Born on 4 March: Umberto Tozzi, ‘Ti Amo’ for over 50 years 

Umberto Tozzi was born in Turin in 1962. As a teenager, he abandoned a promising career as a footballer and joined the group Off Sound to travel around Italy, from venue to venue, sharing his music.

In 1976, he released his first solo album, featuring one of his best-known songs, ‘Un corpo, un'anima’. It was an instant success. The following year, ‘Ti Amo’ was a hit on the radio and conquered neighbouring countries, where the love song remained in the charts for many weeks. He was one of the first Italian artists to win the hearts of the French, long before Eros Ramazzotti. 

In the early 80s, the singer had a string of hits, including ‘Gloria’ and ‘Stella Stai’. But after the failure of his (already!) eighth album in 1984, the Italian took a break, before returning a few years later with ‘Si può dare di più’, with which he won the San Remo festival, a veritable institution in Italy. The 90s saw a succession of albums, concerts and tours.

In 2000, he returned to success in France with his cover of ‘Ti Amo’ with Monica Belluci in ‘Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra’. The song in question crosses generations and its covers are inexhaustible, since he will also be singing it as a duet with Lena Ka. "There's nothing more beautiful for an artist than to see his song travel so far and for so long," he confides. 

The years went by for the singer, who performed at Prince Albert of Monaco's wedding, saw his ‘Gloria’ featured in ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’, and performed a string of duets, such as with Corona... Tozzi was everywhere, even where he was least expected. After being weakened by cancer, he returned to the stage for what he announced would be his last tour: ‘L'Ultima Note Rossa’. After a career spanning more than 50 years and 80 million albums sold, it's certain that his hits will continue to resonate.

(MH with CMa - Photo: © Etienne Tordoir)
Photo: Umberto Tozzi on stage at the Cirque Royal in Brussels on 10 December 2023