Tino Rossi was a singer and film actor.
Born
Constantino Rossi in
AjaccioAjaccio , is a commune on the island of Corsica in France. It is the capital and largest city of the region of Corsica and the prefecture of the department of Corse-du-Sud....
, Corsica, France, he became a tenor of French
cabaretCabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
and one of the great romantic idols of his time. Gifted with an operatic voice, a "Latin Lover" persona made him a movie star as well. Over his career, Rossi made hundreds of records and appeared in more than 25 films, the most notable of which was the 1953 production,
Si Versailles m'était conté directed by
Sacha GuitryAlexandre-Pierre Georges Guitry was a French stage actor, film actor, director, screenwriter, and playwright of the Boulevard theatre.- Biography :...
. His romantic ballads had women swooning and his
art-songsAn art song is a vocal music composition, usually written for one voice with piano or orchestral accompaniment. By extension, the term "art song" is used to refer to the genre of such songs....
by
Jules MassenetJules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...
(1842–1912),
Reynaldo HahnReynaldo Hahn was a Venezuelan, naturalised French, composer, conductor, music critic and diarist. Best known as a composer of songs, he wrote in the French classical tradition of the mélodie....
(1875–1947), and other composers helped draw sold out audiences wherever he performed.
Biography
As a young French man, he played guitar and sang at a variety of small venues in his hometown of Ajaccio before going on to perform in Marseilles and at resort clubs along the
French RivieraThe Côte d'Azur, pronounced , often known in English as the French Riviera , is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France, also including the sovereign state of Monaco...
. In the early 1930s he went to Paris and within a few years achieved enormous success, joining a
Columbia RecordsColumbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
roster that included the biggest stars of the day such as
Lucienne BoyerLucienne Boyer was a French diseuse and singer, best known for her song "Parlez-moi d'amour". Her impresario was Bruno Coquatrix.-Early career:...
,
DamiaMarie-Louise Damien was a French singer and actress better known by the stage name Damia.-Robert Hollard:...
, Pills et Tabet,
MireilleMireille Hartuch was a French singer, composer, and actress. She was generally known by the stage name "Mireille"....
, and
Jean SablonJean Sablon was a popular French singer and actor.The son of a composer, with brothers and sisters who had successful careers of their own in musical entertainment, Jean Sablon studied piano at the Lyceé Charlemagne in Paris...
.
Rossi's success was greatly aided by songwriter
Vincent ScottoVincent Scotto was a French composer.-Biography:Vincent Scotto started his career in Marseille in 1906 and later moved to Paris. Over the course of a lifetime, he wrote 4,000 songs as well as sixty operettas. He was friends with Marcel Pagnol and wrote music for his films...
(1876–1952), who wrote his first hits and collaborated with him for many years, composing and arranging many Rossi songs. Prior to World War II Rossi was a major box office attraction in the
French speakingFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
world but expanded his audience to
AmericaThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
with a 1938 visit followed up by wartime tours across the USA and Canada. Tino Rossi began his film career in Nuits moscovites, Les (1934) but his first real success came with
MarinellaMarinella is one of the most popular Greek singers whose career has spanned several decades. She has sung professionally since 1957. Since the beginning of her career, she has released 66 personal albums and has been featured in albums of other musicians.-Early life:She was born Kyriaki...
(1936). All his films were musicals and capitalised on his success as a singer.
In 1946, his song "
Petit Papa Noël"Petit Papa Noël" is a 1946 song recorded by French singer Tino Rossi. Written by Raymond Vincy and Henri Martinet, this Christmas song was originally performed by Rossi in Richard Pottier's film Destins. It is currently the best-selling single of all time in France, with over 5,711,000 units sold...
" sold more than thirty million copies worldwide. A Christmas classic for the family, the song still sells by the thousands each Yuletide season. The recipient of many musical awards, including the prestigious
Grand Prix du DisqueThe Grand Prix du Disque is the premier French award for musical recordings. The award was inaugurated by l'Académie Charles Cros in 1948 and offers prizes in various categories. The categories vary from year to year, and multiple awards are often made in any one category in the same year...
, Tino Rossi is the most popular personality to ever come from Corsica other than Napoleon Bonaparte.
During the Occupation of France by Nazi Germany Rossi's film career reached its peak, notably with Mon amour est près de toi (1943) and L'Île d'amour (1944). At the Liberation, the French authorities reproached him for associating with the French Gestapo, but most importantly for actively supporting collaborationist causes such as the LVF (Légion des Volontaires Français) who sent French volunteers to work in German factories. He was arrested in October 1944 and spent three weeks in Fresnes prison (near Paris). Following a trial in 1945, his sentence was relatively light. Unlike his fellow entertainers
ArlettyArletty was a French actress, singer, and fashion model.-Life and career:Arletty was born Léonie Marie Julie Bathiat in Courbevoie , to a working-class family. Her early career was dominated by the music hall, and she later appeared in plays and cabaret. Arletty was a stage performer for ten years...
, Mireille Balin, Josseline Gaël and Robert Le Vigan), Rossi received a retrospective and largely symbolic work suspension. He subsequently appeared only sporadically in films, concentrating on his singing career.
In 1947 he married Lilia Vetti, a young dancer he met while making a film. They had a son together and the marriage lasted a lifetime. A star of film and the operetta scene, Tino Rossi's career also evolved into the television era, appearing in a number of popular variety shows. Age, and the advent of
rock and rollRock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
in the 1960s saw him take backstage with the new generation of music lovers but he remained enormously popular with a following built up over fifty years of performing.
In 1982, for his contribution to France and its culture, President
François MitterrandFrançois Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
named Tino Rossi a Commander of the
Legion of HonorThe Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
. That same year Rossi gave his last public performance at the
Casino de ParisThe Casino de Paris, located at 16, rue de Clichy, in the 9th arrondissement is one of the well known music halls of Paris, with a history dating back to the 18th century. Contrary to what the name might suggest, it is a performance venue, not a gambling house...
, a show that popular demand turned into a three month stint.
Tino Rossi died of pancreatic cancer in 1983 in
Neuilly-sur-SeineNeuilly-sur-Seine is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.Although Neuilly is technically a suburb of Paris, it is immediately adjacent to the city and directly extends it. The area is composed of mostly wealthy, select residential...
, Hauts-de-Seine, France. His body returned to his native Ajaccio for burial in the family plot at the local cemetery. His hometown named a street and the sailing harbor in his honor and at Nogent-sur-Marne, on the River Marne in Paris, there is a square named Tino Rossi Square. He's also referenced in the
comic bookA comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
Asterix in CorsicaAsterix in Corsica is the twentieth volume of the Asterix comic book series, by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo . It was originally serialized in Pilote issues 687-708 in 1973...
.
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