Raffaella Carrà

Raffaella Carrà (born 18 June, 1943, Bologna, Italy), in Italy often simply known as la Carrà and in some Latin American countries sometimes simply as Raffaella, is an Italian singer, dancer, TV hostess, and actress. She is a quite popular figure in the markets of Italy, Spain and Latin America, both as a result of her many well known taped presentations and records of all time and because of her many popular TV shows.
==Early life==
Raffaella Carrà was born as Raffaella Roberta Pelloni, in Bologna , Italy, in 1943. In her native town she was engaged in dance lessons.
==Career==
===Singing and Dancing===
Since 1961, Raffaella Carrà did television, singing and dancing for variety shows of the Italian screen; this would become Carrà's forte for the rest of her career. Particularly since the early 1970s, such taped presentations of television have been celebrated for years until nowadays, with Carrà's elaborate dancing and the choreography of her dancers, the mesmerizing elaborate themes, and her uninhibited style.
Also, in Italy Carrà is popularly recognized as the first television figure who has shown her bellybutton before the cameras; she has been scolded by the Catholic Pope for this.
Raffaella Carrà recorded the sensual hit song Tuca Tuca (1970), composed and coreographed for her television presentations by her long-time collaborator and former boyfriend, Gianni Boncompagni. Similarly, in 1971 Carrà achieved another hit with "Chissà se Va" .
Her greatest international hit single was "Tanti Auguri" ("best wishes"), which has become a popular song amongst the gay community as well. The song is also known under its Spanish title "Para Enamorarse Bien Hay que Venir al Sur" (which refers to the southern hemisphere, in which her Latin American market is). The Estonian version of the song "Jätke võtmed väljapoole" was performed by Anne Veski.
"A far l'amore comincia tu" ("Start Making Love Each Other") was another success for her internationally, known in Spanish as "En el amor todo es empezar", in German as "Liebelei", in French as "Parce que tu l'aimes dis-le lui", and in English as "Do It, Do It Again". It was her only hit in the UK Singles Chart, where she remains a one-hit wonder. In 2008, "Do it, Do it Again" was featured briefly in the Midnight episode of the fourth series of Doctor Who (UK). "A far l'amore comincia tu" has also covered in Turkish by a Turkish popstar called Ajda Pekkan as "Sakin Ha" in 1977.
===Television Hostess===
As a television hostess, Raffaella Carrà has accomplished an important career since late 1970s, mainly in the Italian (RAI) and Spanish (TVE) national TV networks.
One of her most celebrated works has been the Pronto Raffaella? gameshow (Italy, 1983–1985), in which she attended the phone calls of her contestants. The format of the show was copied in many countries of Spanish language, both in Spain and in South America (by the Argentine Susana Giménez, in example), with massive success. Carrà has hosted one of those, ¡Hola Raffaella! (1992–1994) for the Spanish television.
===Actress===
Raffaella Carrà debuted in cinema being nine, in Tormento del passato (1952). She did other five movies until 1960 when she graduated from the national film school of Italy. Also in that year, she appeared in Long Night in 1943 (1960). In 1965, she moved to United States inking with 20th Century Fox. Already as Raffaella Carrà, she starred then in the Von Ryan's Express motion picture (1965) with Frank Sinatra, Edward Mulhare, and Trevor Howard. In 1966, in the American I Spy television series, she costarred an episode (Sophia, as the title character).
Feeling homesick, she decided to return to Italy though. Then, during the 1960s Carrà starred about twenty Italian films and few television shows. However, subsequently her actress career has been scarce with no more than five works mainly for television.
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==Her Latin Market==
After her boom in the Italian market of the early 1970s, Raffaella Carrà moved to Spain, doing television and releasing records in Spanish language.
This helped for her next step, which was her in South American landing. There, her records had been heard for some years, until in 1979 she set headquarters in Buenos Aires, which was particularly enthusiastic by the recent 1978 soccer World Cup, and under a military regime. Raffaella Carrà was one of the figures of the ATC, the Argentine most official network of television. Owing to this stint, Raffaella Carrà has generated much social controversy along the years, allegedly as a "puppet" The Legendary Raffaella Carrà, from Pop Trash Addicts (The puppet of a right wing military dictatorship) of the Argentinian National Reorganization Process.FUTBOL vs DICTADURA vs ROCK (spanish). From ROCK ARGENTINO En la Frontera, a popular site of Argentine rock & roll. (...foreign garbage of the radio [during the military regime])Cuando las estrellas internacionales brillaron en Santiago (spanish), El Liberal important Argentine newspaper.(One of the few distractions [of military regime])Rafaela Carrá (O las tiernas acrobacias de una tonta canción) (spanish), Report for Punto Final, an historical leftist Chilean magazine. (The chorus [of military regime])
Disregarding, a massive reaction throughout Latin America then ensued, with full stadiums and theaters where she performed. In 1980 she filmed the Barbara musical romantic comedy, also in Buenos Aires, with a big production and the most important stars of the region. In that same year, five capitals of the world (Buenos Aires, Mexico DF, Rome, Moscow, Buenos Aires, and London) conjoined to celebrate her in a television special. After appearing in the Festival de Vina del Mar (1982) she returned definitively to Italy.
==Personal life==
Raffaella Carrà has had a 20 year relationship with the choreographer Sergio Japino, who is a close friend of her even nowadays.
==External links==
*Raffaella Carrà, at the IMDB.
*Raffaella Carrà, at the MSN.
*Tuca Tuca (1970), at YouTube.
*Chissà se Va (1971), at YouTube.
*Starlight Express (1985), at YouTube
*Raffaella Carrà in the debut of her Barbara film (1980)
* Para hacer bien el amor hay que venir al sur (to make love well...), Spanish version, at YouTube.
* Para enamorarse bien hay que venir al sur (to fall in love well...), Argentine version of the same song (late 1970s), at YouTube.
==Notes and references==
Category:Italian actresses
Category:Italian singers
Category:Italy