FRANCO GATTI. Singer Franco Gatti, star in Italy, his country, died at 80. He was a member of the Ricchi e Poveri group.
He was a real star in Italy: Franco Gatti, known for the unforgettable hit Sarà perched ti amo with the group Ricchi e poveri, is dead, announces this Tuesday October 18 the family of the singer and the group to the Italian national press agency, ANSA. The Italian singer and songwriter was 80 years old. “Part of our life is gone. Ciao Franco”, write his relatives in a press release, released on Tuesday.
Discreet for a decade, singer Franco Gatti retired from music in 2013, after the death of his son, Alessio. He will remain one of the four faces of the Ricchi e Poveri group, founded in Genoa in 1967. With more than 20 million albums sold worldwide, the formation represented Italy at Eurovision in 1978, with the song Questo Amore. But it was in 1981 that Ricchi e Poveri will sign the hit of his career: Sarà perched ti amo. A single sold over a million copies in France and included in the film The Cheekyby Claude Miller, or cover, in French, by Karen Cheryl.
As soon as the announcement of the disappearance of Franco Gatti, many tributes are paid to the singer. Among them, that of the (probable) future Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, who wrote on Twitter: “A piece of the history of Italian music is leaving, a man who faced with great dignity the trials of life.”