Iva Zanicchi is a singer, actress, TV host and former Italian politician.
A singer with great determination and passion, with an almost tenorile voice and able to range between the most diverse musical genres, from blues to melodic music (also engaged), passing through pop music and songs dedicated to children, in 1970 she was defined by Alighiero Noschese as "the thumb of the Italian song", that is one of the most important Italian musical personalities, together with Mina, Ornella Vanoni, Patty Pravo and Milva.
Nicknamed the Eagle of Ligonchio, she was part of the trio of the great female voices of the sixties and seventies, with Mina, "the tiger of Cremona", and Milva, "the panther of Goro"; she has performed in some of the most important international theaters, such as the Madison Square Garden in New York, the Olympia in Paris, the Teatro Regio di Parma and the Sydney Opera House, has entered the record charts of several countries and has held long tours all over the world: United States of America, Canada, Australia, France, Spain, Turkey, Argentina, Chile, Japan, Greece, the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Malta, Romania and Czechoslovakia.
For her have written, among others, Cristiano Malgioglio, Franco Califano, Paolo Conte, Lucio Battisti, Roberto Vecchioni, Mogol, Umberto Balsamo, Umberto Bindi, Shel Shapiro, Giuni Russo, Donatella Rettore, Zucchero Fornaciari, Pino Donaggio, Mariella Nava, Tiziano Ferro and Avion Travel.
Out of ten appearances at the Sanremo Song Contest she managed to win three times (1967, 1969, 1974), becoming the female singer to have won the event several times.
