Otello Profazio (26 December 1934 – 23 July 2023) was an Italian
cantastorie,
folk singer-songwriter, and author.
Biography
Born Otello Ermanno Profazio in
Rende,
Province of Cosenza, Profazio made his debut in 1953, participating in the radio music competition "Il microfono è vostro" with the song ''U' Ciucciu''.
A prominent promoter of traditional folk music from southern Italy—particularly from
Sicily
Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...
and
Calabria
Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...
—he received widespread critical acclaim in 1964 for the album ''Il treno del sole'', which featured poems by
Ignazio Buttitta set to music. This album also marked the beginning of a progressive evolution in his style, becoming increasingly original and distinctive.
[ His career reached its peak in the 1970s, notably with the success of the album ''Il brigante Musolino'', a musical retelling of the life of Giuseppe Musolino, and ''Qua si campa d'aria'', which sold over a million copies and was awarded a ]gold disc
Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...
.[
Profazio also presented several music programmes on television, notably ''Quando la gente canta'' for five years on Secondo Canale.][ For 15 years he also wrote weekly columns ("Profaziate") in the newspaper '' Gazzetta del Sud'', which were later collected in a series of books.][
Otello Profazio died on 23 July 2023, at the age of 88.Addio a Otello Profazio, il cantastorie che ha raccontato l’anima meridionale]
References
Further reading
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Profazio, Otello
1934 births
2023 deaths
People from Rende
20th-century Italian male singers
Italian folk singers
Italian male singer-songwriters
20th-century Italian singer-songwriters
Italian record producers
Sicilian-language singers