Edoardo Vianello: «I have had three wives, the second to be forgotten, the third is 37 years younger, but she takes care of me. At the end of the 60s I disappeared because they criticized me”

We are republishing Renato Franco’s interview with Edoardo Vianello, published in August, one of the most appreciated by our readers in 2025

Edoardo Vianello, loyalty has never been at the top of his list of preferences.
“Loyalty is a hypocrisy: we continually repeat that we are free and I have always felt free to hang out with whoever I wanted.”

But have you ever been cheated on?
“Always. He doesn’t know how many times. Doing the sums I’d say we’re more or less equal.”

Apparently it’s not a 1-1 football match, it’s a draw with many goals.
“I think it’s more like a basketball game.”
Edoardo Vianello he has lived for 87 years with crystal irony. A code of reading reality that he adopted in his private life and put into his songs. Songs that belong to everyone.

Does three marriages mean he’s a hopeless romantic or a madman?
«It’s difficult to always be with the same wife. Then I had many opportunities to meet and especially when wives become a burden, one tries to cut the chain.”

Three very different weddings from each other.
«The one with Wilma Goich was a boys’ marriage, I was young, she was very young, it was almost a game, we wanted to be grown ups, but then we realized that we were very distant».

So Vania Muccioli.
«The second marriage was very demanding and in the end it didn’t give me any satisfaction».

The third seems to be the definitive one: he had been single for two hours and met Elfrida Ismolli, 37 years younger than her.
«I had just signed my second divorce, I had a dentist appointment and I felt free. I was thinking about how lucky I was to be single again and as soon as I entered the studio I noticed her: I felt I had to make an impression. For more than twenty years I have finally found a person who cares and takes care of me seriously. And this has extended my life.”

Do you think about age?
«It’s age that thinks of me. Giving me some aches and pains.”

What’s the secret to staying fit?
«I have always led a very healthy life, I have neither smoked my lungs nor burned my body with drugs. I believe this lifestyle has contributed to maintaining the clarity of the voice.”

His diet?
«A Mediterranean diet, as they say when one magna All”.

Years are a number, she is timeless.
«I never expected it, it was a nice surprise. I composed my songs to play, not thinking about such a long career.”

Where does your irony come from?
«We have a Raimondo in the family (he was his father’s cousin) who is obviously the father of irony. But the whole family was like that.”

His father was the futurist poet Alberto Vianello.
«He was always very bizarre in his way of writing, expressing himself, speaking, even though he was a very serious and cultured person: my friends came to visit him more than me».

What are you proud of?
«I have not written commercial songs as many may think, I have modestly written small masterpieces, which walk the line between being ditties and being small geniuses. I was interested in being original, different from others.”

Was there a moment when you were guilty of hubris, when you felt invincible?
«I have never been convinced that I have achieved something serious, even now that I am at the end of my career, I am always waiting for something important to happen».

The 60s, carefree years. Golden years for her. Then came the 70s, the years of lead. And his success faded.
«Not only did it tarnish, it was actually erased. Those few shows I did towards the end of the 60s were torment, I was criticized, metaphorically it was as if stones were thrown at me. I was very uncomfortable on stage and therefore I decided not to go on stage again for three years. For me music was fun, not a job. I thought: who would make me get insulted on stage.”

Today a genius, tomorrow a dog. How did you feel when that world that seemed perfect collapsed?
«I thought it was over, I didn’t think I could get back up. I had the good idea of ​​opening a small record company, because I still believed I understood music, so I transferred to others what I couldn’t do myself: Renato Zero at the beginning of his career, Amedeo Minghi, Califano but above all Ricchi e Poveri who we brought to the Sanremo Festival in ’70 with The first beautiful thing they were good intuitions.”

Was the fact of not being left-wing in the Years of Lead a disadvantage?
«Yes, but I’ve never asked myself the problem. I didn’t feel an aversion towards myself for this reason, in fact I sang at many Unity parties, always with great success. The climate had just changed, not just for me, but for everyone.”

Sticking to politics, should the government welcome the Watussi or should they be sent to Albania?
«No, in my wife’s town it’s better not to… The Watussi control the situation from above, they are useful people and should not be kicked out. Then they are too nice, they are a people who have brought me such luck, I would be ungrateful not to welcome them.”

Is there an ironic singer like her?
«Caparezza is very bizarre, I like it. But I’m completely unaware of what’s going on in music from a certain point on, I’ve missed the mark.”

What year did he stop? To the 2000s?
The joke is brilliant: «First. In Modugno… Every now and then I hear something that’s nice, but I don’t know who’s singing and where it comes from.”

It had great popular success, but it never left its mark in Sanremo.
«I have done three, but the Festival is not the stage for me, because I am an extremely shy person and I need 15-20 minutes to become familiar with the audience. There, however, they only give you three. My Sanremo was the jukeboxes.”

As a good accountant, he is a statistics maniac, is there one that he still keeps up to date today?
«That of record sales. A song like Very tanned it has been included in hundreds of compilations, so I understand that eight million five hundred thousand copies of that title have been sold. Then I Watussi with 7 million. If we add Look at how I swing, The hair, Flippers, rifle and glasses, The football match, On the top of the mountain, The pepper, Tremarella we reach 66 million. They are titles that everyone knows, it’s a source of pride.”

An episode to tell?
«My wife makes me look terrible. He always asks everyone: If I say In the dark continent? To see if they respond Paraponzi ponzi po. We went to an award at the Quirinale, Mattarella was sitting in the front row and we were behind him. My wife called him: President, excuse me, if I said to you In the dark continent, what would you answer? He was exceptional: At the foot of Kilimanjaro.”

A crazy expense?
«At the beginning of my career, when I married Wilma, I bought a Bentley. I only used it to get around Rome, because it was very uncomfortable for travelling.”

Worst night?
«There are so many… I think of the ones where people don’t even listen to you. Especially at some private party of some rich guy who wanted to impress by inviting me. I remember one time when no one even turned towards the stage: the show was over, there was zero applause.”

Will he go to Heaven or Hell in another 87 years?
“Maybe I have more friends in hell.”

December 31, 2025

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