Toto Cutugno whose song L’Italiano was No 1 across Europe dies at 80

Singer’s big hit, stuffed with cliches about Italian life, was irresistible to millions as far away as Russia and Georgia

Toto Cutugno, the singer whose cliche-ridden but irresistibly catchy L’Italiano defined ideas of Italian culture to millions of listeners across Europe and Russia, has died at Milan’s San Raffaelle hospital aged 80.

Born Salvatore Cutugno to Sicilian parents in Tuscany, the singer was for a decade a regular at the Sanremo music festival, the Italian institution that served as inspiration for the Eurovision song contest.

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