Raffaella Carra, for decades one of Italian television’s most beloved entertainers, has died at the age of 78, Italian state TV quoted her family as saying.
Rai TV read a statement from the star’s family, announcing that the “queen of Italian TV” died in Rome after a long illness. No further details were released.
With her energetic presence and strong, almost husky singing voice, Carra was a wildly popular staple in the early decades of Rai, especially when it was the only nationwide TV broadcaster.
With often sexy costumes — daring by state TV standards in a country where the Vatican wields considerable influence — Carra was credited with helping Italian women be more confident with their bodies and their sexuality, once even baring her belly button during a TV performance.
But she could also be devastatingly classy in her dress and manners.
Her trademark bouncy, blonde haircut and fringe — dubbed the helmet look — were imitated by many fans.
TV magnate Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian premier, mourned Carra’s passing, calling her “one of the symbols of Italian television, perhaps the most beloved personality”.
In a post on Facebook, Berlusconi said she “knew how to speak to various different generations, having the ability to always remain current with the times and without ever descending into vulgarity”.
“She was the lady of Italian television,” culture minister Dario Franceschini said.
President Sergio Mattarella recalled Carra as the “face of television par excellence — she transmitted, with her talent and her likeability, a message of elegance, kindness and optimism”.
In one of her last interviews, Carra told a magazine: “Italian women found me greatly likable because I am not a man-eater — you can have sex appeal together with sweetness and irony.”
A 1980s TV show she starred in, Fantastico, drew 25 million viewers, nearly a half of what was then Italy’s population.
But it was the 1970s TV variety programme Canzonissima — roughly, full of song — that sealed her reputation as a star. Italians were glued to their black-and-white TV sets every Saturday night to enjoy the musical variety show, which launched hit songs year after year.
Affectionately known as Raffa, she was born Raffaella Maria Roberta Pelloni in Bologna on June 18 1943. She started her career as a singer, dancer, TV presenter and actress when still a child.
Some shows were tailored made for her exuberant performing style, including Carramba! Che Sorpresa, (“Carramba! What a Surprise”) which debuted in 1995 and whose title played off her name and her years of being a presenter in Spain.
Carra became popular in Spain and Latin America in the mid-1970s, especially due to translations of some of catchy hits such as Fiesta and Caliente, Caliente, which she recorded in Spanish.
With a fondness for tight dresses and jumpsuits, the singer brought a breath of fresh air to Spanish television sets with novel choreography to disco beats at a time when the heavily Catholic country was emerging from four decades of a strict conservative dictatorship.
That is when Carra made her Spanish debut with a 10-minute performance in a musical programme, to seduce many Spaniards with her spontaneity.
Carra was not married, and had no children, but a former companion, TV director and choreographer Sergio Japino, quoted her as often saying: “I didn’t have children but I had thousands of them.”
That referred to the 150,000 needy children over the years that she helped generate financial sponsors for through one of her TV programs called Amore.
