She may have been born Virginia Minnetti in Canzo in 1949, but it was on stage that she became Viola Valentino, one of Italy’s most recognisable pop singers of the 1980s who also enjoyed success in neighbouring nations such as Spain. Key to her appeal at the time was her breezy and breathy vocal style, which lent both a carefree and genuinely emotional undercurrent to swooning pop songs such as “Comprami”, “C’est la vie” and her 1982 entry to the Sanremo Music Festival, “Romantici”. A brief dalliance with the acting world beckoned, but Valentino is best known for her pop prowess.