Caterina Germaine Maria Valente[1] (14 January 1931 – 9 September 2024) was an Italian-French-German multilingual singer, guitarist, and dancer.

[7] The girl's first love was jazz; she heard at home Duke Ellington, Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith.

[7] In 1953, she auditioned with Kurt Edelhagen, band leader at the broadcaster Süddeutscher Rundfunk in Germany at the time, for one hour in several languages.

[9] Edelhagen, composer Heinz Gietz [de; fr] and texter and producer Kurt Feltz organized her first recording on 29 March 1954, a jazz number "Istanbul".

[10] She produced "Malaguena" with conductor Werner Müller in Berlin, which became successful in the United States and led to her first foreign television appearance.

[8] Her brother, the Italian musician, singer and film actor Silvio Francesco [de; fr; it], performed with her, singing in many duets, dancing and playing the clarinet in the shadow of his famous sister.

[2] Valente's single, "The Breeze and I", sold more than one million copies, per a report from 1978,[12] making it her best-selling record.

[9] In the mid-1960s, Valente worked with Claus Ogerman and recorded material in both Italian and English that he arranged/conducted and/or composed on the Decca[15] and London labels.

[16] In 1964–65, she was a co-host (with Carol Burnett and initially Bob Newhart) of The Entertainers, a 22 episode CBS variety show for which she was recognised as the best female vocalist on American television with the Fame Award, .

[9] Over the years, she performed with many international stars, including Chet Baker,[7][18] Count Basie,[19] Johnny Carson,[2] Bing Crosby,[7] Tommy Dorsey Orchestra,[11][20] Sy Oliver,[21] Buddy Rich[11] Benny Goodman,[22] Woody Herman,[11] Danny Kaye, Dean Martin,[2][7] Claus Ogerman,[15] and Edmundo Ros.

[7] In 1970, Valente appeared in the Royal Variety Performance at the London Palladium singing "Before the Parade Passes By" and "The Breeze and I".

[26][27][28][29] In 2021, the song went viral on social media platform TikTok, thanks to its use for a trend that has collected over 250 million views, started from Latin countries and South America, and then popularized also in Italy and Germany.