Ernesto Bonino

Music impresario/conductor Carlo Prato, who had earlier promoted a Dutch sister act into the very popular Trio Lescano, heard Bonino and arranged an audition for him at the Italian state radio company EIAR.

In 1947, two years after the end of World War II, he embarked on a long tour of Latin America, performing in Peru, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico and Cuba, where he and actress/singer Tina De Mola took Havana theatergoers by storm with their song Chinito chinita.

In 1952 Ernesto Bonino moved to the United States and realized his dream of singing jazz standards in the best clubs of New York City, Chicago and Miami.

After that successful tour, however, changing musical tastes slowly led to the fading of Bonino's popularity and, in 1986, he underwent a surgical procedure which resulted in the loss of his voice.

By December 2000, when he was nearly eighty, the state recognized his artistic merit and contribution to Italian culture by granting him a special government life pension.