[8][9] She became a successful TV host and personality in Italy, Spain and Argentina, being recognized with several awards, including 12 Telegatto and two TP de Oro.

[10][11] After her death, Carrà was honored with the Sorriso Diverso Venezia Award at the 78th Venice International Film Festival for her contributions to the Italian music and show industry.

[12] Carrà was born on 18 June 1943 in Bologna[13] to Raffaele Pelloni and Angela Iris Dell'Utri (of Sicilian ancestry) and had a brother named Enzo (died 2001).

[14][15][16] Her parents, however, separated shortly after the wedding[17] and Carrà spent most of her childhood between her mother's bar and the ice cream shop in Bellaria – Igea Marina.

[21] At the age of 9, while walking with her mother in Rome and through a family friend, she met the director Mario Bonnard who cast her in his film Tormento del passato, in which she played the character of Graziella.

[22][21] Carrà made her debut as a recognized actress in 1960 in the film Long Night in 1943 and in 1963 I compagni directed by Mario Monicelli and starring Marcello Mastroianni.

Feeling homesick and not liking life in Los Angeles, she decided to return to Italy that same year[28] where she starred in several Italian and French films such as Le Saint prend l'affût (1966), the Our Man Flint parody Il vostro super agente Flit (1966), Why Did I Ever Say Yes Twice?

[30][31][32] In 1971, she participated alongside Georges Descrières in the French-produced television series Arsenio Lupin, starring in the episode entitled La donna dai due sorrisi.

[35] One of her most resounding successes was the song A far l'amore comincia tu, the English version of which reached ninth place in the UK Singles Chart, besides obtaining several gold and platinum records worldwide.

[39] That year she released the song "Hay que venir al sur", the Spanish version of "Tanti Auguri", and it was another of Carrà's greatest hits.

[42] In 1981 she presented Millemilioni, which was the first experiment in international television cooperation: five specials, each filmed in a different capital: Buenos Aires, Mexico City, London, Rome and Moscow.

[45] Riding the wave of the success of Fantastico, the disc Raffaella Carrà 82 was released, it was arranged and composed, among others, by Franco Bracardi and Danilo Vaona, and written by Gianni Boncompagni, G. Belfiore, and Giancarlo Magalli.

Raffaella also interviewed and duetted with illustrious guests such as Henry Kissinger, Joe Cocker, Riccardo Cocciante, Patty Pravo, Stevie Wonder, Ginger Rogers and Sammy Davis Jr. and sang the theme songs "Fidati!"

[54][55] However, the transmission achieved great success, so much so as to arouse the interest of American televisions that invited Raffaella to the most famous talk shows of the time, interviewed by Johnny Carson, Ed Sullivan and David Letterman.

In November 1986, during a broadcast, Carrà reacted to an article published by the weekly scandal tabloid Novella 2000, threatening legal action against the newspaper, which had accused her of neglecting her dying mother.

[51] In June 1990, she co-hosted alongside Gigi Sabani, Ricardo Fernández Deu and Miriam Díaz Aroca, Cuando calienta el sol, a two-part Rai and TVE jointly produced variety show aired live from Saint-Vincent in Italy and Tossa de Mar in Spain and broadcast simultaneously to both countries.

[64] Together with Johnny Dorelli, in 1991, she hosted the Saturday night show Fantastic 12 on Rai 1, which, despite controversy caused by Roberto Benigni's appearance, obtained ratings below expectations.

[67] In 1997 she also participated as a protagonist in a four-part RAI miniseries entitled Una mamma per caso, directed by Sergio Martino, in which she played the role of a single journalist.

[47] She welcomed 1998 co-hosting with Ramón García the TVE broadcast of New Year's clock bell strikes live from Puerta del Sol in Madrid.

[70] The following year, alongside Piero Chiambretti, Enrico Papi, Megan Gale and Massimo Ceccherini, she hosted the 51st edition of the Sanremo Music Festival, which didn't see a great amount of success.

[84] On 7 November of that year Raffica – Balletti & Duetti was released, a second box set of two CDs and a DVD with a selection of television performances by Carrà.

[85] That same year Carrà hosted and produced Il Gran Concerto, a television programme in which RAI National Symphony Orchestra performed pieces of classical music and opera.

[88] In October 2011, for the fourth consecutive year, she was once again the producer of the Rai 3 television programme Il Gran Concerto, hosted by Alessandro Greco.

[90] In January 2013, Carrà was meant to return, after ten years, to host the Saturday night show on Rai 1, but the programme, provisionally titled Auditorium was later cancelled.

[104] In the spring of 2019 she returned to TV as the host of a programme of interviews with well-known personalities from show business, culture and sports, titled A raccontare comincia tu, broadcast in prime time on Thursdays on Rai 3 for six weeks, from 4 April to 9 May.

[123] Two days later, the funeral procession was held from her home, passing through RAI's central studios, the Foro Italico and Teatro delle Vittorie to reach the Capitolium, where the mortuary chapel was set up at Rome's City Hall.

[124] Carrà's ashes, after being cremated according to her expressed will, were taken to the places most dear to the artist, including Porto Santo Stefano and San Giovanni Rotondo, in the Sanctuary of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina.

[125][126] Vogue España defined the artist an "intergenerational phenomenon, social and cultural in scope, destined to be remembered forever",[5] while The Guardian considered her the "pop star who taught Europe the joy of sex" in Catholic bigotry.

[135][136] Vogue Espana defined Carrà's outfits "visionary" and "controlled transgression" by the time she wore them, as a "new expressive shapes that were openly opposed to the established canons of patriarchal rulership, in a heretofore unthinkable kind of cathodic empowerment".

[5] With Mina and Patty Pravo, Carrà is considered one of the pioneers of camp style, being cited at The Anna Wintour Costume Center, wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, during the spring 2019 exhibition by Gucci's Alessandro Michele.