Biography
Nunzio Gallo was an Italian singer, born in Naples. He began his career as an opera singer, studying at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella in Naples. He made his debut at the age of 17, in 1945, at the Teatro delle Palme in Naples in a show organized by the Special Services Division of the US Army. It was such a huge success that he decides to continue on this path and passed, in 1948, a pop music competition in which he became 2nd.
In 1954 he was part of the cast of Verdi’s “Traviata”. In 1956 he won the first Canzonissima with the song “Mamma”. The following year he won the Festival of San Remo with “Corde della mia chitarra”. With the same song he participated in the second edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. In the same year he also won the Concorso Nazionale della Piedigrotta with the song “Sera d’està”. In 1958 he won Il Festival di Napoli with “Vurria”.
In 1961 he achieved great success by selling a million records with the song “Sedici anni”. In the same year he participated in Giugno della Canzone Napoletana. In Sanremo again, in 1962, he reached the final of the Festival singing “Inventiamo la vita”.
In 1973 he participated in the Piedigrotta: e nuove Canzoni di Napoli.
He also was an actor in about twenty films, including “Il mammasantissima” (1979) and “Storia d’amore e di vendetta” (1979).
During the afternoon of September 23, 2007, shortly after his last public performance, and after receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award, he was hit by a serious cerebral hemorrhage. He passed away in the late evening of February 22, at 79 years old.
