Toto Cutugno

[4] He also started a career as a songwriter, contributing some of French-American singer Joe Dassin most well-known songs such as "L'été indien", "Et si tu n'existais pas", and "Le Jardin du Luxembourg" (written with Vito Pallavicini).

[4][8] He also co-wrote Dalida's "Monday Tuesday... Laissez moi danser" ("Voglio l'anima" in its Italian version), which achieved Platinum record status shortly after being released, as well as songs for Johnny Hallyday, Mireille Mathieu, Ornella Vanoni, Domenico Modugno, Claude François, Gigliola Cinquetti, Gérard Lenorman, Michel Sardou, Hervé Vilard, and Paul Mauriat.

[2][9] Cutugno shares the record for the highest number of participations in the festival – 15, namely in 1976, 1977, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1995, 1997, 2005, 2008, and 2010; one of only five artists (as of 2023[update]), the others being Al Bano, Anna Oxa, Milva and Peppino di Capri.

[12] As a songwriter, during the 1980s Cutugno composed hit songs for numerous artists, notably Miguel Bosé (the Festivalbar winning song "Super Superman"), Adriano Celentano ("Il tempo se ne va"), Luis Miguel ("Noi, ragazzi di oggi"), Fausto Leali ("Io amo"), Peppino di Capri ("Il sognatore"), Ricchi e Poveri ("Canzone d'amore"), Fiordaliso ("Per noi" and "Se non avessi te").

[13] In 1990, at the refusal of Sanremo winners Pooh, Cutugno, who had placed second, was invited to represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest in Zagreb.

[9] Aged 46 years, 302 days, Cutugno became the oldest winner of the contest to date, surpassing the record set by André Claveau in 1958.

[16] In 2014, he was the main subject of a Facebook page, La stessa foto di Toto Cutugno ogni giorno (lit.

Countries where he was very popular include Germany, Spain, Romania, Turkey and Russia,[2] where in 2013 he performed "L'Italiano" accompanied by the Red Army Choir.

[20] In March 2019, a group of politicians from the Ukrainian Parliament tried to stop Cutugno from performing in Kyiv, demanding through an open letter to the head of the country's security services, Vasyl Hrytsak, to ban the singer from entering Ukrainian territory, labelling him as "a Russian war supporter in Ukraine" – probably because of his success in Russia and his relationship with the Red Army Choir.