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Non-sardinian celebs related with Sardinia; Notable people who live or have lived long time in Sardinia, or that are associated with the Island
Topic Started: Feb 9 2014, 05:37 AM (2,043 Views)
Pinkulilly
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A thread dedicated to notable people who live or have lived long time in Sardinia, or that are associated for several reasons to the Island, though they haven't sardinian ancestry.
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Pinkulilly
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Fabrizio De André

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Fabrizio Cristiano De André (18 February 1940 - 11 January 1999) was an Italian singer-songwriter. Known for his sympathies towards anarchism, libertarism and pacifism, his songs often featured marginalized and rebellious people, gypsies, prostitutes and knaves, and attacked the Catholic Church hierarchy hypocrisies. Artistically active for almost 40 years and the author of thirteen studio albums, he is renowned for the quality of his lyrics and often considered a poet. He contributed to the valorization of the languages of Italy, most notably Ligurian and, to a lesser extent, Sardinian, Gallurese and Neapolitan. Following his early death several streets, places, parks, schools and public libraries were named after him.


Biography

De André was born in Genova, welcomed into the world by Gino Marinuzzi's "Country Waltz" on the home gramophone. Twenty-five years later, Fabrizio De André would set his "Waltz for a Love" to Marinuzzi's waltz tune.

When war broke out, the De Andre' family had to seek refuge on a country farm near Revignano (a little town near Asti), in Piemonte. Fabrizio's father, who was an Anti-fascista pursued by the police, joined the partisans. In 1945 the De André family moved back to Genova. Fabrizio went to primary school, first at the Marcellian Sisters' School and, later, at the Cesare Battisti public school. He went on to the Liceo Classico "Cristoforo Colombo"; after his final examination, he enrolled in the Law School at the University of Genoa, though he did not graduate (he gave up when he had only a few exams left). De Andre' first played the violin, then the guitar, and joined a number of local jazz bands (jazz was his "first love").
First recordings

In 1960 De André recorded his first two songs, "Nuvole barocche" ("Baroque Clouds") and "E fu la notte" ("And There Was Night"); in 1962 he married Puny Rignon, a Genoese woman nearly ten years older. That same year the couple had their first and only son, Cristiano, who would follow in his father's footsteps and become a musician and songwriter as well.
In the following years De André wrote a number of songs which made him known to a larger public, soon becoming classic hits: "La guerra di Piero" ("Peter's War"), "La ballata dell'eroe" ("The Hero's Ballad"), "Il testamento di Tito" ("Titus's Will"), "La Ballata del Michè" ("Mike's Ballad"), "Via del Campo" (literally "Field Street", a famous street in Genoa), "La canzone dell'amore perduto" ("Song for Lost Love"), "La città vecchia" ("Old Downtown"), "Carlo Martello ritorna dalla battaglia di Poitiers" ("Charles Martel on His Way Back from Poitiers", written together with actor Paolo Villaggio, one of De André's closest friends), and "La canzone di Marinella" ("Marinella's Song").

De André's first LP, Volume 1, was issued shortly after (1968), followed by Tutti morimmo a stento ("We All Died Agonizingly") and Volume 3; both LPs soon reached the top of the Italian hit-parade. The former contained a personal version of "Eroina" ("Heroin") by the poet Riccardo Mannerini, entitled "Cantico dei drogati" ("Canticle of the Junkies").

In 1970 De André wrote La buona novella ("Glad Tidings" - a literal rendition of the etymology of gospel), a concept album based on Christ's life as told in the Apocrypha. The album was very controversial, especially the song "Il testamento di Tito" ("Titus's Will"), in which one of the thieves crucified with Jesus violently refutes the Ten Commandments. He had written a number of songs (like "Preghiera in Gennaio", "Prayer in January", and "Si chiamava Gesù", "His Name Was Jesus") in which he showed a Christian-like open-minded spirit and in the meantime invited the audience in his own delicate way to think about the manipulation of the church.

In 1971 he wrote another celebrated concept album, Non al denaro non all'amore né al cielo ("Neither to money, nor to love, nor to Heaven"), based on Edgar Lee Masters's Spoon River Anthology; in an interview the LP was introduced to Fernanda Pivano, the first Italian translator of the "Anthology" and one of Cesare Pavese's most intimate friends. Fabrizio De André's name began to be associated with literature and poetry, and some of his songs found their way into school books.

In 1973 he wrote his most "political" album, Storia di un impiegato ("Story of an Employee").
The following year, De André issued 'Canzoni (album)' ("Songs"), a collection of his translations from Georges Brassens, Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan. The album also included a number of his old songs from the 1960s.

In 1975 De André (who in the meantime had divorced his wife Puny and begun a relationship with the folksinger Dori Ghezzi) wrote Volume 8 with another famous Italian singer-songwriter, Francesco De Gregori. With this album, he broke with "tradition" in order to find a new approach to poetry and music. The lyrics show how deep the influence of modern poetry is on De André's work. 1975 marked a real change in De André's life: he began to perform in a series of memorable concerts (after his first performances of the early 1960s, he had always refused to appear in public, except for a couple of TV broadcasts) and planned to move to Sardinia with his new love. For this purpose, he purchased the Agnata homestead near Tempio Pausania in the northern part of the island, where he could devote himself to farming and cattle breeding.
In 1977 the couple had a daughter, Luisa Vittoria (nicknamed "Luvi"). The following year De André issued a new LP, Rimini. Most songs included on this album were written together with Massimo Bubola, a young singer-songwriter from Verona.

1979 was another milestone in De André's life. The year began with a series of distinguished live concerts from which a double LP was compiled; De André was accompanied by one of the most renowned Italian progressive rock bands, Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM); the albums were released as In Concerto (1979), and In Concerto - Volume 2 (1980). At the end of August, however, De André and Ghezzi were kidnapped for ransom by a gang of bandits in Sardinia and held prisoner in the Alà dei Sardi mountains. The couple were released four months later with a ransom reportedly being paid. As De André stated in some interviews, he was helped by his father to find the money and had to start a tour shortly after the release of the "Indiano" album in order to repay him. When the bandits were apprehended by the police, De André was called as a witness before the Court. He showed compassion for some of his kidnappers, since he had been well treated by his "guardians" and declared his solidarity with them. "They were the real prisoners, not I", he said. He said he understood they were driven by need, but he did not show any compassion for the higher echelon of the group that organized his kidnapping, since they were already rich.
This incident, and the hard life of the Sardinian people, gave him inspiration for his following album, released in 1981. The album is untitled but, due to the image of Native American on the cover, the mass-media called it "The Indian". In De André's poetical vision, the American Indians merge with the poor Sardinian shepherds as an allegory for the marginalization and subjugation of people who are "different". The song "Hotel Supramonte", is dedicated to the kidnapping and to Dori Ghezzi, who was with him during those days. The album also contains one of his most famous songs, "Fiume Sand Creek" ("Sand Creek River"): in De André's unique, allusive way it tells the story of the massacre of defenseless Native Americans by US Army troops on 29 November 1864.

In 1984 he turned to his native Genoese dialect; in collaboration with former PFM member Mauro Pagani he wrote one of his most celebrated albums, Crêuza de mä ("Path to the sea", the term "Crêuza" actually means a narrow road bordered by low walls, typical of Genoa and Liguria in general). The songs are a tribute to the traditional music from the Mediterranean basin. The album was awarded several prizes and was hailed as "the best Italian album of the 1980s". David Byrne named it as one of his favourite albums, and Wim Wenders said that it was this album that introduced him to the music of De André, whom the director names as one of his favourite artists. As Pagani has repeatedly stated, De Andrè wrote the lyrics for the album, while the music was almost entirely Pagani's.

In 1989 De André married Ghezzi; the following year a new album was issued, Le nuvole ("The Clouds"), which included two more songs in the Genoese dialect, one in the Gallurese dialect of Northern Sardinia ("Monti di Mola") and one in the Neapolitan dialect, the highly ironic "Don Raffaè". A new series of well received live concerts followed, from which a double LP, 1991 Concerti ("Concerts 1991"), was issued. In 1992 he started a new series of live concerts, performing in a number of theatres for the first time.
De André's last original album, Anime salve ("Saved Souls"), was issued in 1996. Written in collaboration with Ivano Fossati, it represents a sort of "spiritual will", and includes songs such as "Khorakhané" (dedicated to the Muslim Roma people), "Disamistade" (a return to his beloved Sardinian themes, which has been translated into English and sung by The Walkabouts) and "Smisurata preghiera" ("An Infinite Prayer"), based on the Colombian writer and storyteller Álvaro Mutis's The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll. De André also sang a Spanish version of this song, Desmedida plegaria.
In 1997, he undertook a new tour of theatre concerts and a new song collection called M'innamoravo di tutto was issued ("I Used to Fall in Love with Everything", a quote from one of his older songs, Coda di Lupo - Wolf's Tail) . The Anime salve concert tour went on up to the late summer of 1998, when De André stopped after the first symptoms of a serious illness, which was later diagnosed as lung cancer.
De André died in Milan on 11 January 1999, at 2:30 am. Two days later, he was buried in his native town, Genoa; the ceremony was attended by a crowd of about 20,000. He is buried in the Monumental Cemetery of Staglieno, in the De André family chapel.










Fabrizio De Andrè with his family and friends in Sardinia in the 80's


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Angioy
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Luigi Riva


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Luigi Riva (born November 7, 1944), best known as Gigi Riva or by his nickname Rombo di Tuono (Roar of Thunder), is a former Italian footballer, the all-time leading scorer for the Italian national team.
Considered one of the best forwards of his generation, Riva enjoyed a remarkable scoring record for Cagliari thanks to his composure in front of goal, fearsome left foot and aerial ability. He led Cagliari, Sardinia to their first Serie A title in 1969-70, as well as winning the 1968 UEFA European Championship with Italy.
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Algueres
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Aga Khan IV

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Prince Shah Karim Al Hussaini Aga Khan (IV) (Persian: شاه کریم حسینی، آقاخان چهارم‎) (Aga Khan is also transliterated as Aqa Khan and Agha Khan), NPk, NI, KBE, CC, GCC, GCIH, GCM (born 13 December 1936), in Geneva, Switzerland; is a British business magnate,racehorse owner and breeder, as well as the 49th and current Imam of Nizari Ismailism – a denomination of Ismailism within Shia Islam consisting of approximately 15 million adherents (under 10% of the world's Shia Muslim population).

Aga Khan IV is very famous in Sardinia for having developed on a huge project of luxury tourism and urban development on approximately 200 km of sardinian coast in the late 50's, founding the famous Costa Smeralda (Emerald Coast).

The Spiaggia del Principe (The Prince Beach), located in Arzachena, is a toponomy dedicated to him.

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Pinkulilly
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Peter Gabriel

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The british Singer and musician Peter Gabriel, ex member of The Genesis, lives currently in Arzachena (Sardinia) with his family, where he owns a 20-room hotel called the Li Capanni. Gabriel bought the hotel at the insistence of his then girlfriend in 2001. The couple married there in 2002 while she was pregnant with Isaac.
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caesium
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:above: Peter Gabriel during a village festival in Arzachena. . :D

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Pinkulilly
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Giuseppe Garibaldi

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Giuseppe Garibaldi (4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882) was an Italian general and politician who played a large role in the history of Italy.He is considered, with Camillo Cavour, Victor Emmanuel II and Giuseppe Mazzini, as one of Italy's "fathers of the fatherland".

He bought half of the island of Caprera (north of Sardinia) in 1854, devoting himself to agriculture.

Despite being elected again to the Italian parliament, Garibaldi spent much of his late years in Caprera.

Upon his death on 2 June 1882 at the age of almost 75, his wishes for a simple funeral and cremation were not respected. He was buried in his farm on the island of Caprera alongside his last wife and some of his children.

Garibaldi's grave in Caprera, Sardinia
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the bed where Garibaldi died
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Raika
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Amii Stewart

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The american singer Amii Stewart lives in Sardinia, in Porto Cervo, since 1999 with his husband Pietro Cappa, an italian businessman.

Every years from May to October she moves to Sardinia.
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yoshimitsu
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April Summers

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The british supermodel and playmate lives in Cagliari and Muravera, with her sardinian boyfriend.


April in Villaputzu beach, where she sponsors the location, saying to the viewers to spend holidays there

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caesium
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,,,,,,
Edited by caesium, Nov 9 2016, 11:45 PM.
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