SOLOVAI ITALY – TOTO KUTUNHO

No matter how strange it looked, but this singer and composer, the world fame to which came thanks to the song “L’italiano”, is more popular and loved abroad than in its homeland. Of course, in Italy, everyone knows Toto Cutugno, they sing his songs, but it was in the Apennines that the performer’s critics were constantly smashed to pieces, not finding anything original in Kutunyo’s compositions. But the paradox is that the audience never agreed with their opinion – Toto was and remains the favorite of the public, who became the face of the Sanremo festival, almost every year presenting a new hit on it, and then disappearing from the native stage until next season .

Sea and music
In the Tuscan town of Fosdinovo, in the Kutuno family, on July 7, 1943, a boy was born, named Salvatore, but his mother, Olga, from childhood, called her son Toto. Under this name, he later became a famous singer. The nursery and singer Toto Cutuñojuno years Kutuno passed in the port city of La Spezia, where they transferred Father Domenico Kutuno, a sailor. Father’s love for the sea passed on to his children. Toto did not know how to stand confidently on his feet, but in the water he felt like a fish, and later he disappeared on city beaches, dreaming of long journeys and deep feelings.

Toto Cutugno’s father played the trumpet well and, like a real Italian, encouraged his son to study music. The boy mastered the drum kit, then learned to play the guitar and accordion. So music confidently entered the life of Salvatore. First, the young man graduated from school, and after he entered the lyceum as an accountant, because in the family they considered it obligatory to receive a document on the “real” profession. Of course, this “crust” of Toto was not useful, in his specialty he did not work for a day.

Road of first love
At the age of 14, Toto learned what first love is, and under the influence of this feeling, the first song was born in his heart, which he called “La strada dell’amore” (“The Road of Love”). Later, Cutugno called her awfully ugly, but did it have any meaning. A start was made.

A few months before, Salvatore had participated in the accordion competition, in which he took third place. For the young man it was a great success, because the singer Toto Kutunoego rivals were musicians much older.

Over time, he mastered playing the saxophone and piano, falling in love with jazz, and at the age of 19, with the jazzman Guido Manuzardi, he went on tour in Scandinavia. The tour was a huge success, and this determined the fate of Toto – he decided to finally connect his life with music.

Returning from a tour, Cutugno gathers a band Toto e Tati. It included Toto’s younger brother, Roberto, and their three friends, Massimo Vigano, Gigi Tone, and Lino Lozito. For a couple of years, the guys visited many clubs and bars in different parts of Italy. It is necessary to admit that the performances of beginning musicians have not always been successful. They couldn’t charm the audience with anything special, since they were playing other people’s already popular songs, so they didn’t differ from their own hundreds of other Italian bands of that time.

Toto Kutuno
In 1975, the group Cutuño Toto e Tati broke up, but the singer gathers a new team – Albatros. With him, he again tours the country, speaking at discos and clubs. In one of these institutions, Toto was noticed by the famous Italian songwriter Vito Pallavicini. The musician invited Cutugno to his studio to get a closer look at his work. After this meeting, Vito was simply amazed by Toto’s talent for composing. It was Pallavicini who opened the door to the world of show business for Kutuno, he introduced him to famous musicians, the singer Toto Kutunoyi helped to establish profitable cooperation with them. As a result of this work, great hits were born that became the adornment of Joe Dassin’s repertoire, “Et si tu n`éxistais pas”, “Salut” and “L`été Indien”.

For the famous French singer Johnny Holliday, Toto created the composition Derrierre l’amour (For Love), which even the legendary Paul Mauriat included in his repertoire.

Cutugno works with his countrymen. He wrote several songs for Adriano Celentano (Soli, Non’è, Amore? No!), Ricchi è Poveri, Ornella Vanoni, Gianni Nadzaro and other artists. Also Toto Cutuño creates music for the Taming of the Shrew tape.

And with his group Albatros the singer participates in 1976 in the festival of San Remo. The composition “Volo AZ-504” (“Flight AZ-504”) brings musicians not only the third place, but also the love of the audience.

Conquest of Sanremo
Since then, Toto’s career is rapidly gaining momentum. His hit “Donna, donna mia” was chosen in the form of a musical saver for the program by the famous Italian singer Toto Kutuno, the TV presenter Mike Bonjorno. Cutugno was not sure that this song could win such a success, but Bonjorno insisted that it be aired by the author. “Donna, donna mia” was the leader of the Italian and French charts for more than a month, inspiring Cutugno to go to the San Remo festival in 1980.