Raffaella Carrà

Raffaella Carrà (born 18 June, 1943, Bologna, Italy), in Italy often simply known as la Carrà and in some Latin American countries sometimes simply as Raffaella, is an Italian singer, dancer, TV hostess, and actress. She is a quite popular figure in the markets of Italy, Spain and Latin America, both as a result of her many well known taped presentations and records of all time and because of her many popular TV shows.

Early life
Raffaella Carrà was born as Raffaella Roberta Pelloni, in Bologna, Italy, in 1943. In her native town she was engaged in dance lessons.

Singing and Dancing
Since 1961, Raffaella Carrà did television, singing and dancing for the variety shows of the Italian screen. Such shows became Carrà's forte for the rest of her career. Particularly since the early 1970s, such taped presentations of television have been celebrated for years until nowadays, with Carrà's elaborate dancing and the choreography of her dancers, the mesmerizing elaborate themes, and her uninhibited style. In accordance with the local tradition, she has been the first television figure who has shown her bellybutton before the cameras. By this, her figure was scolded by the Catholic Pope.

Raffaella Carrà had a hit song with the sensual "Tuca Tuca" (1970), written for her singing and dancing television presentations by her long-time collaborator and former boyfriend, Gianni Boncompagni. Similarly, in 1971 Carrà achieved another hit with "Chissà se Va".

Her greatest international hit single was "Tanti Auguri" ("best wishes"), which has become a popular song amongst the gay community as well. The song is also known under its Spanish title "Para Enamorarse Bien Hay que Venir al Sur" (which refers to the southern hemisphere, in which her Latin American market is). The Estonian version of the song "Jätke võtmed väljapoole" was performed by Anne Veski. "A far l'amore comincia tu" ("Start Making Love Each Other") was another success for her internationally, known in Spanish as "En el amor todo es empezar", in German as "Liebelei", in French as "Parce que tu l'aimes dis-le lui", and in English as "Do It, Do It Again". It was her only hit in the UK Singles Chart, where she remains a one-hit wonder. In 2008, "Do it, Do it Again" was featured briefly in the Midnight episode of the fourth series of Doctor Who (UK). "A far l'amore comincia tu" has also covered in Turkish by a Turkish popstar called Ajda Pekkan as "Sakin Ha" in 1977.

Television Hostess
As a television hostess, Raffaella Carrà has accomplished an important career since late 1970s, mainly in the Italian (RAI) and Spanish (TVE) national TV networks. One of her most celebrated works has been the Pronto Raffaella? gameshow (Italy, 1983-1985), in which she attended the phone calls of her contestants. The format of the show was copied in many countries of Spanish language, both in Spain and in South America (by the Argentine Susana Giménez, in example), with massive success. Carrà hosted one of those, ¡Hola Raffaella! (1992-1994) for the Spanish television.

Actress
Raffaella Carrà debuted in cinema being nine, in Tormento del passato (1952). She did other five movies until 1960 when she graduated from the national film school of Italy. Also in that year, she appeared in Long Night in 1943 (1960). In 1965, she moved to United States inking with 20th Century Fox. Already as Raffaella Carrà, she starred then in the Von Ryan's Express motion picture (1965) with Frank Sinatra, Edward Mulhare, and Trevor Howard. In 1966, in the American I Spy television series, she costarred an episode (Sophia, as the title character). Feeling homesick, she decided to return to Italy though.

During the 1960s, Carrà starred about twenty Italian films and few television shows. However, subsequently her actress career has been scarce with no more than five works mainly for television.

Her Latin Market
After her boom in the Italian market of the early 1970s, Raffaella Carrà moved to Spain, doing television and releasing records, in Spanish language. This helped for her next step, which was to land in South America. There, her records had been heard for some years until, in 1979 she set her headquarters in Buenos Aires, which was particularly excited by the recent 1978 soccer World Cup triumph and the overly optimistic media of its military government. Raffaella Carrà was one of the main figures, from the Argentine official network of television. This generated a massive reaction throughout Latin America, with full stadiums and theaters at which she was presented. In 1980 she filmed the Barbara musical romantic comedy, also in Buenos Aires, with a big production and stars of the southern hemisphere. In that same year, five capitals of the world (Buenos Aires, Mexico DF, Rome, Moscow, Buenos Aires, and London) conjoined to celebrate her in a television special. After appearing in the Festival de Vina del Mar (1982) she returned definitively to Italy.

Personal life
Raffaella Carrà has had a 20 year relationship with Sergio Japino, with whom she is a close friend even nowadays.

Controversially, Carrà is usually deemed as one of the main figures during the Argentinian military regime of the late 1970s, during which she accomplished an important artistic stint at that Latin American country, with important television presentations, movies, and records.