Patty Pravo

by Aurelio PasiniCharismatic and charming, Patty Pravo has passed through forty years of Italian pop music, changing her image -- first beat queenie, then elegant and provoking chanteuse -- but never compromising an unique personality.
Born in Venice 9 April, 1948, Nicoletta Strambelli was bred in an extremely intellectual environment, she had the chance -- the acquaitances of her family including the poet Ezra Pound and cardinal Angelo Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII. At the age of 17 she escaped to Rome, where she soon became a dancer in the famous Piper Club. Its owner, Alberigo Crocetta, introduced her to RCA, who in 1967 released her first single, "Ragazzo Triste". The song became immediately a huge success, and Nicoletta, who now presented herself with the nom de plume Patty Pravo, immediately became the feminine symbol of the Italian beat scene, thanks to her particular voice and, even more, because of her androgynous charm. A status confirmed in 1968 by another single, "La Bambola", one of the most successful songs of the decade. Patty Pravo was released in the same year, followed in 1969 by Concerto per Patty and the Lucio Battisti-penned single "Il Paradiso". In 1970 Pravo debuted at the Sanremo Music Festival dueting with Little Tony on "La Spada nel Cuore". Although her popularity didn't seem to be decreasing, Pravo soon started to feel trapped by her own character of "la ragazza del Piper" (the girl from the Piper Club), and decided to tread on new paths. After 1970's Patty Pravo and 1971's Bravo Pravo, she started releasing more rich and complex albums such as 1971's Di Vero in Fondo and Per Aver Visto un Uomo Piangere e Soffrire Dio Si Trasformò in Musica e Poesia and 1972's Sì? Incoerenza. A partial return to more accessible arrangements lead to one of her most successful singles, 1973's "Pazza Idea, included in the album of the same title, followed by Mai una Signora (1974) and Incontro (1975). 1976's Tanto was recorded with the help of Greek composer Vangelis. In 1978 Ivano Fossati wrote for Pravo the controversial single "Pensiero Stupendo" (about a threesome), which was excluded from the tracklist of Miss Italia. With 1979's Munich Album Pravo entered the most difficult period of her career, with the media becoming less and less interested in her records, as demonstrated by the poor sales of Cerchi (1982), Occulte Persuasioni (1984, re-released in 1987 with the title Per una Bambola) and Oltre l'Eden (1989). After a brief detention for hashish possession in 1992, Pravo returned in 1994 with the lush Ideogrammi, recorded in Peking. Then, in 1997, she returned to the Sanremo Music Festival with "E Dimmi Che Non Vuoi Morire", a rock ballad written by Vasco Rossi and Stadio's Gaetano Curreri, later included on the live album Bye Bye Patty (that would end up selling 300,000 copies in Italy only). Notti, Guai e Libertà, including compositions by the likes of Francesco Guccini, Roberto Vecchioni and Franco Battiato was released in 1998, followed by Una Donna da Sognare (2000, produced by Vasco Rossi), Radio Station (2002) and the more experimental Nic-Unic (2004). 2007's Spero Che Ti Piaccia? Pour Toi was a tribute to the Italo-French singer Dalida, in the 20th anniversary of her death.