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Internationally Renowned Italian Singer Dead at 91

The country’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, paid tribute on Saturday.

Ornella Vanoni, an Italian singer who had international hits like “Senza Fine” and “L’appuntamento,” has died. She was 91. Vanoni, who had a career that spanned seven decades, died of cardiac arrest at her home in Milan, according to Italian outlet La Stampa. The country’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, paid tribute in a Saturday post on X, writing that Vanoni was an “unmistakable voice of our music.” The singer recorded more than 100 albums, selling over 55 million copies—spanning jazz to pop. She shot to fame in 1961 with the hit song “Senza Fine,” made with her former romantic partner, Genovese singer-songwriter Gino Paolo. She was born in Milan in 1937 and started her career as a theater actress, eventually performing on Broadway in 1964. She went on to collaborate with Gil Evans, Herbie Hancock, and George Benson. She twice won the prestigious Italian music accolade, the Tenco Award, which made her the only Italian singer to achieve it as a songwriter and the only woman to win it twice. In her later years, she became a popular television guest due to her unpredictability and her “complete indifference to political correctness,” according to Italian news agency ANSA.