Ornella Vanoni: A Journey Through Music, Love, and Overcoming Depression

A legend of Italian music who has always faced life with her overwhelming irony: the extraordinary Ornella Vanoni awaits you at Verissimo. Verissimo, the weekend's guests (Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 April): from Gino Cecchettin to Ornella Vanoni. With a post on Instagram, Silvia Toffanin's show announces its special guest today, Sunday, April 7. Let's discover something more about the artist. Ornella Vanoni, who she is: age. Born in Milan on September 22, 1934, Ornella Vanoni is 89 years old and is the daughter of a pharmaceutical industrialist. During her adolescence, she grew up in Switzerland, France, and England. In 1953 she returned to Milan and enrolled in the Academy of Dramatic Art of the Piccolo Teatro di Giorgio Strehler, interested in pursuing a career in acting. Here she will enter the graces of her master, so much so as to start a relationship with him that lasted a year. Her debut in the entertainment world as an actress dates back to 1956. Instead, she performed for the first time as a singer on the occasion of the first performance at the Piccolo of I Giacobini by Federico Zardi, dated April 13, 1957. The career. Her talent is recognized by the most important Italian authors, who do not fail to entrust their songs to her voice; among the names are key figures of Italian musical culture such as Fabrizio de André, Lucio Dalla, Gino Paoli, Renato Zero, Eros Ramazzotti. To date, more than 40 albums have been published. The first, entitled like her name, was released in 1961. In 2021, the latest release called Unica. In these long years, there have been really many successes: Quei giorni insieme a te, Dettagli, A un certo punto. And again: E poi...la tua bocca da baciare, in short, a long list of pieces that have marked a piece of the history of Italian music. Private life. Ornella's first great love was at the young age of 19 when she had a real crush on the director Giorgio Strehler, a well-known face in the entertainment world. In 1960, Ornella began a relationship with Gino Paoli, starting a tormented and difficult love that would not last long. Years after the end of their relationship, Vanoni declared she had even lost a child by Paoli. Another abortion marked this time voluntary, as the artist herself said: Also in 1960, Ornella married the theater impresario Lucio Ardenzi, with whom she would separate in 1962, after the birth of her son Cristiano. In particular, with the latter, the relationship has never been serene, mainly because of the artist's career that often led her away from the family. According to the singer, that marriage was a mistake: "I still loved Gino and he advised against it until the last, even threatening to come to the ceremony to sing Senza fine," she told La Repubblica. Among her loves was also Hugo Pratt. The illness. The singer talked about her illness during an interview with Verissimo, revealing that she suffered from depression in her life. The woman recounted living a period in which she always felt sad and therefore went to an institute, where depression was diagnosed. From a young age, the singer suffered from strong insecurity, which did not wane despite the enormous success achieved over the years. "I suffer from anxiety, anxiety does not make you sleep and when you do not sleep you become depressed. I had three long depressions in my life. Depression creates a sense of total abandonment, it is very underestimated, because it is a disease that is not seen. I treated myself well with a psychiatrist, but I continue to treat myself even today, because at a certain age it is increasingly difficult to recover from depression. A continuous struggle, in short, to not fall back into the dark evil, which empties of emotions those who suffer from it: "The depressed person is empty, does not show feelings and does not receive them, creates a barrier that does not allow to communicate, you do not feel anything anymore," the artist explained. Vanoni then took the situation in hand, going into care with a psychiatrist who, according to the singer, saved her. "After months, when I was better, I went to him saying that I wanted to end it with psychotropic drugs, but he replied: 'Do not even think about it, you are a borderline subject.' Now the worst moment of depression is behind, the artist has been able to take back her own life and her own work activity, but she does not consider herself completely healed. "The only thing that can save you when you have this problem are antidepressants, which I still take," she candidly admitted. The trick to not falling back into it is simply to "treat yourself well," she concluded.