Peppino di Capri, icon of Italian song and two-time Sanremo winner, dies in Capri aged 86

A life on the island

Giuseppe Faiella was born on Capri on 27 July 1939 into a family of musicians: his father Bernardo ran a record and instrument shop and played saxophone and clarinet, while his grandfather performed in the island's band. His talent surfaced early. He took the stage for the first time at four years old and went on to build a career spanning more than sixty years, during which he became one of the most recognisable voices in Italian music. He died Saturday morning at Villa Castiglione on Capri, the island he never left emotionally.

Champion of rock and melody

By the mid-1960s Di Capri had already reached the summit of Italian pop. With his group the Capri Rockers he supported the Beatles on all three dates of their 1965 Italian tour. Unlike his contemporary Adriano Celentano, Di Capri mixed American rock'n'roll with a dandyish elegance, delivering hits such as Saint Tropez Twist, Speedy Gonzales, and Roberta. He was the reassuring yet mischievous fiancé figure for a huge female audience, and that unique blend of naive charm and youthful vigour gave him a role no other artist occupied. When his commercial success declined after the mid-1960s, he held his image together through sheer effort, even as his marriage to his first wife Roberta unravelled.

I sensed that the best was yet to come. Perhaps it is right that this happens to songs with a classical style, not tied to a dance or a fashion that amuses for one summer and then bores.

Sanremo triumphs and timeless hits

Di Capri participated in the Sanremo Music Festival multiple times and won it twice: in 1973 with Un grande amore e niente più, co-written with Franco Califano, and in 1976 with Non lo faccio più. The 1973 victory came as a surprise and relaunched his career. Shortly afterwards he wrote Champagne, arguably his most loved song. Other standards from his vast catalogue include E mo e mo, Let's Twist Again, and Il sognatore.

Two marriages, three children

The singer's private life fed directly into his art. He met his first wife, the Turin-born model Roberta Stoppa, in 1959 during an evening on Ischia where he saw her dancing with the American actor William Holden. They married on 3 May 1961. The marriage lasted about ten years and produced one son, Igor, born in 1970. By then the relationship was already in crisis, and the birth did not repair it; the couple divorced in 1976. During the final years of that marriage, Di Capri met Giuliana Gagliardi, a biology student from Naples twelve years his junior. They married in 1978 and had two children together: Edoardo, born in 1981, and Dario, born in 1986. Giuliana Gagliardi died in 2019 at the age of 68.

The marriage, at 20, with Roberta was more a show-business love than one of substance.

Final years and institutional tribute

The last public appearance of Peppino di Capri took place one year ago during an evening held in his honour. Amid applause and a standing ovation, he asked for the microphone and sang Champagne and Il sognatore together with the Capri Rockers, led by his son Edoardo Faiella. His life and career were celebrated in the film Champagne – Peppino Di Capri, broadcast on Raiuno in 2025. On the morning of his death, Italy's tourism minister Gianmarco Mazzi reacted publicly.

We will dedicate to him the journey towards recognition of Neapolitan song as a UNESCO World Heritage site, because Peppino Di Capri is the highest expression of that very song.