Toto Cutugno (born Salvatore Cutugno, July 7, 1943 in Fosdinovo, Italy) is an Italian pop singer and songwriter.
He began his musical career as a drummer, but later formed a band that performed his own songs. He also had written for popular French-American singer Joe Dassin, contributing some of his most memorable songs, including L'ete Indien, Et Si Tu N'existes Pas and Le Jardin du Luxembourg (written with Vito Pallavicini).
In 1976 Cutugno participated first time in San Remo Music Festival coming with his band Albatros in 3rd place. He then won in 1980 with the song Solo noi (Only us, in Italian), and subsequently finished second in six editions: in 1984 with the song Serenata (Serenade), in 1987 with the song Figli (Sons), in 1988 with the song Emozioni (Emotions), in 1989 with the song Le mamme (The mammas), in 1990 with Ray Charles with the song Gli amori (Loves, but entitled Good love gone bad in Ray Charles version) and in 2005 with Annalisa Minetti with the song Come noi nessuno al mondo (No one else in the world like us). In total Cutugno participated in the festival 13 times.
He won Eurovision Song Contest in 1990 with his own composition Insieme: 1992 (Together: 1992), a ballad which celebrated European political integration. Along with Gigliola Cinquetti, Italy's only other Eurovision winner from 1964, he presented the 1991 contest, which was staged in Rome as a consequence of his victory. However, when the scoring ended with a tie for first place the event descended into a degree of chaos, partly due to confusion over how the scoring system worked.
