Rita Ori Filomena Merk-Pavone (née Pavone, Italian: [ˈriːta paˈvoːne]; born August 23, 1945)[1] is an Italian-Swiss pop singer, actress and showgirl, who enjoyed success through the 1960s.

[1] Her self-titled 1963 album, led by the hit single "La partita di pallone" ("The Soccer Game") made her a national star at 17, and international attention soon followed.

Meanwhile she scored a string of hits, both ballads and rock songs in Spain, where she became a teen idol, enjoying so much fame there that it was commented during a 2005 Spanish television documentary that such success there for a foreign singer is rare.

In the United States, she sang alongside Diana Ross and The Supremes, Ella Fitzgerald, Tom Jones, Duke Ellington, and Paul Anka.

Although her movie career targeted a teen audience and lacked great artistic value,[neutrality is disputed] today her films have found a cult niche.

He was her talent scout and the organizer of the first song contest she won, but their union caused a scandal in Italian society, because he was still married to his first wife, Livia Protti, and Italy had no divorce law until 1970.

In 1992, Pavone returned to the United States, where she sang during a multiple-artist concert that included Whitney Houston, Frank Sinatra, the Bolshoi Ballet, and Cher at the Sands hotel in Atlantic City.