Umberto Tozzi Concerts Setlist

A 16-year-old kid playing Turin's smoky clubs, guitar in hand, dreaming of making it big, that was Umberto Tozzi, before Ti Amo shook up the world in 1977. It topped the Italian charts, and the echoes of its message had a reverberating effect on radio stations across Europe.

But Gloria in '79? That's when things got crazy. Laura Branigan's English version in '82 spent 36 weeks on US charts, and decades later, Scorsese gave the original Italian version new life in The Wolf of Wall Street. Talk about staying power.

While Tozzi was conquering Europe, Latin America fell in love with his music too. Menudo turned Stella Stai into Claridad, and boom - one of the region's bestselling records. Then in '87, he teamed up with Italian legends Gianni Morandi and Enrico Ruggeri, winning Sanremo with Si Può Dare Di Più before grabbing third at Eurovision with Gente Di Mare.

From that of the clubs to that of the music ingenuity, how to go beyond a title; and at least for seventy million records, say in ten languages, Tozzi has proved that a love song, even when the words are not understood, is always felt. But everyone, I don’t care whether they are in Tokyo, in Toronto or in Toulouse, singing, say the words of Ti Amo, Gloria, many with an Italian which he speaks without breathing.