Italian Schlager Stars Albano Carrisi and Romina Power: Happy Columbus Day Everybody!

Albano Carrisi and Romina Power:
Schlager with Italian Soul

In honor of today, the traditional celebration of Columbus Day in the US and most of the countries of South and Central America, the Chicago Schlager Music Review will make its first foray into Italian schlager.

Unquestionably the iconic figure in Italian schlager is Albano Carrisi. Over his 45 year career, together with his wife of 29 years, Romina Power (the daughter of American movie star, Tyrone Power) he has sold a staggering 165 million albums worldwide.

Carrisi and Power enjoyed popularity across Europe, but particularly in their native Italy, Germany, Austria, France and Spain.

Together, Albano and Romina represented Italy in the Eurovision Song contest twice in '76 and '85, finishing seventh both times.

They competed in Italy's San Remo Music Festival in '82, finishing second with Felicita (Happiness)and winning in '84 with Ci Sara (It will be).

Their sound could best be described as schlager with soul. The music contains the traditional throbbing schlager backbeat, but their animation and warmth on stage surpass anything that you ever see in performances by their neighbors to the North.

Italians can dance. Germans, Austrians and Swiss -- maybe not so much. And Albano and Romina even occasionally displayed affection right on stage -- imagine that.

The couple divorced in 1999 after a marriage of 29 years, but continued collaborating on some projects. Carrisi continues touring and recording and remains a frequent presence on Italian television.

Here is a performance of their very big hit, Felicita (Happiness):



And here is their winning San Remo Music Festival performance of Ci Sara (It will be): (Please bear with the 18 sec. silent visual intro)