The many faces of Giuni Russo

Juni Russo is one of the most important interpreters of Italian pop music. Born in Palermo on 7 September 1951 she died in Milan on September 14, 2004 at the age of 53. He began to be talked about just sixteen years old, thanks to the victory at the Castrocaro Festival 1967 with his cover of “To Chi” (song brought to success by Fausto Leali in the same year). During his career, 35 years long, Giuni Russo managed to pack several successes: “A summer at the sea”, “Alghero” and “Mediterranea” are the first titles that come to mind. But at a certain point, the Sicilian singer -songwriter decided to move away from the rankings and to publish more experimental records: he passed from a hit as “Alghero” to classical music and from classical music to World Music, then ending up in the territories of sacred music. The records of the “after-alghero” were unable to have the same success as the most pop ones published in the mid-1980s: when today Russo is thought of, it is remembered (unjustly) only as the singer of “A summer by the sea”. But his repertoire is vast, vast would be said, and contains pearls that deserve to be listened to.

The record debut dates back to 1968 with the single “No Amore” https://www.rockol.it/ “Amerai”. At the time, the singer still used her personal name, Giusy Romeo. It should be noted that among the authors of “No Amore”, with which the singer participated in the Sanremo Festival of that year, after winning the Castrocaro Festival, there is also Paolo Conte. After the beginning, the artist stopped publishing records and devoted himself to the activity of chorister (also for the bronze ballet and Adriano Celentano).

At 1975 and 1976, four more 45 laps dated again, known to most as the records of the Italian-Anglo-Saxon period (four of these were engraved in English, the others in Italian), published with the name of Junie Russo, as well as the album “Love Is a Woman”. Among these also “Everything is skids be alright/vodka”. On the A side there is the cover of “We’re doing fine”, a song originally engraved in 1965 by Dee Dee Warwick and then re -proposed in 1967 by PP Arnold with the title of “Everything Is Gonna Be ALIGHT”, in fact.

In 1976 the singer closes the Anglo-Sassone period with the 45 rpm “never/who happens to me now”, which acts almost as a watershed between the first phase of his career and the second phase. “Never” and “which happens to me now” bring the signature of Cristiano Malgioglio (already author of the songs of the previous 45 rpm, “in trap/he in the soul”), Lucia Castagna, Giuni Russo, Maria Antonietta Sisini and Pierluigi Galluzzi.

“Solo Noi/La key”, dated 1978, is the first 45 rpm published in the name of Giuni Russo, a definitive art name. The collaboration with Cristiano Malgioglio is renewed, present again as an author.

1982 The Sicilian singer -songwriter, who in 1982 enjoyed the incredible success of his album “La Voce del Master”, signs the songs together with the Russo Juni and Maria Antonietta Sisini.

The great success comes with “A summer at the sea”, text by Franco Battiato and music by Giusto Pio, a song with a “maritime-vacationer” style destined to become the catchphrase of several Italian summers (still today you can listen to it on the beach or in the campsites of the campsites).

“Mediterranea” (1984), a passage that gives the title to the album of the same name, is the latest published by Giuni Russo for the CGD.

1986: with “Alghero” (another passage with a “maritime-vacationer” flavor) a new phase of the Russo juni career opens, which in the meantime has become part of the Bubble Record roster.

In 1988 a sharp change of course came: Juni Russo Public “At the house of Ida Rubinstein”, album dedicated to his passion for lyric and containing reinterpretations of chamber arias and romances of authors such as Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi (I could sing you “The norm” of Bellini with Sardinian or Japanese phonemes “, sang in” a viper “). It will increasingly delve into a very brain repertoire, almost fleeing from pop success and hits.

2003 The text, full of quotes from Santa Teresa d’Avila and San Giovanni della Croce, is written together with Maria Antonietta Sisini and Vania Magelli, the arches are written by Maestro Stefano Barzan, the beautiful arrangement is by Franco Battiato and Roberto Colombo. “I will die of love, I will die for you. Holds the eyes and your hands caress me. Those words shouted then by the echo postponed that from the sky sing … I will die of love, I will die for you”.

In 2017 “I don’t want to go away”, unpublished contained in the album “Armstrong”: in the video there is the actress Maria Grazia Cucinotta.