Loretta Goggi

Born in Rome, Italy, to Giulio and Costanza Goggi, originally from Circello, she has two sisters: Liliana Goggi (1943) and Daniela Goggi (who eventually followed her into the show business).

From a very young age Loretta Goggi studied singing and music.

Loretta Goggi (born 29 September 1950) is an Italian singer, actress, and television presenter.

Goggi's records have sometimes entered the Italian pop charts.

In 1959 she was discovered by Silvio Gigli, which led her to take part in the radio competition, Dino Verde Disco Magico, presented by Corrado with an orchestra conducted by Gianni Ferrio.

Loretta won the competition together with Nilla Pizzi.

In 1962 she made her debut as a child actress in the RAI television prose Sotto processo with the direction of Anton Giulio Majano, broadcast on the Secondo programma.

In 1963 at the age of 12 she recorded her first song Se la cercherai, written by Nico Fidenco, with her first name Loretta, for the soundtrack of the french film Le Sang à la tête directed by Gilles Grangier.

Subsequently Loretta was in the cast of many other famous Rai television dramas, in which she interpreted characters of fragile and needy girls (many times paired with another child actor, Roberto Chevalier, who later became a well-known voice actor) including Robinson non-deve morire (1963) by Vittorio Brignole, Demetrio Pianelli (1963) by Sandro Bolchi, I miserabili (1964), also by Bolchi in which she plays the role of Cosette as a child, Una tragedia americana (1962), Delitto e castigo (1963 ) and La cittadella (1964), all three directed by Anton Giulio Majano, Vita di Dante (1965) by Vittorio Cottafavi, in which she plays Beatrice, Questa sera parla Mark Twain and Scaramouche, with Domenico Modugno, both broadcast in 1965 and directed by Daniele D'Anza and in an episode of Le indagini del Commissario Maigret, directed by Mario Landi (1966).

In these dramas Loretta has the opportunity to support great Italian actors such as Lilla Brignone, Gino Cervi, Andreina Pagnani, Paolo Stoppa, Rina Morelli, Giorgio Albertazzi and many others.

In 1964, under the direction of Beppe Recchia, she was also in the cast of the children's drama C'era una volta la fiaba with Arturo Testa and Santo Versace; of the same year is also Le avventure della squadra di stoppa directed by Alda Grimaldi, another television drama aimed at children

Starting in 1965, having already participated in many television productions, she also dedicated himself to dubbing: she is the Italian voice of Tweety in the Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies (flanked by Gigi Proietti, who dubbed Sylvester the Cat), and famous actresses such as Katharine Ross, Kim Darby, Mita Medici, Agostina Belli, Ornella Muti and Silvia Dionisio; in the same period she deepend her studies in diction, piano and singing.

During the same period she also began working in the cinema (with small roles) and in the theater, where she played various shows by Molière, William Shakespeare and Luigi Pirandello.

In 1966 she participated in the Castrocaro Music Festival with the songs Ballando guancia a guancia and So cosa vuoi da me, which are still unpublished.

In 1968 she ventured for the first time with an adult role, taking part as the female protagonist of the play La freccia nera also directed by Anton Giulio Majano and based on the novel of the same name by Robert Louis Stevenson, in which she is flanked by Aldo Reggiani, Arnoldo Foà and Adalberto Maria Merli; the drama was successful (with peaks of 20 million viewers), and Loretta reached great fame.

In the meantime, she graduated from the International Linguistic High School in Rome.

She also played many photo novels in which she is flanked by Massimo Ranieri, Christian, Aldo Reggiani (formerly her partner in The Black Arrow) and Ben Elkland.

In 1968 she made her debut as a TV host with the television special Incontro con Lucio Battisti, followed by Il divo Claudio, Notturno di primavera, as well as Radio for schools and she is also a disc jockey on Vatican Radio, she also lends her voice also for some religious audio stories of the Edizioni Paoline.

She also returned to singing, publishing several singles with the Durium Records record label, including Cibù Cibà written by Paolo Limiti.

The duo found success in the Latin markets toward the end of the 1970s.

In 1970 she began to reveal her skills as an imitator in the TV show Jolly, presented by the Quartetto Cetra.

In the summer of the same year Loretta led the show Estate insieme with Renzo Arbore, promoting emerging bands and solo singers, performing with her sister Daniela in the Boomerang Dance.

In 1971 she starred in three television dramas: E le stelle stanno a guardare, always directed by Anton Giulio Majano, in which is accompanied by Giancarlo Giannini, the episode Passi sulla neve of the series Racconti italiani del 900 for the direction of Giuseppe Fina and La sera della partita, directed by Gianni Baldi on the Secondo Programma.

She was then alongside Pippo Baudo in the radio program Caccia alla voce, in which she replaced the actor Franco Rosi because he is sick, beginning to perform as an imitator, surprisingly enjoying great success, so much so that the conductor wants her with him in the television variety La freccia d'oro.

In the summer of 1971 she participated in the musical event Un disco per l'estate, with the song Io sto vivendo senza te and in November of the same year she participated in the World Popular Song Festival in Tokyo, reaching the semi-final.

In the spring of 1972 she participated alongside Franco Franchi in the variety Teatro 11, a sort of parody of another Italian TV show Teatro 10, and starred in L'ombra del delitto, a television script for Swiss Italian-speaking television.

Positively impressed by the work experience with her on the radio and with La freccia d'oro, Pippo Baudo chose Goggi to support him in the 1972–73 edition of the Canzonissima variety show: on this occasion Loretta her talent revealed an entertainer, especially thanks to her ability to imitate women of show business like Mina, Sophia Loren, Nada, Gina Lollobrigida, Liza Minnelli and many others and for her it is the definitive consecration as a showgirl.

Goggi also records the opening theme of the transmission, Vieni via con me (Taratapunzi-e) (written by Marcello Marchesi, Dino Verde, Enrico Simonetti and Pippo Baudo), winning her first gold record and always inside the program, launches other singles like Mani mani and Yeah!.

In 1973 she co-hosted a TV show in England with Sammy Davis Jr and performed with Alighiero Noschese on the Italian television program Formula Due.

In 1979 she became the first woman to host a television quiz in Italy for Fantastico, a well-known Italian Saturday night show.

She was the first runner-up at the 1981 Sanremo Festival with the song "Maledetta primavera", her most famous pop hit.

She co-founded the disco act Hermanas Goggi with her sister Daniela Goggi, who is also an artist.

Goggi was also the host of the 1986 Sanremo Festival.

Goggi has won four Telegattos in four different categories: best theme song, best quiz, best music transmission and best female personality of the year.

She considers herself Catholic.

In 2006 the American rapper T.I. sampled the Goggi's song "Molla tutto" for his song "Get It", contained in the album King, included in the soundtrack of the film Step Up.

Throughout her career Goggi achieved several accomplishments within the Italian television industry, including setting records.

Among her notable contributions was her repertoire of impersonations of prominent figures, encompassing both men and women.

While actresses like Isabella Biagini had already presented satirical impersonations on television, Goggi is regarded as the pioneer of female impersonation on Italian television.

Her imitations were notable for their inclusion of satirical elements in the texts, thereby elevating the quality of her performances beyond mere parody.