Caterina Valente

Caterina Germaine Maria Valente (14 January 1931 – 9 September 2024) was an Italian-French multilingual singer, guitarist, and dancer. She spoke six languages and sang in thirteen. While she was best known as a performer in Europe, Valente spent part of her career in the United States, where she performed alongside Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Perry Como, and Ella Fitzgerald, among others.

Life and career

Caterina Valente was born in Paris on 14 January 1931 to Italian parents Giuseppe Valente (from San Biagio Saracinisco) and Maria Siri (born in Rome to a Genoese family). Her parents were musicians from a family that had been in show business for seven generations. Her mother was a varieté artist and a mime. The girl's first love was jazz; she listened to Duke Ellington, Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith at home. When she listened to Billie Holiday first, at about age five, she cried and knew that she wanted to become a singer. She was trained in ballet early. She toured with her parents in the 1930s, sometimes appearing on stage; her career began in 1936 at the Friedrichsbau theatre in Stuttgart. She appeared as guitarist in a family sextet with her parents and three siblings.

When World War II began, the family toured in Switzerland and could not return to Paris. They accepted an engagement in Germany to survive. They had to help with troop support. At age 13 she experienced the bombing of Breslau, helped to rescue victims and care for them; she later described it as hell: trying to rescue a person and finding severed body parts. They returned to France after stays in several Russian camps. She worked there as a freelance singer in clubs, performing chansons, some composed by Gilbert Becaud for her.