Your Forgive, forgive, forgive… And Nobody can judge me, not even you… have become the refrain of generations and generations. And who has never sung at the top of their lungs I’m no longer with you at least once in your life? Caterina Caselli has become an icon of Italian music and her songs have always moved us. And tonight in Sanremo he will receive the lifetime achievement award.
But not only that, today we also remember her for her immense contribution as a record producer and for having made her way in a sector that, all in all, was dominated by men. She retired from the scene in 1975 – among other things with a 33 rpm record and a program of her own entitled A great emotion – in fact it then exclusively dedicated itself to the activity of talent scouts and producer. We will never forget her songs, the songs of “Casco d’oro”, but above all her determination and ability to reinvent herself and become among the first women to manage a record company.
Who is the “Golden Helmet” who revolutionized Italian discography
A difficult childhood, marked by her father’s suicide when she was only 14 years old, and a singing career that actually lasted very short.
After some festivals, such as Castrocaro and Cantagiro, his notoriety arrived in 1966, when he participated in the Sanremo Festival with Nobody can judge mewhich remained at the top of the charts for 11 consecutive weeks, so much so that in the wake of its record success the director Ettore Maria Fizzarotti called her to shoot the sentimental film of the same name, with Laura Efrikian, Nino Taranto and Gino Bramieri.
Caselli then triumphs at the Festivalbar with Pardonwhile the following year his first titled 33 was released Caterina meets the We Fivea compilation of his first three 45s, and the 33 of his own entitled Golden helmet, where it inserts It’s the rain that goes of the Rokes and You can make me cry, Italian version of I put a spell on youdebut song by Alan Price Set.
A fervent career, in short, in which Caterina launches successful songs still loved by everyone today (among these also I’m no longer with you by Paolo Conte), but in 1975 he decided to retire from the scene, reinventing himself as a successful manager.
In 1977 he founded his own record company, Ascolto, with which he began to launch new talents: Bertoli, Franco Fanigliulo, Faust’O, Area, Mauro Pagani and Gian Piero Alloisio. With the closure of the label, at the end of ’82, Caselli continued the recording activity at CGD and subsequently became part of the management of the group’s record company SugarSugar Music.
She was responsible for the discovery of talents of the caliber of Giuni Russo, Enrico Ruggieri, Fiorella Mannoia, Paolo Vallesi, Andrea Bocelli, Gerardina Trovato, Filippa Giordano, Avion Travel, Gazosa, Elisa, Negramaro, Malika Ayane, Raphael Gualazzi, Baccini, Arisa, Madame and Giovanni Caccamo.
