Loretta Goggi (; born 29 September 1950) is an Italian singer, actress, comedian, TV host, and dancer. Goggi's records have sometimes entered the Italian pop charts. She was the first runner-up at the 1981 Sanremo Festival with the song "Maledetta primavera", her most famous pop hit.
She co-founded the disco act Hermanas Goggi with her sister Daniela Goggi, who is also an artist. The duo found success in the Latin markets toward the end of the 1970s.
In 1973, she co-hosted a TV show in England with Sammy Davis Jr and performed with Alighiero Noschese on the Italian television program Formula Due.
In 2006, the American rapper T.I. sampled the Goggi's song "Molla tutto" for his song "Get It", contained in the album King, included in the soundtrack of the film Step Up.
Throughout her career, Goggi achieved several accomplishments within the Italian television industry, including setting records. Among her notable contributions was her repertoire of impersonations of prominent figures, encompassing both men and women. While actresses like Isabella Biagini had already presented satirical impersonations on television, Goggi is regarded as the pioneer of female impersonation on Italian television. Her imitations were notable for their inclusion of satirical elements in the texts, thereby elevating the quality of her performances beyond mere parody.
In 1979, she became the first woman to host a television quiz in Italy for Fantastico, a well-known Italian Saturday night show. Goggi was also the host of the 1986 Sanremo Festival.
Goggi has won four Telegattos in four different categories: best theme song, best quiz, best music transmission and best female personality of the year.
She considers herself Catholic.
Early life
Born in Rome to Giulio and Costanza Goggi, originally from Circello, she has two sisters: Liliana Goggi (1943) and Daniela Goggi (who eventually followed her into the show business). From a very young age Loretta Goggi studied singing and music. In 1959 she was discovered by Silvio Gigli, which led her to take part in the radio competition, Dino Verde Disco Magico, presented by Corrado with an orchestra conducted by Gianni Ferrio. Loretta won the competition together with Nilla Pizzi.
The sixties
In 1962 she made her debut as a child actress in the Rai television prose Sotto processo with the direction of Anton Giulio Majano, broadcast on the Secondo programma. In 1963 at the age of 12 she recorded her first song Se la cercherai, written by Nico Fidenco, with her first name Loretta, for the soundtrack of the french film Le Sang à la tête directed by Gilles Grangier.
Subsequently Loretta was in the cast of many other famous Rai television dramas, in which she interpreted characters of fragile and needy girls (many times paired with another child actor, Roberto Chevalier, who later became a well-known voice actor) including Robinson non deve morire (1963) by Vittorio Brignole, Demetrio Pianelli (1963) by Sandro Bolchi, I miserabili (1964), also by Bolchi in which she plays the role of Cosette as a child, Una tragedia americana (1962), Delitto e castigo (1963 ) and La cittadella (1964), all three directed by Anton Giulio Majano, Vita di Dante (1965) by Vittorio Cottafavi, in which she plays Beatrice, Questa sera parla Mark Twain and Scaramouche, with Domenico Modugno, both broadcast in 1965 and directed by Daniele D'Anza and in an episode of Le indagini del Commissario Maigret, directed by Mario Landi (1966). In these dramas Loretta has the opportunity to support great Italian actors such as Lilla Brignone, Gino Cervi, Andreina Pagnani, Paolo Stoppa, Rina Morelli, Giorgio Albertazzi and many others. In 1964, under the direction of Beppe Recchia, she was also in the cast of the children's drama C'era una volta la fiaba with Arturo Testa and Santo Versace; of the same year is also Le avventure della squadra di stoppa directed by Alda Grimaldi, another television drama aimed at children
Starting in 1965, after having already participated in many television productions, she also dedicated himself to dubbing: she is the Italian voice of Tweety in the Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies (flanked by Gigi Proietti, who dubbed Sylvester the Cat), and famous actresses such as Katharine Ross, Kim Darby, Mita Medici, Agostina Belli, Ornella Muti and Silvia Dionisio; in the same period she deepend her studies in diction, piano and singing.
During the same period she also began working in the cinema (with small roles) and in the theater, where she played various shows by Molière, William Shakespeare and Luigi Pirandello.