Tony Dallara boasts the record of being the oldest surviving singer who participated in the Sanremo Festival. We discover his history from his beginnings in the world of music, through the great success to the slow decline of his career.
Who is Tony Dallara
Tony Dallara, stage name of Antonio Lardera (Campobasso, June 30, 1936), is an Italian singer. He grew up in a family of five children, his mother and father in the city of Milan where he attended compulsory school. Once finished he starts working as a bartender and then becomes an employee. In the meantime though the passion for music matures and begins to sing in various musical groups for the clubs of the Lombard capital.
He begins to define his musical style inspired by that of Tony Williams and together with his group, I Campioni, he begins to get contracts and meet important colleagues of the caliber of Adriano Celentano. He was then hired in 1957 at Music as a messenger only to be discovered by the director who decided to offer him a recording contract. In this period his pseudonym e records his first song “Come prima”.
Tony Dallara from the beginnings to success
With this piece he soon achieved success in the charts, selling as many as 300,000 copies and gaining fame also abroad. These milestones in 1957 are not taken for granted and Dallara then recorded an English version of the song obtaining greater success. In the following years he made numerous pieces and also takes part in some films including “August, my women I don’t know you” and “The Juke-Box boys”.
In 1960 then participates in the Sanremo Festival together with Renato Rascel with “Romantica” which gets so much success that he won the competition. The song also gets the victory of another successful musical format: Canzonissima. There great notoriety of the piece also leads him to be translated into several languages, of which the French version made famous by the interpretation of Dalida is remembered in particular.
The next year records “La novia” which ranks for eight weeks at the top of the Italian and Netherlands rankings. He participates again in Sanremo, this time paired with Gino Paoli, with the song “A living man” with which this time, however, he does not win. On the other hand, he obtained first place at Canzonissima with the piece “Child, child”.
The slow decline of Tony Dallara
Around 1962 Dallara progressively moves away from his style to get closer to the melodic genre. However, he does not get the same success that accompanied him during the previous decade and he cannot get up even with his participation in Sanremo. Continue to participate in singing competitions such as “A disc for the summer” and “Cantagiro” up to the local ones such as the Neapolitan Song Festival.
Slowly it goes towards the his career in radio and television also declined. He manages to resume his business in the 80s by returning to perform in public on old hits. In the following decade he recorded new pieces in a collection called “Pensieri in musica”. It will continue to appear on the small screen as a commentator and television host on sporadic occasions during the new millennium, but without adding new musical projects.