Country Italy As Renato Rascel Composer(s) Renato Rascel | Artist(s) Renato Ranucci Language Italian Lyricist(s) Dino Verde | |
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"Romantica" (English: "Romantic") is a song written by Italian singer-songwriter Renato Rascel with Dino Verde. It was performed for the first time during the tenth Sanremo Music Festival in January 1960, when two different versions of the song were sung by Rascel and Italian singer Tony Dallara. Rascel performed the song as a soft ballad, while Dallara, which was considered by Italian music critics as one of the "urlatori" (screamers), a music style popular in Italy during the 1960s, gave a more powerful rendition of "Romantica". The song placed first in the competition.
The song was also chosen as the Italian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1960, where it was performed in Italian by Renato Rascel. It was performed twelfth on the night, following Germany's Wyn Hoop with "Bonne nuit ma chérie" and preceding France's Jacqueline Boyer with "Tom Pillibi". At the close of voting, it had received 5 points, placing it 8th in a field of 13.
The song span three foreign versions in 1960. Dalida's version topped the French charts for a week.
The Estonian version by the Estonian Radio Male Quartet entitled "Romantika" altered the original by skipping the introduction. For two seasons of the Estonian hit comedy talk show "Rahva Oma Kaitse", the Estonian version was featured as the end title piece. One of the editors, Mart Juur commented:"Honestly, meanwhile we haven't heard anything of the worth of Ringo Starr's "No No Song" and "Romantika" by the Male Quartet of the Estonian Radio. Look, there was a time when we used the so-called "bozo" songs, but recently we've started to pay attention at the quality of our featured music!"
Jane Morgan recorded an English version of the song just after the contest, in 1960.
In the late 80's, early 90's, the Norwegian vintage band "Lollipop" performed and released a version of Romantica. The song was performed by the Norwegian singer, Tor Endresen in Italian. "Lollipop" was a band that was constructed by Norwegian singer Rune Larsen for a vintage musicshow in Norway. It became very successful with 30 episodes on TV and two tours and also CD rekleases of music from the period 1955 to 1965.
As the Italian representative, "Romantica" was succeeded at the 1961 Contest by Betty Curtis with "Al di là".