Here you some examples: La lunga notte del '43 by Florestano Vancini and I compagni by Mario Monicelli. She got a leading role in the American production Il colonnello Von Ryan, with Frank Sinatra. An all-around entertainer, as an actress, she was active above all in the 1960s and 1970s.
Raffaella Carrà also appears in one of the greatest Italian films of this century, Buongiorno, notte by Marco Bellocchio (2003), in a highly symbolic scene of the everyday life of terrorists while dramatic pages of Italian history were being written.
She was a very talented woman with strong singing skills and, above all, a person with strong communicative power. Yes, because through the screen, she not only entered the homes of Italians but sat right next to them, making them experience the same emotions as her guests and making them excited. She amazed us with her stories, her interviews, her films and her contagious laughter. Her laughter is a distinctive feature that made her recognisable among millions of people. She was an icon of style with her timeless looks, such as her hairstyle: her blond bob, which has remained unchanged over time and is still a symbol of class and elegance today.
Throughout her career, she has sold more than 60 million records, as she declared. In autumn 2020, a British newspaper crowned Raffaella Carrà as Europe's sex symbol.
She has made countless films, presented numerous television programmes and won numerous prizes such as the Telegatto and other TV awards.
Her charisma, her simplicity, her love for others made her feel like a friend to everyone. In addition to her films, we remember very well the television programmes in which she moved thousands of people. Programmes such as "Amore", in which she promoted solidarity initiatives such as long-distance adoption, which succeeded in involving hundreds of thousands of people.
Then the programme "Carramba! Che sorpresa' ('What a surprise') introduced the word 'Carramba' or 'Carrambata' into the Italian lexicon to designate a spectacular and sudden surprise. And this time, the Carrambata came from her. And certainly not a joyful Carrambata.
Raffaella has broken many patterns, such as showing her navel on television: she caused an initial scandal in the 1970s with the famous Tuca Tuca.
She became an icon of Italian music and had great success abroad, particularly in South America, France and Spain. Such was Raffaella Carrà's popularity in Spain that in 2020 the musical "Ballo Ballo" was made with her most famous songs: she appeared in a short frame of the video.
In our countless trips outside Italy, we often came across Italian districts or at parties and evenings in honour of Italians... and always... she was the one who held court among the Italian songs with that song "Com'è bello far l'amore da Trieste in giù...". Yes, because like us of Visit Italy, she loved all of Italy, from Trieste on down.
An illness slowly extinguished her and, reserved as ever, she preferred to keep the spotlight off this aspect of her private life.She wanted to leave the memory of her untouched by such a painful episode as illness.
Goodbye, Raffaella, you will always be the number one!
