An early celebrity, an illegitimate son and a terrible illness: what was the life of the most “Russian” Italian Toto Cutugno

Salvatore Cutugno was born on July 7, 1943 in the town of Fosdinovo, Tuscany. From childhood, his parents called him Toto – this is how his stage name later appeared.

The father of the future singer Domenico, originally from Sicily, served in the navy, and his mother Olga took care of the house and raised the children. Toto had an early interest in music and his father supported this interest: he taught his son to play the trumpet. Later, the boy will master drums, accordion and guitar, while Cutugno will not receive professional musical training, which will hinder him a little, even being a pop star.

At the age of 13, Toto experienced success for the first time: he won third place in a regional competition. And already at 14 he wrote his first song – of course, about love. The composition “La strada dell’amore” was dedicated to the young girl Anna-Maria, who then loved the future idol of millions of women.

The thoughtful expression of his face, which contrasted so much with the typical idea of ​​cheerful Italians, became the characteristic touch of Cutugno’s image. It turned out that this feature hides a tragic story from the singer’s childhood.

When Toto was five years old, he witnessed a terrible scene. Her seven-year-old sister Anna choked to death during dinner and died in front of everyone. For Cutugno, it was a real stress. The carefree boy has changed a lot and rarely smiles.

The troubles that haunt the children of the family do not stop there. A few months after Anna’s death, Toto’s brother Roberto was born, who later fell ill with meningitis, which greatly affected his health for the rest of his life. Another sister of Toto, Rosanna, underwent a heart operation, for which the father of the family had to go into debt.

All these events made Toto a real melancholy.

At the age of 19, Cutugno made his first tour in the group of jazzman Guido Manusardi. The concerts impressed the guy so much that he realized that he wanted to link his life only with music. Together with his brother and his friends, Toto formed his band with which he performed throughout Italy, entertaining audiences in bars and nightclubs.

But his career reached a whole new level in 1974 after meeting the poet Vito Pallavicini. Toto becomes a sought-after composer, writing songs for Joe Dassin, Dalida, Adriano Celentano and Mireille Mathieu, which immediately become hits. “And if you don’t exist”, “Hi”, “Ciao bambino, sorry” – it was Cutugno who gave us these melodies.

In parallel, Toto begins to develop a solo career. Charismatic, with a recognizable slightly hoarse voice, he immediately won the hearts of the public. Folk love brings the singer new victories: in 1980 he won the San Remo contest with the song Solo noi, and in 1990 – Eurovision with the song “Insieme: 1992”. It’s funny, but the main success of Cutugno – the song L’italiano – gave much more modest results. With her, the singer took only fifth place in San Remo in 1983, but the love of the audience again put everything in its place. The track conquered the charts all over Europe and everyone selflessly sang with Toto – “lashate mi kantare”.

In Cutugno’s personal life, everything also developed in a special way. Sensual Italian can be called monogamous – all his life he lived married with one woman, but another gave birth to his only child.

Behind this oddity lies another drama in Cutugno’s life.

He met his main love in 1967 at the Dragon Club in the popular resort town of Lignano. Her name was Karla, and it was impossible not to fall in love with her – luxurious hair, big dark eyes. Considering Toto was so handsome and majestic, they were a very handsome couple. In 1971 they got married and, like all lovers, dreamed of a big, happy family and a long, strong marriage. Alas, these dreams were only partially destined to come true.

Carla was pregnant with twins when the doctors announced: a woman should not give birth, it threatens serious health problems. Having lost her children, Carla also lost the opportunity to become a mother again, but Cutugno shared this grief with her beloved – he remained close. Toto never talked about leaving his Carla and starting a new family. But one day he still couldn’t resist – he started an affair with a stewardess named Christina, whom he met on a plane flight, and bluntly asked his mistress to give birth to her child. In 1989 his son Niko was born.

Adopting her husband’s child was a great moral test for Carla. But in the end, the woman let him into her life and treated the boy as her own. Relations with Cristina Cutugno ended.

The Italian scene was incredibly popular in the USSR and Cutugno returned the favor. He first visited the Soviet Union in 1985, at the invitation of Mikhail Gorbachev. And since then he has not forgotten the Russian public. The singer was a frequent guest in Russia, came with solo concerts and willingly participated in retrofestivals.

Cutugno was so steeped in the country that he even called himself Russian in his soul and considered Russia his second homeland. The singer performed with the ensemble. Alexandrov sang in the “Moscow Evenings” in Russian and Cutugno wrote the Moscow-inspired song “Buona Notte”.

The performances of the artist, however, have always been capricious. Once during a concert, he kissed 48 fans! Well, and the flowers with which Cutugno was filled could not be counted at all – the singer was especially fond of roses.

Bad luck, which seemed to haunt Cutugno’s loved ones and bring him health problems, finally caught up with him. In 2007, the singer was diagnosed with cancer. Years of difficult treatment began, the disease receded for a while, but then Toto needed chemotherapy again.

However, Cutugno did not give up. I tried to lead an active lifestyle – every day I took long walks, swam in the pool and even continued to give concerts. The last performances of the artist took place in 2023. Alas, the oncological disease turned out to be even stronger – and at the age of 80 Cutugno died of prostate cancer in the hospital San Raffaele from Milan.

He spent the last years of his life with his family in a villa in Portofino.

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