Cantagiro 1970 playlist

Cantagiro 1970

In 1970, Ezio Radaelli, the organizer of the Cantagiro, was faced with a very unusual request from the most famous singers: they would participate in the event only if the competition was abolished. In other words, one of the founding mechanisms of the Cantagiro, undoubtedly the object of criticism and accusations that the juries were manipulated, but still an important competitive element for that Giro d’Italia della Canzone. Radaelli understood that it was the only way to guarantee the participation of important names, such as Celentano, Nada, Modugno, Camaleonti, Ranieri and Dik Dik. He agreed to abolish the juries for both group A, the big names, and for group C, reserved for foreign artists who sang in Italian.

The juries remained instead for group B, reserved for new singers, which in the end included the likes of Paolo Mengoli with the winning Mi piaci da morire, just ahead of Gianni Nazzaro and Gianni Farano, while the moral winner of group A was, at least in terms of record sales, Domenico Modugno with La lontananza. Another hit was also Viola by Celentano, L’isola di Wight by Dik Dik and In questa città, another convincing performance by Ricchi & Poveri, the vocal group of the moment.

For the occasion, the Giganti got back together and presented Voglio essere una scimmia, while in the group of foreigners a young singer named George stepped into the limelight with the very danceable Luky Luky. A few years later, with his real name, Giorgio Moroder, he rose in the hit parade. Again among the foreigners, with Maschera negra, there was the Brazilian singer Elza Soares, who had temporarily moved to Italy and was known in the gossip columns for her stormy marriage to the Brazilian national-team’s football player Garrincha.

In that edition, the Cantagiro almost completely lost another of its characteristics that had determined its favor with the public, namely the long caravan of cars that wound its way along the road with the singers on board.  Many of them in fact preferred to move independently and only the rookies honored that great public party that in previous editions had involved a huge number of people on the Italian roads. In the “More Information” section of our Portal, you can find the complete list of songs that participated in the Cantagiro 1970.