Released 1983 Recorded 1983 | Format Vinyl record (7") Genre Pop | |
"L'Italiano (Lasciatemi Cantare)" (commonly known as "L'Italiano") is an Italian pop song by Toto Cutugno released in 1983. It was his biggest international hit and is his best-known composition. The song was forgotten during the 1990s and was re-discovered when Toto Cutugno performed it live at a charity concert in Rome commemorating Italy's victory at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, creating a new wave of popularity for this song.
Recordings
This song was originally intended for Adriano Celentano, who turned it down.
On the year Cutugno released his hit, Kari Tapio, a Finnish singer, recorded a Finnish cover with the title "Olen suomalainen" (I'm a Finn), published on an album with the same name.
This song was copied by Indian music duo Sanjeev-Darshan for the movie "Mann".
In 1984, Doron Mazar, an Israeli singer recorded a cover to this song, titled "Ani Hozer HaBayta" ("I am returning home").
In 2011, the song was released on the famous party band The Gypsy Queens eponymous album The Gypsy Queens. The song became a successful cover for the band when they released a video clip of the song (produced by Didier Casnati) featuring Italian actress Caterina Murino, and reached several million views on YouTube in only a couple of weeks.
Brazilian singer José Augusto recorded the song in Portuguese as Faz de Conta.
French singer Hervé Vilard recorded the song in French as "Méditerranéenne".
Austrian-Italian singer Patrizio Buanne recorded his version in album "The Italian" in 2005.
Vietnamese Singer Đàm Vĩnh Hưng recorded his version in Vietnamese as "Say Tình" in 2001