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Beloved Italian singer Ornella Vanoni passes away at the age of 91
9:58 CAT | 24 Nov 2025
A man walks past a mural honoring Italian singer Ornella Vanoni, in Milan, Italy, September 11, 2025. REUTERS/Claudia Greco/File Photo
Four steps separated Ornella Vanoni from the life she aspired to: four steps that led to the stage of Milan’s Piccolo Teatro.
“I was twiddling my fingers nervously, pulling my hair out,” she recalled in her memoir “Winner or Loser,” speaking of the fear that gripped her in the mid-1950s. “I wanted to be there, up front, but those few meters that separated me from the stage were terrifying.”
At one point, the theatre director told her that it would take almost a miracle for her to ever perform in front of an audience. Despite that, she succeeded.
“There are birth dates that are not on the records, but are the days when you finally become who you are,” she wrote of that first act of courage.
Vanoni would later become one of the most important voices in Italian music and one of the country’s most beloved entertainers. She first rose to fame on televised music festivals in the early 1960s, and her career spanned more than seven decades and inspired generations of performers, Reuters reports.
In memoria di Ornelli Vanoni
Ocean’s Twelve x L’Appuntamento pic.twitter.com/AAiIsVpqjJ
— Gus Haynes (@tambu1991) November 22, 2025
A powerful storyteller, she explored themes of crime, poverty and social exclusion in her songs, as well as love, loss and the female experience. She has sold more than 55 million records and released around 40 studio albums, according to Italian media.
While fashions and customs in Italy changed, Vanoni’s intimate, seductive voice remained a symbol of the emotional authenticity of Italian music.
Elegant and fiercely independent, she remained present in the public eye through guest appearances on TV shows and decades after her most popular albums.
She died late Friday evening, at the age of 91, at her home in Milan, from cardiac arrest, Corriere della Sera and the AGI agency reported.
She said about her funeral plans on the show Che Tempo Che Fa: “The coffin should be cheap because I want to be cremated. Then throw me into the sea, maybe in Venice.”
“I already have the dress,” she added. “It’s Dior.”
From theatre to pop music
The redheaded Vanoni was born in 1934 into a wealthy Milanese family. Her father was an entrepreneur in the pharmaceutical industry.
Her family provided her with education with nuns in Italy, and then at boarding schools in Switzerland, Britain, and France, where she learned German, English, and French.
Her mother, Vanoni said, always repeated that “a good girl should go out neatly groomed, in heels and with a little makeup.”
Vanoni first worked as an actress under the mentorship of director Đorđe Streler at the Piccolo Teatro, before turning to music.
Her hits include Senza fine (“Without End”) from 1961 and Domani è un altro giorno (“Tomorrow is a New Day”) from 1971.
Her biggest commercial success was L’appuntamento (“The Appointment”) – an Italian version of the Brazilian song Sentado à beira do caminho written by Erasmo and Roberto Carlos. Released in 1970, the song was given new life in 2004 when it was included on the soundtrack of the film Ocean’s Twelve, making Vanoni known to audiences outside Italy, according to Reuters.
Throughout her career, she explored various musical genres. Her early folk songs about the Milanese criminal underworld earned her the nickname “Cantante della mala” (“Singer of the Underworld”). She later interpreted the works of leading Italian singer-songwriters and collaborated with Brazilian artists such as Toquinho and Vinicius de Moraes, as well as jazz musicians.
A close friend of fashion designer Gianni Versace, who was murdered in 1997, she inspired both Giorgio Armani and Valentino to design clothes for her.
Husband and love
Vanoni described director Streler, who was 13 years her senior, as the first love of her life. She also had a relationship with Italian singer-songwriter Gino Paoli, with whom she collaborated professionally.
She was married to Lucio Ardenzi from 1960 to 1972. Together they had a son, Christian.
In an interview for the showbiz section of the Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper in 2024, Vanoni admitted that she never loved her husband, but thought that “sooner or later, you have to get married.”
She said of the period when they met: “I didn’t know what to do with myself. I broke up with Streler, who was married; I loved Paoli, who was married; I met Ardenzi and got married.”
In later years, she remained a prominent figure on the art scene, collaborating with younger Italian musicians. In interviews, she spoke openly about aging, loneliness, and creativity, shared views on politics and current affairs, and displayed a lively spirit and humor.
Vanoni, who suffered deeply from insecurity in her youth, has embraced all the layers of her personality in her old age. “I am one of those women. A woman on fire, with fragile and tender feelings, hidden behind nervous outbursts, elegant distance and sarcasm,” she wrote in her memoir.
“Desperate and happy, alone and celebrated, furious and tender.”
L’appuntamento – Ornella Vanoni (1971) pic.twitter.com/DvnF8VZ1TU
— José Luis Antúnez (@jlantunez) November 22, 2025
Il feretro di Ornella Vanoni al Piccolo Teatro, applauso dei milanesi. Aperta la camera ardente, presente il sindaco Sala: “Lei rappresenta la milanesità. Troveremo formule per ricordare il suo insegnamento” #ANSA https://t.co/iOzWKbdenP pic.twitter.com/RxGfyzwrOT
— Agenzia ANSA (@Agenzia_Ansa) November 23, 2025
Source: Vijesti
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