Singer-songwriter Gino Paoli dies at 91

The singer-songwriter Gino Paoli He died at the age of 91 in his hometown, Genoa, as reported by the family to several Italian media such as La Stampa.

The author of songs like ‘Sapore di mare’, ‘Sapore di sale’, ‘La gatta’ and ‘Senza fine’, Paoli was one of the great promoters of classical Italian song.

“Tonight, Gino left us with serenity, surrounded by the love of his loved ones.“, his family reported in a statement in which they also asked for “maximum privacy during his farewell.”

The singer-songwriter died four months after his former partner, Ornella Vanoni, also one of the great female voices of Italian music, died.

He was born in Monfalcone in 1934 and grew up in his native Genoa in post-war Italy, amid the ashes of fascism. Along with artists such as Luigi Tenco, Bruno Lauzi, Fabrizio De André and Umberto Bindi, he was a key figure in this musical genre.

Paoli began singing at the age of 26, debuting in 1959 with ‘Senza parole’, the first station of a repertoire of historical songs.

Thus, he has forged a 60-year musical career, during which he announced his retirement up to three times. In 1963 he shot himself in the chest and since then he lived with a bullet lodged in his pericardium.

In 2015, he received the prize from the Cartagena La Mar de Músicas festival in Spain, converted into a jazz singer after having been, in that order, a light song voice, a star in San Remo, a painter, a talent scout – he discovered Lucio Dalla and Fabrizio de André – and a communist politician: he became a deputy of the Italian Communist Party between 1987 and 1992.