The cinema of Italy comprises the films made within Italy or by Italian directors. Since its beginning, Italian cinema has influenced film movements worldwide. Italy is one of the birthplaces of art cinema and the stylistic aspect of film has been the most important factor in the history of Italian film. As of 2018, Italian films have won 14 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film as well as 12 Palmes d'Or, one Academy Award for Best Picture and many Golden Lions and Golden Bears.
The Sanremo Music Festival, officially the Italian Song Festival and commonly known as just Festival di Sanremo, is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria. It is the longest-running annual TV music competition in the world on a national level and it is also the basis and inspiration for the annual Eurovision Song Contest.
Marcia Ball is an American blues singer and pianist raised in Vinton, Louisiana.
Laura Pausini is an Italian singer. She rose to fame in 1993, winning the newcomer artists' section of the 43rd Sanremo Music Festival with her debut single "La solitudine", which became an Italian standard and an international hit. Her self-titled debut album was released in Italy on 23 April 1993 and later became an international success, selling two million copies worldwide. Its follow-up, Laura, was released in 1994 and confirmed her international success, selling three million copies worldwide.
Mina Anna MazziniOMRI, Mina Anna Quaini, known as Mina Mazzini or simply Mina, is an Italian-Swiss singer and actress. She was a staple of television variety shows and a dominant figure in Italian pop music from the 1960s to the mid-1970s, known for her three-octave vocal range, the agility of her soprano voice, and her image as an emancipated woman.
Adelmo Fornaciari, more commonly known by his stage name Zucchero Fornaciari or simply Zucchero, is an Italian singer, musician and songwriter. His stage name is the Italian word for "sugar", as his elementary teacher used to call him. His music is largely inspired by gospel, soul, blues and rock music, and alternates between Italian ballads and more rhythmic R&B-boogie-like pieces. He is credited as the "father of Italian blues", introducing blues to the big stage in Italy. He is one of the few European blues artists who still enjoys great international success.
Barbora Bobuľová is an Italian actress. Since 1995, she has lived and worked mainly in Italy.
Susan Tedeschi is an American singer and guitarist. A multiple Grammy Award nominee, she is a member of the Tedeschi Trucks Band, a conglomeration of her band, her husband Derek Trucks' the Derek Trucks Band, and other musicians.
Elisa Toffoli , performing under the mononym Elisa, is an Italian singer-songwriter. She is one of few Italian musicians to write and record mainly in English. She draws inspiration from many genres such as pop, alternative rock, electronica and trip hop. In Europe she is perhaps most recognised for the single "Come Speak to Me", while American audiences may recognise the song "Dancing" as featured in both the 2006 and 2007 seasons of So You Think You Can Dance. On December 18, 2012, her collaboration with Ennio Morricone, "Ancora qui", was featured on Quentin Tarantino's film, Django Unchained and its soundtrack album, which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media.
Valeria Golino is an Italian actress and director. She is best known to English-language audiences for her roles in Rain Man, Big Top Pee-wee and the two Hot Shots! films, particularly the olive-in-the-belly-button scene. In addition to David di Donatello, Silver Ribbon, Golden Ciak and Italian Golden Globe awards, she is one of three actresses to have twice won the Best Actress award at the Venice Film Festival.
Ginevra Elkann is a London-born Italian film producer and director. She is a member of the Agnelli family and granddaughter of Italian industrialist Gianni Agnelli.
Irma Thomas is an American singer from New Orleans. She is known as the "Soul Queen of New Orleans".
Giorgia Todrani, best known as Giorgia is an Italian singer, songwriter, musician, record producer and radio host.
Emanuela Trane ,[ˌdoltʃeˈneːra], is an Italian singer, songwriter and actress. She rose to fame in 2003, after winning the newcomers' section of the Sanremo Music Festival, but she achieved commercial success in Italy only in 2005, when she won the music-based reality show Music Farm and she released her second album, Un mondo perfetto. In 2005 she was also awarded Best New Artist of the Year at the Italian Meeting of Independent Record Labels and she received the De André Award for Best Emerging Artist.
Stefano Lelio Beniamino Accorsi is an Italian actor.
Ambra Angiolini is an Italian actress, TV host and singer.
Rosalba Pippa, better known by her stage name Arisa, is an Italian singer and actress.
Mariem Hassan was a Sahrawi singer and lyricist from Western Sahara. She usually sang in Hassaniyya, an Arabic dialect spoken mostly in Western Sahara and Mauritania, and occasionally in Spanish. Her use of the Spanish language was related to the former status of Western Sahara as a Spanish colony.
Nathalie Beatrice Giannitrapani, simply known as Nathalie, is an Italian singer-songwriter and actress. She rose to fame after winning the fourth season of the Italian version of The X Factor in 2010. Her winning single, "In punta di piedi", was released immediately after the final of the show, and debuted atop the FIMI Top Digital Downloads chart.
Romina Daniele is an Italian exponent of the vocal extended technique, an avant-garde and blues singer, a composer of electronic and experimental music, vocalist and performer associated with contemporary music, writer, photographer. Since 2005, she has been working on sound research in the fields of vocalism and electronic music, and since 2013 she has been working as blues singer as well.
