Rino Gaetano - singer-songwriter

Famed for raspy voice and lyrics rich in satire and social commentary

Rino Gaetano enjoyed a breakthrough in
1975 with Ma il cielo è sempre più blu

The singer-songwriter Rino Gaetano, who enjoyed great popularity in the 1970s before his tragic death in a car crash at the age of just 31, was born on this day in 1950 in Crotone, a coastal city in Calabria.

Gaetano’s irreverent style and the sometimes controversially satirical nature of his songs meant his talent was slow to be recognised but his breakthrough single of 1975, Ma il cielo è sempre più blu - But the Sky is Always Bluer - brought him success, selling more than 100,000 copies.

His subsequent albums - Mio fratello è figlio unico (My Brother is an Only Child) and Aida - cemented his reputation as one of finest Italian songwriters of his generation. His simple lyrics set to catchy tunes were a vehicle for piercing social and political commentary, with which many ordinary Italians easily identified.

His performance at the 1978 Sanremo Music Festival caused a sensation both for his attire and for the nature of his song, Gianna. In an era when many artists still sang in formal dress, Gaetano went onstage in red sneakers, a top hat and a tailcoat adorned with medals, while Gianna was the first song in the history of the competition to include the word “sex” in the lyrics.

It finished third, nonetheless, and brought him another hit, although he later said he regretted entering as he considered the song too commercial.

Although born on Calabria’s Ionian Sea coast, Gaetano grew up in Rome from the age of 10 after his parents moved to the capital in search of work. Settling in the Monte Sacro quarter in the northeast of the city, they became the live-in janitors of an apartment building on Via Nomentana, his father doubling as a hotel handyman while his mother took a day job in a dry cleaner’s.

Born Salvatore Antonio, Gaetano was known as Salvatorino - ‘little Salvatore’ - within his family. It was his sister, Anna, who shortened it to ‘Rino’, which eventually stuck.

After less than a year in Rome, he was sent away to study at a seminary 80km (48 miles) away in Narni in Umbria, although there was never any intention that he would pursue a religious vocation. His parents had felt, though, that the seminary would give him a good quality of education. Instead, his teachers noted that he seemed more interested in writing poems, composing melodies and performing sketches for the amusement of his classmates than studying theology.

Gaetano performing at the 1978 Sanremo Music
Festival, where his song, Gianna, finished third

When he returned to Monte Sacro in 1967, his father was keen to steer him towards a career in banking, enrolling him at an accountancy college. However, the young Rino had his eyes by now on becoming a performer. He and three friends formed a group, called The Krouks. They mainly played cover versions of songs made famous by other artists, but would occasionally perform one of Gaetano’s own compositions.

His fascination with the Rome music scene drew him to Folkstudio, the club in the Trastevere district where his contemporaries included Antonello Venditti and Francesco De Gregori, two young singers who would both become major stars in Italy. He and Venditti would sometimes perform together.

Blessed with a talent for acting, too, Gaetano mixed his music with performing on stage in local theatre productions, including a performance of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, in which he played the role of Estragon.

At the same time, he became fascinated with German kabarett, a version of the entertainment form in which the artists dedicate themselves largely to political and social topics, at which they poke fun using cynicism, sarcasm and irony. This, clearly, was a major influence on his own style.

In 1972, Venditti introduced him to Vincenzo Micocci, the owner of a record label, and the following year recorded his first single, I Love You Marianna. Clearly not confident in its success, he released it under a pseudonym and even asked Micocci if it ought to be sung by someone with a better voice.

Antonello Venditti sometimes played
alongside Gaetano at Rome's Folkstudio

But Micocci had a hunch that Gaetano’s raspy, gravelly delivery might become a distinctive hallmark and insisted he sang. It was successful enough to spawn a first album, Ingresso libero.

It was the first of six studio albums in as many years, which were accompanied by 10 singles. All were characterised by sharp social or political commentaries, sometimes including unflattering references to named politicians or prominent figures in the Catholic Church.

Known for his generosity, Gaetano used his first significant earnings to buy his parents an apartment and a car for himself. He made plans to marry his long-time girlfriend, Amelia Conte, whom he had met as a student.

Tragedy struck a month before their scheduled wedding, in the early hours of June 2, 1981, when his car collided with a delivery truck on Via Nomentana, the driver of which believed that Gaetano collapsed at the wheel moments before the impact.

The singer might have survived but among his injuries was a fracture at the base of the skull and other head wounds. The hospital to which he was first taken was not equipped to deal with cranial injuries and four others also turned him down. By the time he was admitted to the Gemelli Hospital at 6am - three hours after the accident - it was too late. In a coma, he died shortly afterwards.

Chillingly, Gaetano’s death echoed lyrics of a song he had written 10 years earlier, without publishing, about the death of a boy hit by a car who was also turned away by several Rome hospitals through lack of beds or treatment facilities. Gaetano had intended the song to highlight the poor state of health provision in the capital.

His funeral took place in the Church of Santa Maria del Suffragio, in the Ponte rione of central Rome, where he had been due to be married. His body was initially buried in the small cemetery of Mentana, the town outside Rome where he had bought a house with his fiancée, Amelia, but later transferred to Rome’s Verano monumental cemetery.

Crotone is city and resort that enjoys a beautiful
location on southern Italy's Ionian coastline

Travel tip:

Crotone, where Rino Gaetano was born, is a coastal city in Calabria, facing the Ionian Sea. Founded by Greek colonists in the 8th century BC, it became one of the most powerful cities of Magna Graecia and famously hosted Pythagoras, who established his renowned school of philosophy and mathematics here. It became one of the most flourishing cities of Magna Graecia reaching a population between 50,000 and 80,000 around 500 BC, not dissimilar to that of today. Crotone’s historic centre features a labyrinth of narrow streets, traditional buildings and lively piazzas. Key attractions include the imposing 16th-century Charles V Castle, built by the Spanish King of Naples, which dominates the old town, and the National Archaeological Museum. Visitors can stroll along the vibrant lungomare promenade or take a short trip to Capo Colonna to see the lone surviving column of the Temple of Hera Lacinia. A gold tiara unearthed at the 2,500-year old temple is on display at the National Archaeological Museum. Farther south is the Capo Rizzuto Marine Protected Area, with seagrass forests, barracudas and starfish.

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Piazza Sempione in Monte Sacro, the leafy residential
quarter where Rino Gaetano lived for most of his life

Travel tip:

Monte Sacro is a residential quarter in northeastern Rome, positioned along the banks of the winding Aniene River. The area takes its name from the sacred hill, Mons Sacer, where in 494BC Rome's plebeians staged a famous secession against patrician rule to secure their civil rights. Centuries later, in 1805, the South American liberator Simón Bolívar stood on this very same hill and swore his historic oath to free his homeland from Spanish rule. The gateway to the neighborhood is the Ponte Nomentano, a magnificent Roman-era bridge. Originally constructed with a grand travertine arch, it was fortified in the Middle Ages with defensive castle-like towers. Modern Monte Sacro took shape in the 1920s when architect Gustavo Giovannoni designed it as a Città Giardino - Garden City. With the Piazza Sempione and the striking Church of the Holy Guardian Angels at its heart, the district features curving, tree-lined streets and elegant Art Nouveau villas. Today, Monte Sacro maintains an intimate, village-like character, where craft beer bars, neighbourhood trattorias, and peaceful green spaces such as the Aniene Valley Nature Reserve thrive far away from the typical tourist crowds.