Gino Paoli has died, from "Sapore di Sale" to "Quattro amici al bar" a life of a star.

The Italian music scene today bids farewell to one of its greatest and most unforgettable interpreters: Gino Paoli passed away on March 24, 2026, at the age of 91, in his hometown, Monfalcone.

The famous singer-songwriter leaves us just shortly after the death of his historic muse and great love, Ornella Vanoni, who passed away at 91 in November 2025. On that occasion, Paoli paid her a final, touching tribute by sending a heart-shaped pillow made of yellow roses to the funeral home.

In addition to that sorrow, in March 2025, he faced another loss: the sudden passing of his sixty-year-old son Giovanni, born from his first marriage to Anna Fabbri, who died of a heart attack.

Born in Monfalcone on September 23, 1934, the son of a naval engineer and a housewife, Paoli grew up in Genoa, becoming one of the pillars of the renowned “Genoese school” alongside his close friends Luigi Tenco, Bruno Lauzi, Fabrizio De André, and Umberto Bindi.

After uncertain beginnings and 45 singles that went almost unnoticed, the turning point came in 1960 with the autobiographical song “La gatta”, followed by the immense success of “Il cielo in una stanza”, a masterpiece inspired by a Genoese brothel that Mogol entrusted to the voice of Mina, definitively establishing Paoli as a songwriter.

Since then, his pen has gifted Italy and the world with timeless pages: “Che cosa c’è”, “Senza fine”, “Sapore di sale” (arranged by Ennio Morricone and linked to his feelings for Stefania Sandrelli), “Una lunga storia d’amore”, and “Quattro amici”, the song with which he won the Festivalbar in 1991.

His life was intense, marked by burning passions, torments, and excesses. Frank and allergic to compromises, he made headlines for his scandalous relationship with the very young Stefania Sandrelli, with whom he had a daughter, Amanda.

The peak of his inner pain occurred on July 11, 1963, when, crushed by personal crises and disappointments, he attempted suicide by shooting himself in the heart. Miraculously, the bullet stopped in the pericardium without affecting the myocardium; the doctors decided not to remove it, explaining that surgery would be fatal and warning him that if the bullet shifted, he would die within ten minutes.

With that bullet in his chest, Paoli lived for over sixty years, going through and overcoming extremely tough trials, from the tunnel of alcohol to drugs. Alongside a formidable artistic career, marked by ongoing collaborations with jazz giants like Danilo Rea and continuous reinventions up to his last album in 2019, “Notes from a Long Journey”, Paoli distinguished himself for his deep civil and political commitment.

Proudly self-defining as “anarchist”, he was elected deputy in 1987 as an Independent of the Left within the Italian Communist Party, held the position of councilor for Culture in Arenzano, and, years later, was appointed President of SIAE (from 2013 to 2015). Married since 1991 to Paola Penzo, author of some of his lyrics and mother of three of his five children, Gino Paoli leaves an invaluable musical legacy.

His unmistakable voice has traversed generations, telling stories of love, friendship, and melancholy with tender irony and disarming clarity. From today, under “that purple ceiling” that has made entire generations dream, Italy finds itself poorer, having lost forever one of its most authentic, biting, and courageous singer-songwriters.