Gino Paoli, Iconic Italian Singer-Songwriter and Voice of Genoa, Dies at 91

Gino Paoli, one of Italy's most celebrated singer-songwriters and a founding figure of the Genoese School, died on March 24, 2026, at the age of 91. His family announced the death in a statement requesting the utmost privacy. „Gino left us last night, in peace and surrounded by the affection of his loved ones” — Paoli family via ANSA Born in Monfalcone on September 23, 1934, Paoli spent his life rooted in Genoa, the city that shaped his art and identity. His catalog of songs — among them "Il cielo in una stanza," "Senza fine," "Sapore di sale," "Che cosa c'è," "La gatta," and "Quattro amici" — placed him among the defining voices of twentieth-century Italian popular music. The family's request for privacy reflected the intimate manner in which Paoli had long approached his personal life, even as his work remained deeply public property.

From bohemian Genoa to the heart of Italian song Paoli's path to success followed the restless arc of the postwar Italian artist: an indifferent student drawn to painting and jazz, he gravitated toward a bohemian circle in Genoa that included Luigi Tenco, Bruno Lauzi, Umberto Bindi, Giorgio Calabrese, and the Reverberi brothers — the nucleus of what became the Genoese School. It was Gianfranco Reverberi who brought Paoli to Milan, where he encountered the music industry and connected with artists including Giorgio Gaber and Mina, who recorded "Il cielo in una stanza" to great success. Another early landmark was "Senza fine," a piece in an almost jazz-like three-four time, performed by Ornella Vanoni, who at the time was known as "the singer of the underworld" and who would go on to share both a romantic and a lifelong professional bond with Paoli. The song traveled internationally and launched a partnership between Paoli and Vanoni that endured for decades, culminating in a joint tour that drew tremendous audiences after a long period of personal and professional crisis for both. In the 1960s, "Sapore di sale" was released with an arrangement by Ennio Morricone and a celebrated saxophone solo by Gato Barbieri, cementing Paoli's reputation as an artist of genuine sophistication. His personal life during the same period was marked by a relationship with actress Stefania Sandrelli, from which their daughter Amanda Sandrelli was born in October 1964.

The Italian cantautore tradition, of which Paoli was a central architect, emerged in the late 1950s as a reaction against the light entertainment fare dominant in Italian popular music. The Genoese School drew its aesthetic from French chanson, particularly the work of Georges Brassens and Jacques Brel, and produced a generation of artists who treated the popular song as a vehicle for poetry and social observation. Paoli's collaborator and former partner Ornella Vanoni died on November 21, 2025, in Milan, at the age of 91, just months before Paoli's own death. Paoli also served briefly in Italian politics as a deputy in the ranks of the PCI and later the PDS in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as well as a councillor in the municipality of Arenzano — an experience he later described as a mistake.

A bullet lodged near the heart, a life lived without regret Paoli's biography carried one of the most dramatic episodes in Italian music history: on July 11, 1963, he attempted suicide by shooting himself near the heart. The bullet did not strike vital areas and lodged in the pericardium region, where it remained for the rest of his life, never extracted. He spoke about his existence with characteristic directness in a 2014 interview with ANSA on the occasion of his eightieth birthday. „Che vita è stata la mia? Ho sempre fatto quello che volevo. Ho avuto una fortuna tremenda.” (What kind of life has mine been? I always did what I wanted. I had tremendous luck.) — Gino Paoli via ANSA He described his philosophy of time with equal candor. „Non ho mai avuto il pensiero del traguardo, a 40, a 50 o a 60 anni. Penso di nascere ogni mattina e di morire ogni sera. Vivo come se quello fosse l'unico giorno.” (I have never had the thought of the finish line, at 40, at 50 or at 60. I think I am born every morning and die every evening. I live as if that were the only day.) — Gino Paoli via ANSA He acknowledged the excesses of his life — alcohol, drugs, a frightening car accident during a long professional crisis in the second half of the 1960s — without disowning any of it, saying he could relive everything in the same way.

Music world and politicians unite in tribute Tributes arrived rapidly from across Italian public life. Silvia Salis, the mayor of Genoa since May 2025, called Paoli "a refined author with an unmistakable voice" who had "profoundly marked Italian music and the cultural heritage of our city from the 1960s onward." Lyricist Mogol, one of the most prominent figures in Italian popular music, described Paoli as a dear personal friend and emphasized his stature as a composer above all else. „I am immensely sorry. He was a dear friend, very, very dear. He was a truly great author and composer. Aside from his skill as an interpreter, I would like him to be remembered above all as a leading author and composer.” — Mogol via il Giornale.it Television presenter Fabio Fazio wrote on X that Paoli "was a very great poet" who "with his songs painted" and "built an imaginary world that is inside each one of us." Antonella Clerici, speaking live on the Rai1 program È sempre mezzogiorno, recalled Paoli's many appearances on her show and noted that his death came shortly after that of Ornella Vanoni, with whom he had shared "a great love and also a great professional understanding." Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini offered a brief farewell on social media, calling Paoli "truly great," while Undersecretary for Culture Gianmarco Mazzi said the death, coming so soon after Vanoni's, moved him greatly, noting that the two artists also shared birthdays just days apart. Young Genoese artists Olly and Alfa, representing a new generation shaped by Paoli's legacy, also paid tribute on social media.