Raffaella Carrà, an Italian entertainment icon, has died at the age of 78 | Pop and rock

Raffaella Carrà, a pop singer and actor who was an icon of entertainment in her hometown Italy, died at the age of 78.

Her longtime partner, Sergio Iapino, announced her death saying, “Raffaella has left us. She has gone to a better world, where her humanity, her unmistakable laughter and her extraordinary talent will shine forever. “He said she had been battling an unnamed illness for some time.

Carra is best known in the UK for the single Do It, Do It Again, which reached 9th place in 1978 and spent 12 weeks on the charts. She enjoyed much greater success in Italy, where in 1984 L’Espresso described her as: “More applauded than [president] Pertini, more expensive than [football player] Michel Platini, more amazing than [modern saint] Father Pio. “

Born in Bologna in 1943, Carrà studied dance and for the first time became an actor in the “peplum” genre of Italian historical epic films. Encouraged by her success, she moved to the United States and starred opposite Frank Sinatra and others in the Von Ryan Express (1965), but soon returned to Italy and became the host of the Canzonissima television show, where they often performed songs and dance numbers. from her.

With her suits and routines considered dirty by Eric standards, she was occasionally censored, but her career lasted throughout the 1970s. It also became extremely popular in Spain with another stage, La Hora de Raffaella, and in South America after moving to Buenos Aires in 1979.

She was a homosexual icon throughout Europe, and became considered a feminist icon as well: in the original Italian version of Do It, Do It Again encourages women to take control during sex. “I think Raffaella Carrà has done more to liberate women than many feminists,” she said. Francesco Vezzoli, curator of a 1970s Italian television exhibition for the Fondazione Prada in 2017.