Timing is everything. In film as in show business. When a star has made an elegant exit, then it is Caterina ValenteIn the last twenty years she has appeared briefly on television and at a few award ceremonies. Otherwise the Italian singer, who went from being a child actress to having a world career in sixty years on stage, lived a secluded life in Lugano in Italian-speaking Switzerland.
She had not given any interviews for a long time, nor did she allow herself to be celebrated in television documentaries or on tribute albums, as the Jazz trumpeter Till Brönner wanted to dedicate one. One of the last public statements she made on her 90th birthday was through her press agent: “She is doing well, she just wants to enjoy life.” Big celebrations were not Caterina Valente’s thing.
It has now been announced that the singer, who made it into German living rooms in the 1960s with “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Honolulu Strandbikini” and “Ganz Paris träumt von der Liebe”, died peacefully in her house in Lugano on September 9th at the age of 93.
These evergreens were the reason why the Italian, born in Paris on January 14, 1931, who after marriage also temporarily held a German passport and now holds a French passport, was declared the “voice of the economic miracle”.
In the same breath as Barbra Streisand
In 1955, the Tagesspiegel called her “a charming, uncomplicated young woman with shaggy black hair” and continued: “The colorful, fast-paced and domestic nature of her character are not foreign to one another.” This probably means nothing other than that the young singer combines the post-war longing for exoticism with an unusually solid charisma for this profession.
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The polyglot singer, who speaks six languages fluently and sings twice as many, has mutated into a lively tour guide of the heart, taking her to Granada and Ipanema. The fact that she commuted between Las Vegas, Paris and London and at times was mentioned in the same breath as Barbra Streisand and Liza Minnelli was almost dynastic. Her parents were A-list variety artists.
Her father is an accordionist, her mother Maria Valente is a famous musical comedian who took Caterina on stage as a child, and her grandfather is the director of the Russian State Circus. Her brother, the clarinetist Silvio Francesco, is one of her favorite stage partners. They both know that talent is nothing without discipline.
Italian woman with Prussian work ethic
Caterina Valente has recorded around 1,400 songs, landing top ten hits in Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Great Britain and also in the USA with the songs “Malaguena” and “The Breeze And I”. The latter is a hot Latino number in which Caterina Valente scats as if her life depended on it. She can only really show off her willingness to take risks and her range of tones in jazz.
© dpa/Klar
She sings swing and chansons, works with Michel Legrand, Chet Baker, Ella Fitzgerald and Burt Bacharach. And she falls in love with bossa nova and brings the music to the USA. Perry Como even dedicates a song called “Caterina” to her. TV shows all over the world are fighting over her.
German television dedicated the first personality show ever to her, “Bonsoir, Kathrin!”, and she is also a regular guest on Saturday night entertainment. Showbiz rumors murmur that Caterina Valente has performed 10,000 times – she has only ever cancelled two. A real fanfare for the Italian with a Prussian work ethic.
Even as a retiree, Caterina Valente provided her fans with a steady stream of good wishes and historical clips via a well-maintained website and social media. Her fun “One Note Samba” duet with Dean Martin from the sixties has been watched by eleven million people on YouTube, which the artist describes as “a rediscovery by the digital generation”.
In fact, the already somewhat worn-out entertainer in the notorious Rat Pack tuxedo could not keep up with her in terms of wit and charisma, let alone vocals. Looking back, the confident distance with which the great tap-dancing and guitar-playing entertainer performed alongside stage partners such as Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Sammy Davis Jr., Charles Aznavour or Peter Alexander. Caterina Valente was Germany’s only post-war musical world star.
