Nunzio Gallo

Nunzio Gallo
Background Information
Origin	Naples, Italy
Birth date	25 March 1928
Death date	22 February 2008
Age	79
Eurovision Song Contest
Country	Italy
Year	1957
Song	Corde della mia chitarra
Semi Position	--
Semi Points	--
Final Position	6th
Final Points	7

Nunzio Gallo was an Italian singer. He represented his country in the Eurovision Song Contest 1957, coming 6th. The song he performed, "Corde della mia chitarra", is famous for being the longest song ever played for Eurovision at five minutes and nine seconds, before the new rules came into place.

About

The singer was born in Naples, Italy on 25 March 1928.

Endowed with a beautiful, powerful voice, first tenor and then baritone, he began his career as an opera singer out of necessity and passion, studying at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella in Naples under the guidance of tenor Nunzio Bari and maestro Mino Campanino. He made his debut at the age of 17, in 1945, at the Teatro delle Palme in Naples in a show organized by the Special Services Division of the US Army. The success was so big that he decided to continue going on this path.

Fame

In 1954 he was part of the cast of Verdi's La Traviata conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini with Renata Tebaldi, Giacinto Prandelli, Gino Orlandini and the RAI orchestra of Milan.

In 1956 he won the first Canzonissima with the song Mamma and the following year he also won the Sanremo Festival with Corde delle mia chitarra. He participated in the second edition of the Eurovision Song Contest with the same song placing sixth.

Gallo was also an actor appearing in over 20 films, spanning from the year 1946 to 2005.

Death

During the afternoon of 23 September 2007, shortly after his last public performance and after receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award, he was struck by a severe cerebral hemorrhage and hospitalized in Naples, which he left on the morning of 2 January 2008 to be transferred to a clinic in Cassino. He remained in the clinic for about two months, during which time his condition worsened further.

Only three days before dying he was transferred to a rehabilitation center suitable for re-educating him neuromotorly, in Telese Terme, in the province of Benevento, but the damage suffered by the lack of treatment in Cassino was so bad that he never recovered and died in the latter clinic in the late evening of 22 February, at 79 years old.