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Caterina Valente
Caterina Germaine Maria Valente (14 January 1931 – 9 September 2024) was an Italian-French multilingual singer, guitarist, and dancer. She spoke six languages and sang in thirteen. While she was best known as a performer in Europe, Valente spent part of her career in the United States, where she performed alongside Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Perry Como, and Ella Fitzgerald, among others.
Caterina Valente was born in Paris on 14 January 1931 to Italian parents Giuseppe Valente (from San Biagio Saracinisco) and Maria Siri (born in Rome to a Genoese family). Her parents were musicians from a family that had been in show business for seven generations. Her mother was a varieté artist and a mime. The girl's first love was jazz; she listened to Duke Ellington, Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith at home. When she listened to Billie Holiday first, at about age five, she cried and knew that she wanted to become a singer. She was trained in ballet early. She toured with her parents in the 1930s, sometimes appearing on stage; her career began in 1936 at the Friedrichsbau theatre in Stuttgart. She appeared as guitarist in a family sextet with her parents and three siblings.
When World War II began, the family toured in Switzerland and could not return to Paris. They accepted an engagement in Germany to survive. They had to help with troop support. At age 13 she experienced the bombing of Breslau, helped to rescue victims and care for them; she later described it as hell: trying to rescue a person and finding severed body parts. They returned to France after stays in several Russian camps. She worked there as a freelance singer in clubs, performing chansons, some composed by Gilbert Becaud for her.
Grock, the clown who ran the circus in which her husband worked, encouraged her to appear with a singing number. A first record was produced by Walo Linder of Radio Zürich and distributed to other stations.
In 1953, she auditioned with Kurt Edelhagen, band leader at the broadcaster Süddeutscher Rundfunk in Germany at the time, for one hour in several languages. He said that she was the most musical woman he had ever heard. Edelhagen, composer Heinz Gietz and texter and producer Kurt Feltz organized her first recording on 29 March 1954, a jazz number "Istanbul". It was a flop, and Feltz convinced her that Schlager was more popular. "O Mama, O Mama, O Mamajo" became an immediate success.
In 1954, she visited New York City for the first time, where she watched Cole Porter's musical Can Can. She called Feltz immediately, requesting a German version of "I Love Paris" because she felt that it was "her song". "Ganz Paris träumt von der Liebe", a German version of Cole Porter's "I Love Paris" became a hit and her break-through; selling 500,000 copies in 1955, and more than 900,000 to December 1958, according to Der Spiegel's report of January 1959. She produced "Malaguena" with conductor Werner Müller in Berlin, which became successful in the United States and led to her first foreign television appearance.
In 1955, she was featured on The Colgate Comedy Hour with Gordon MacRae. From 1957 she appeared on television, in the first German personality show, Bonsoir, Kathrin, which ran until 1964. She soon starred with Peter Alexander; the two became regarded as a dream couple. Her brother, the Italian musician, singer and film actor Silvio Francesco, performed with her, singing in many duets, dancing and playing the clarinet in the shadow of his famous sister. Valente spoke six languages fluently and sang in thirteen. Valente's single, "The Breeze and I", sold more than one million copies, per a report from 1978, making it her best-selling record. It was published by the German Polydor label. At the end of 1958, this collaboration was terminated and she changed to Teldec Telefunken-Decca Schallplatten.
In 1958, she filmed the musical comedy Hier bin ich – hier bleib ich (Here I Am, Here I Stay) which featured a guest appearance by Bill Haley & His Comets. During Haley's segment, Valente sang a duet with Haley on a newly recorded version of his song "Vive la Rock and Roll". She was nominated for a Grammy Award for "La strada dell'amore" in 1959. She took part in the Perry Como show from 1961 to 1966, appearing eight times. She first performed on stage in Las Vegas in 1964 and had her own show on Broadway.
Caterina Valente
Caterina Germaine Maria Valente (14 January 1931 – 9 September 2024) was an Italian-French multilingual singer, guitarist, and dancer. She spoke six languages and sang in thirteen. While she was best known as a performer in Europe, Valente spent part of her career in the United States, where she performed alongside Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Perry Como, and Ella Fitzgerald, among others.
Caterina Valente was born in Paris on 14 January 1931 to Italian parents Giuseppe Valente (from San Biagio Saracinisco) and Maria Siri (born in Rome to a Genoese family). Her parents were musicians from a family that had been in show business for seven generations. Her mother was a varieté artist and a mime. The girl's first love was jazz; she listened to Duke Ellington, Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith at home. When she listened to Billie Holiday first, at about age five, she cried and knew that she wanted to become a singer. She was trained in ballet early. She toured with her parents in the 1930s, sometimes appearing on stage; her career began in 1936 at the Friedrichsbau theatre in Stuttgart. She appeared as guitarist in a family sextet with her parents and three siblings.
When World War II began, the family toured in Switzerland and could not return to Paris. They accepted an engagement in Germany to survive. They had to help with troop support. At age 13 she experienced the bombing of Breslau, helped to rescue victims and care for them; she later described it as hell: trying to rescue a person and finding severed body parts. They returned to France after stays in several Russian camps. She worked there as a freelance singer in clubs, performing chansons, some composed by Gilbert Becaud for her.
Grock, the clown who ran the circus in which her husband worked, encouraged her to appear with a singing number. A first record was produced by Walo Linder of Radio Zürich and distributed to other stations.
In 1953, she auditioned with Kurt Edelhagen, band leader at the broadcaster Süddeutscher Rundfunk in Germany at the time, for one hour in several languages. He said that she was the most musical woman he had ever heard. Edelhagen, composer Heinz Gietz and texter and producer Kurt Feltz organized her first recording on 29 March 1954, a jazz number "Istanbul". It was a flop, and Feltz convinced her that Schlager was more popular. "O Mama, O Mama, O Mamajo" became an immediate success.
In 1954, she visited New York City for the first time, where she watched Cole Porter's musical Can Can. She called Feltz immediately, requesting a German version of "I Love Paris" because she felt that it was "her song". "Ganz Paris träumt von der Liebe", a German version of Cole Porter's "I Love Paris" became a hit and her break-through; selling 500,000 copies in 1955, and more than 900,000 to December 1958, according to Der Spiegel's report of January 1959. She produced "Malaguena" with conductor Werner Müller in Berlin, which became successful in the United States and led to her first foreign television appearance.
In 1955, she was featured on The Colgate Comedy Hour with Gordon MacRae. From 1957 she appeared on television, in the first German personality show, Bonsoir, Kathrin, which ran until 1964. She soon starred with Peter Alexander; the two became regarded as a dream couple. Her brother, the Italian musician, singer and film actor Silvio Francesco, performed with her, singing in many duets, dancing and playing the clarinet in the shadow of his famous sister. Valente spoke six languages fluently and sang in thirteen. Valente's single, "The Breeze and I", sold more than one million copies, per a report from 1978, making it her best-selling record. It was published by the German Polydor label. At the end of 1958, this collaboration was terminated and she changed to Teldec Telefunken-Decca Schallplatten.
In 1958, she filmed the musical comedy Hier bin ich – hier bleib ich (Here I Am, Here I Stay) which featured a guest appearance by Bill Haley & His Comets. During Haley's segment, Valente sang a duet with Haley on a newly recorded version of his song "Vive la Rock and Roll". She was nominated for a Grammy Award for "La strada dell'amore" in 1959. She took part in the Perry Como show from 1961 to 1966, appearing eight times. She first performed on stage in Las Vegas in 1964 and had her own show on Broadway.
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