Elsa Mazzetti (28 February 1937 – 20 March 2024), better known as Cocky Mazzetti, was an Italian pop singer, mainly successful in the 1960s.

Life and career

Born in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

, Mazzetti studied piano and singing and made her official debut in 1955, with the group Menestrelli del Jazz ('Minstrels of Jazz'), with whom she toured in Spain, Turkey, Egypt and Lebanon.Enzo Giannelli (1990). "Mazzetti, Cocky" in Gino Castaldo (edited by). ''Dizionario della canzone italiana''. Curcio. pp. 1045-8. In the late 1950s she adopted the stage name Cocky, which was the name of her poodle. She had her first hit in 1961 with "Pepito", an Italian-language cover of

Los Machucambos Los Machucambos was a music band formed in Paris in 1959. The two guitar players were Rafael Gayoso (from Spain), Milton Zapata (from Peru) and the singer was Julia Cortés (from Costa Rica) . In 1960 Zapata was replaced by Romano Zanotti (pseudon ...

' song. In the following years Mazzetti took part in some of the most important musical events in Italy, including four editions of the

Sanremo Music Festival The Sanremo Music Festival ( ), officially the Italian Song Festival (), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria, organized and broadcast by (RAI). It is the longest-running ...

, where in 1963 she got her major hit with

Pino Donaggio Giuseppe "Pino" Donaggio (born 24 November 1941) is an Italian musician, singer, and composer of film and television scores. A classically-trained violinist, Donaggio is known for his collaborations with director Brian De Palma, and for his work i ...

's twist song "Giovane giovane", the Festival di Napoli, where in 1962 she ranked third with "Nuttata 'e luna", the

Cantagiro Cantagiro was an Italian summer song contest held from 1962 to 1972 and 1990 to 1993. It featured three categories, A for famous artists, B for newcomers and C for groups. The creator of the competition was Ezio Radaelli. The name of the festival ...

, the and the . Her success declined in the second half of the 1960s. In the early 1980s Mazzetti was part of the group Oldies, together with

Nicola Arigliano Nicola Arigliano (6 December 1923 – 30 March 2010) was an Italian jazz singer, musician, and occasional actor. Born in Squinzano, Province of Lecce, at young age he ran away from home because of the humiliations received even by family members ...

, Wilma De Angelis,

Ernesto Bonino Ernesto Pietro Bonino (16 January 1922 – 29 April 2008) was an Italian singer of pop and jazz standards whose peak of popularity was during the 1940s and 50s. A native of Turin, Ernesto Bonino began his career in the late 1930s as a teenage si ...

and Claudio Celli. Between late 1990s and early 2000s she was a recurring guest in

Paolo Limiti Paolo Mario Limiti (8 May 1940 – 27 June 2017) was an Italian lyricist, journalist, radio and television writer and presenter. Born in Milan, Limiti begin his career as a journalist, then in 1960 he started a long collaboration with Mike Bongio ...

RAI (), commercially styled as since 2000 and known until 1954 as (RAI), is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many terrestrial and subscription television channels a ...

nostalgia-themed music TV-shows. Mazzetti died on 20 March 2024, at the age of 87.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mazzetti, Cocky 1937 births 2024 deaths 20th-century Italian women singers Italian pop singers Musicians from Milan