Gigliola Cinquetti (born December 20, 1947 in Verona) won the Castrocaro 1963, the legendary contest for new voices and gained also a right to participate in the next Sanremo festival. This sweet 16-year-old came, sung Non ho l'età and won the hearts of Italians and the festival. Next she was off to Copenhagen for the Eurovision and stormed to victory. But her story with Sanremo was just begun.
She returned the year after with Ho bisgono di vederti and went to the final. She scored another victory the year after with Dio come ti amo, that Domenico Modugno himself took to Eurovision, only to score the worst Italian placement ever (apparently the juries boycotted him for having acted a bit of a diva, or so the rumors go). Then she participated six further times in coming years: 1968 Sera (8th), 1969 La pioggia (6th), 1970 Romantico blues (6th), 1971 Rose nel buio (9th), 1972 Gira l'amore (9th) and 1973 Mistero, that didn't reach the final. Then she had a break of 12 years before returning in 1985 with Chiamalo amore that took her back to top-3. In 1989 she was there again with Ciao and finished 18th. Her last and 12th participation is from 1995 when she performed Giovane vecchio cuore finishing 14th, even of the song deserved much more. After that she has been concentrating on being a TV-host, even co-hosting - and saving - the Eurovision song contest 1991 in Rome.
Despite the disappointing Sanremo 1973 she was scoring hits in Italy and abroad, especially in Latin America and Japan, singing in various languages and nearly did an Eurovision double when she represented Italy again in 1974 with Si. Only ABBA could keep her from winning again!
2014 is the 50th anniversary of her Eurovision win, what would be better than celebrating it with another try?
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