Singer, actress and presenter Raffaella Carrá, icon of Italian television and responsible for hits such as “You have to come south”, died today at 78 years.

Sergio Iapino, former partner of the popular artist, told the Ansa agency that “Raffaella has left us. He went to a better world, where his humanity, his unmistakable laugh and extraordinary talent will shine forever”

The figure, whose real name was Raffaella Roberta Pelloni Maria, was born in Bologna on 18 June 1943 and died due to a disease that according to Iapino “for some time he had attacked that body of his so tiny but so full of overflowing energy”.

“His unstoppable force, that imposed it on top of the world star system, an iron will that never left her until the end, making sure none of their deep suffering leaked out. The umpteenth gesture of love towards his audience and towards those who shared his affection, so that his personal ordeal does not disturb his brilliant memory”, described who accompanied her in part of this stellar journey.

Last December, in one of his last interviews, Carrá said to 7, the magazine of the Corriere della Sera, that his widespread fame was due to “Italian women really like me because I'm not a man-eater: you can have sex appeal along with sweetness and irony, you don't have to be rita hayworth”. (TELAM)