Gianna Nannini – singer and songwriter

Performer’s interests inspired her ideas for songs

Gianna Nannini on stage at the Kia Metropol
Arena in Nuremburg as part of a 2024 tour

One of Italy’s best-known pop singers and composers, Gianna Nannini, was born on this day in 1954 in Siena in Tuscany. She has composed and recorded many hit songs and has sung duets with well-known artists, ranging from Andrea Bocelli to Sting.

Her composition, Fotoromanzo, peaked at number one for four consecutive weeks in the Italian singles chart. It won musical awards and has since been covered by many other artists and has featured in the soundtrack of a film. Another of her songs, Bello e impossibile, was a hit both in Italy and across Europe.

The daughter of a confectionery manufacturer, Nannini studied the piano in Lucca and then went to the University of Milan to read composition and philosophy. She made her first album, Gianna Nannini, which achieved wide success, in 1976, and she has since produced 30 albums of songs.

Her intellectual interests have led to her becoming involved in some unusual artistic projects, such as when she composed the music for the film A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Gabriele Salvatores, in which she also played the part of Titania.

In the 1990s, Nannini composed the music for two short operas, and she worked with the director Michelangelo Antonioni on a video clip that was filmed to go with Fotoromanzo.

Nannini performing in 1981, as she was beginning
to find fame across Europe as well as in Italy

She has been awarded a doctorate by the University of Siena for her thesis on traditional Tuscan music.

Nannini’s first domestic hit was with the single, America, in 1979, and her album, California, subsequently became a success throughout Europe. Her international breakthrough came when her sixth album, Puzzle, peaked in the Italian, German, Austrian and Swiss pop charts. Her 1987 album, Maschi e altri, sold over a million copies. 

In 2004, she released her greatest hits compilation album, Perle, where some of her most famous songs were rearranged to music played by a pianist and a string quartet. Her album, Grazie, released in February 2006, reached number one of the Italian album chart, featuring the single, Sei nell'anima.

In April 2007, Nannini released Pia come la canto io, a collection of songs produced by Wil Malone, which was originally intended for a rock opera based on the medieval Tuscan character Pia de’ Tolomei, who is briefly mentioned in Dante’s Purgatorio. 

An acoustic version of her rendition of the song Meravigliosa creatura, from Perle, was used in a 2008 commercial for the Fiat Bravo. The Fiat Company later used another Gianni Nannini song, Aria, in a subsequent Fiat Bravo advertisement.

Nannini performed with Sting and other singers in The Threepenny Opera, by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weil in 1987 in Hamburg. With Edoardo Bennato, she sang the official song of the 1990 World Cup, which was staged in Italy, entitled Un’estate Italiana but also known as Notte magiche.

Nannini's brother, Alessandro,
is a former racing driver

In 2006, she recorded a single with Andrea Bocelli, in 2008 she took part in a duet with the Italian rapper Fabri Fibra, and she has also performed with the Macedonian singer Tose Proeski.

Nannini has a younger brother, Alessandro, who is a former Formula One racing driver. He won the 1989 Japanese Grand Prix, driving for Benetton.

In 1995, Gianna Nannini took part in a protest organised by Greenpeace at the French embassy in Rome against the decision by the French government to pursue nuclear experiments at Mururoa, an atoll in the southern Pacific Ocean.

At the age of 56, Nannini announced that she was pregnant and she later gave birth to a daughter in Milan in 2010. In 2017, she decided to move to live in London, revealing the reasons for her decision in her autobiography, Cazzi miei, which was published later the same year. 

Siena's shell-shaped Piazza del Campo, thronged
with people during a staging of the Palio di Siena

Travel tip:

The ancient city of Siena in Tuscany, where Gianna Nannini was born, is famous for being the venue for the historic horse race, the Palio di Siena. The race starts from Siena’s Piazza del Campo, a shell-shaped open area, which is regarded as one of Europe’s finest medieval squares. The Piazza was established in the 13th century as an open marketplace on a sloping site between the three communities that eventually merged to form the city of Siena.  Siena was one of the major cities of Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries and was almost as large as Paris.  The city is said to have taken its name from Senius, having been founded by Senius and his brother Aschius, in Roman mythology the sons of Remus and nephews of Romulus, the legendary founders of Rome. Therefore, Siena's emblem is the she-wolf who suckled Remus and Romulus. A product named after Siena is the Christmas treat Panforte di Siena, a rich flat cake containing fruit and nuts. Siena also produces the almond flavour biscuits, ricciarelli, and the pastries with walnuts and candied fruits, named cavalucci that are traditionally eaten by Italians at Christmas. They also make the traditional biscuits, pane co’ i Santi e I Morti, to commemorate All Saints Day on November 1.

Lucca is famous for its Renaissance walls, which
offer a 4.2km unbroken circuit of the city

Travel tip:

Lucca, where Gianna Nannini studied music, is famous for its Renaissance walls, which have remained intact over the centuries. A promenade now runs along the top of the walls, providing a popular place to walk round the city enjoying the views, and they offer visitors the chance to make a complete 4.2km (2.6 miles) circuit of the city. Lucca has lots of narrow cobbled streets, which lead into beautiful squares, with cafes and restaurants and a wealth of churches, museums, and galleries to visit. The main square, Piazza dell'Anfiteatro, is a public square in the northeast quadrant of the walled centre. The ring of buildings surrounding the square follows the shape of the former second century Roman amphitheatre that was built there. Lucca was the birthplace of the opera composer Giacomo Puccini and opera lovers can visit the house in which he was born, and where he spent his early years studying music, in Corte San Lorenzo. It is now a museum and has the original piano the composer used to play.

Also on this day:

1497: The murder of Giovanni Borgia, brother of Cesare and Lucrezia

1730: The birth of composer Antonio Sacchini

1784: The birth of composer Francesco Morlacchi

1800: The Battle of Marengo

1837: The death of poet and philosopher Giacomo Leopardi

1968: The death of poet Salvatore Quasimodo

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