Paola Musiani (25 November 1949 - 8 January 1985) was an Italian singer.

Life and career

Musiani was born in

Vignola Vignola (; Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese: ; Bolognese dialect, Bolognese: ) is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Modena (Emilia-Romagna), Italy. Its economy is based on agriculture, especially fruit farming, but there are also mecha ...

Modena Modena (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It has 184,739 inhabitants as of 2025. A town, and seat of an archbis ...

. At the age of 16, while making her accountancy studies, Musiani started singing in the dance halls of her region. In 1966, after taking part in a singing contest with a cover version of

The Monkees The Monkees were an American pop rock band formed in Los Angeles in the mid-1960s. The band consisted of Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones (musician), Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork. Spurred by the success of ''The Monkees (TV series), Th ...

' "

I'm a Believer "I'm a Believer" is a song written by Neil Diamond and recorded by the American band the Monkees in 1966 with the lead vocals by Micky Dolenz. The single, produced by Jeff Barry, hit the number-one spot on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart ...

", she was put under contract by

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

."Paola Musiani" in Gino Castaldo (edited by). ''Dizionario della canzone italiana''. Curcio, 1990. In 1967, Musiani got her first success with "Ode per Billie Joe", a cover version of

Bobbie Gentry Bobbie Gentry (born Roberta Lee Streeter; July 27, 1942) is an American retired singer-songwriter. She was one of the first female artists in the United States to compose and produce her own material. Gentry rose to international fame in 1967 ...

's "

Ode to Billie Joe "Ode to Billie Joe" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bobbie Gentry released by Capitol Records in July 1967, and later used as the title track of her debut album. Five weeks after its release, the song topped '' Billboard's'' Pop sing ...

". In the following years, she took part to the most important musical events in Italy, including

Canzonissima (; ) was an Italian musical variety show broadcast by Rai 1 from 1958 to 1975, aired on Saturday evenings except for the last two editions, which were aired on Sunday afternoon. The program has been referred to as "the synthesis and paradigm of ...

, Cantagiro,

Festivalbar The Festivalbar () was an Italian singing competition that took place in the most important Italian squares during summer, such as the Piazza del Duomo, Catania or Piazza Bra, Verona. The first edition took place in 1964 and was broadcast by ...

and two 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 ...

, in

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

and

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

. Musiani later became active on stage as an

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs and including dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, and length of the work. Apart from its shorter length, the oper ...

singer and actress, before dying prematurely, aged 35, because of a car crash in the Autostrada del Sole.

Discography

Album

* 1972: ''Dedicato a Paola'' * 1984: ''Trapianto'' (as La Musiani)

Singles

* 1967: La facciata A/Dipingi un mondo per me (CBS, 2727) * 1967: Ode per Billie Joe/Con la tua mamma (CBS, 3027) * 1968: Un ragazzo che sogna/Promesse (CBS, 3513) * 1969: Tu dormirai/Se vuoi cadere in piedi (CBS, 4171) * 1969: Deserto/La principessa non canta più (CBS, 4280) * 1970: Faccia da schiaffi/Cosa vuoi cuore mio (Bentler, BE/NP 5066) * 1971: Noi/Le mie pazza scale (Bentler, BE/NP 5077) * 1971: Il nostro concerto/Adesso che mi manchi tu (Bentler, BE/NP 5079) * 1972: Passerà/La mia strana vita (Bentler, BE/NP 5082) * 1972: Tocco magico/Alone again (Bentler, BE/NP 5086) * 1972: Tu eri il mio bene/Amore immenso (Bentler, BE/NP 5088) * 1973: Tango della gelosia/Davanti a Dio (Bentler, BE/NP 5089) * 1974: La donna quando pensa/L'ultima spiaggia (Bentler, BE/NP-5091) * 1975: Se nasco un’altra volta/Chiaro (Bentler, BE/NP-5099) * 1978: Se/Vieni adesso (Bella Record, ZBN 10002) * 1979: Quello che ci vuole per me/ (Space, ZSB 00102) * 1982: Lassame sta'/E' amare (Effe Proposta, EP-005) * 1983: Fastidio/Curiosità (F1 Team, P 7301)

References

External links

Paola Musiani
at

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Musiani, Paola People from Vignola 1949 births 1985 deaths Italian pop singers Italian musical theatre actresses Road incident deaths in Italy 20th-century Italian women singers