Biography
Gianluigi Morandi was born in a little village called Monghidoro on the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines. His father Renato was active within the Italian Communist Party and Gianni used to help him sell the party newspapers. At an early age Morandi worked as a shoe-shiner, cobbler and as a candy vendor in the village's only cinema. His vocal abilities led him to a number of small gigs, some of which were during the Communist Party’s activities.
In 1962 he was signed by RCA Italiana and achieved national stardom with the song "Fatti mandare dalla mamma", and remained Italy’s darling throughout that decade. During the 1970s he experienced a period of decline; however, he regained popularity during the 1980s and won the Sanremo Music Festival in 1987 with "Si può dare di più" together with Enrico Ruggeri and Umberto Tozzi.
He also played as actor in several TV series, as well as the host in popular Italian television shows.
Morandi was chosen to be the presenter of Sanremo Music Festival 2011, together with Belén Rodriguez and Elisabetta Canalis. They were joined by comedians Luca Bizzarri and Paolo Kessisoglu from Italia 1's satire show Le Iene. In October 2011, he was confirmed as the presenter of the Sanremo Music Festival 2012.
Read more about this topic: Gianni Morandi
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