The tragedy that broke the happiness of the most beautiful family music duo: Al Bano and Romina Power

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

"Happiness in Italian" - this is how it was perceived duet of Al Bano and Romina Power all over the world for many years. Millions of spectators wiped away the tears of emotion, looking at them. However, the radiant happiness of this couple, which lasted almost a quarter of a century, literally overnight broke into small pieces about a terrible tragedy. The news of the missing daughter broke the marriage of the star spouses. And although in the minds of millions of people, Al Bano and Romina Power remained one whole, their paradise was irretrievably lost.

And their unusual love story began so beautifully and serenely. And it was thought that it would be like this forever.

HE

Al Bano was born in 1943 in Cellino San Marco in southeastern Italy to a family of poor, illiterate peasants and bore the surname Carrisi from birth. It is worth noting that initially the name Albano was written in one piece, and it was also not of Italian origin. The boy's father had to fight in Albania during World War II. And when the first-born was born, he decided to give the baby an unusual name for an Italian - Albano, which meant Albanian. It is much later that the rising star will split his name into Al Bano, which will become his stage name and glorify the whole world.

From an early age, raising their son in strict Catholic traditions, the mother and father hoped that when Albano grew up, he would continue their business and would be engaged in cattle breeding and viticulture. But the obstinate young man had other plans for his life: he was unrestrainedly attracted by music, he dreamed of becoming a musician. At the age of 12, the guy composed his first song Addio Sicilia! ("Goodbye, Sicily!"). Therefore, barely waiting for his 16th birthday, Albano leaves his home and goes to Milan with the firm intention of becoming a singer.

However, the peasant boy did not immediately submit to the musical Olympus. The first years in Milan were the most difficult. The young man had to work as a waiter, a cook, and a worker on an assembly line … Only six years later, Albano finally managed to prove himself in vocals: he took part in the New Voices competition, organized by Adriano Celentano, and became the winner. Having successfully debuted, the young man signed a contract with the Clan Celentano music studio and changed his name to Al Bano: according to the experienced Celentano, such a stage name should have brought good luck to a peasant guy from the hinterland of Italy.

SHE

Romina Francesca Power was born in 1951 in Los Angeles, the son of famous Hollywood actors Tyrone Power and Linda Christian. As soon as she was born, the baby became the object of attention of photographers. Star parents did not miss the opportunity to appear on the covers of magazines and in newspaper articles with their newborn daughter.

When the girl was five years old, her father left the family. She later learned that almost a year later he died of a heart attack. After his departure, a happy childhood for Romina ended. She and her younger sister Taryn stayed with their mother, who, in search of new roles and romance novels, traveled a lot, first in Mexico, then in Italy and America. All the daughters' childhood was spent in constant moving. …

When the confrontation between mother and daughter reached a critical point, Linda decided to send the rebellious daughter to a closed school in England. But for eccentric behavior, absenteeism and unwillingness to learn, the management soon expelled Romina from the educational institution.

Desperate, the mother made another attempt to curb the rebellious daughter. She arranged screen tests for her, which were more than successful. Although, in fact, Romina was attracted much more by music than cinema. She wrote her first song as a teenager when she received a guitar as a birthday present. And at the age of 14, the girl has already released her debut disc. Nevertheless, the mother insisted that her daughter become an actress and literally forced her to act, believing that youth and beauty are what you can earn on. Success was not long in coming, and by the age of 16, famous filmmakers began to invite Romin to their projects. Thus, young Romina ended up in Italy, where she was invited to play the role of Lorena Vivaldi in the film "In the Sun" - "Nel Sole".

They

When their life paths first crossed, he was 24, she was 16. It happened during the filming of the film "Nel Sole", based on the plot of a song written by Al Bano. The young girl immediately sunk into the soul of the young singer, and he began to patronize her anxiously. And very soon they both felt that they could not live without each other. The people around were perplexed that the slender young beauty Romina had found in undersized, not shining with beauty Al Bano, and besides, she was 8 years older than her.

When it got close to the wedding, Romina's mother, Linda, literally reared up, demanding that her daughter end this hopeless relationship. She reproachfully said: For the sake of justice, it should be noted that the parents of the groom also did not feel delight from the future daughter-in-law. It seemed to them that the American actress could not become a worthy wife for their son. But, the young girl managed to find a common language with Al Bano's mother, and she soon doted on her.

Love like a dream

In 1970, the wedding of 27-year-old Italian singer Al Bano and 19-year-old American Romina Power took place. - recalled Romina. However, no predictions of either opponents or envious people came true … Four months later, the young couple had a daughter, Ilenia, and in 1972, their son Jari was born. Much later, 13 years later, Romina gave birth to a daughter Kristel (born 1986) and Romina the younger (born 1987).

From the very first days of his married life, Al Bano showed himself as a typical Italian, confident that the husband is the king and God, and the wife's duty is unquestioning obedience to her husband. - said Romina. And all these years, the husband literally prayed for his wife, and this was noticeable to everyone.

After the birth of two older children, the enterprising Al Bano invited Romina to sing on the stage together. He believed that the married duet would be much interesting to the public and commercially profitable, - so the singer said to his wife. And his calculation turned out to be 100% correct …

Romina wrote good poetry for songs, and Al Bano composed music. And already in 1975 their first joint disc "Dialogo" was released. A year later, the family duo represented Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest, but took only 7th place. However, the couple felt the taste of real fame eight years later, when they took first place at the San Remo festival. It was then that the duo reached the peak of their fame and became extremely popular.

But, with all this, in Italy itself, they were always criticized. They said that, however, the happy couple absolutely did not pay attention to all these statements of critics and continued to conquer more and more peaks of the musical Olympus, winning prestigious competitions one after another. Al Bano and Romina toured a lot, collecting sold out houses, and being happy together, they raised four children - three daughters and a son. And this idyll lasted until a terrible misfortune came to their house.

However, long before the tragic events of January 1994, when Ilenia disappeared, a dramatic story took place in their family, which sowed fear for her children in Romina's soul. Then the spouses literally had to hide Jari's son in a foreign country from the impending kidnapping. When the boy was 13 years old, it became known from reliable sources that they wanted to kidnap him. Parents urgently had to take their son away from Italy. Jari graduated from school at the prestigious Le Rosey college, where among his fellow students were many children of famous Italians who found themselves in a similar situation and hid their offspring in reliable Switzerland. The mental trauma received by Romina back then haunted the woman for many years.

The unsolved mystery of her daughter's disappearance that ruined a happy marriage

Ilenia Maria Sole Carrisi was born of great love and grew up to be a real beauty: a tall blonde with green eyes and sensual lips. Taking musical and acting talent from her parents, the girl became famous early enough - she acted in films, participated in television programs, studied at the University of London, sometimes sang a duet with her father on stage … In addition, Ilenia had great ability for languages, like her mother …

Once, during a tour of her parents in the USSR, the girl learned to read, write and speak in Russian in a month. In the future, she wrote down the most intimate in her diary only in Russian, although she was fluent in three more.

Once, after the end of the next semester, the girl decided to interrupt her studies for a while and devote herself to wandering around the world. Moreover, the girl chose a rather strange way of travel for herself - alone, without luggage, in fact, without money and without travel tickets. Starting in the fall of 1993, she hitchhiked through parts of America and Mexico. A journey into the unknown was for her a trip to New Orleans (Louisiana) on New Year's Eve 1994. Renting a room in a cheap hotel, in a neighborhood that at that time was a gathering of homeless people, drug addicts and criminals, 24-year-old Ilenia tried to comprehend the lives of people who have sunk to the very bottom - homeless and vagabonds, in order to use the material to write her book in the future. At least that is how she explained her behavior to her parents. And indeed, according to the testimony of the witnesses who were the last to see Ilenia, her appearance did not differ in any way from the local rogues and vagabonds.

The last time she spoke on the phone with her father was on January 1, and on the 6th the girl left the hotel and did not return. Later, in the course of the investigation, it turned out that at that time she lived in the room not alone, but with a friend - a 54-year-old African-American who makes a living by playing music on the streets - Alexander Masakela. The girl considered him a kind of guru, a spiritual teacher at the same time, calling him - "my lord". The street musician has long been suspected of drug use and involvement in a trafficking gang. And, judging by the testimony of witnesses, Ilenia was also put on the needle by him - she was acting very strange lately.

And of course, soon the hotel workers discovered the girl's disappearance, but only on January 18th the police took up this case, and then, under pressure from the Italian consulate. By that time, Masakela had moved out of the hotel, taking Ilenia's documents and cards, with which he tried to check into another hotel, but to no avail. The musician was soon arrested, but after a while the police still released him, without charging him with any charges. According to Masakela, it followed that the girl left the room on that ill-fated evening after their scandal, and that he never saw her again. At the same time, making an offer that perhaps she went on to travel further without him, having caught some ride. Al Bano offered 100 million dollars for truthful information about Masakel's daughter, but he never said anything, and after his release he disappeared altogether.

Of course, later in the course of the investigation, there were many witnesses who saw a similar girl who got under the wheels of a truck, then threw herself from a bridge into the river, and tried to swim across it. But none of these versions has been confirmed by the facts. Needless to say, on this tragedy, both easy-profit hunters and numerous swindlers, without a twinge of conscience, speculated on the grief of a famous family tried to warm their hands.

Three private detectives, Interpol, the Sicilian mafia, friends and acquaintances … All forces were thrown into the search for Ilenia. Albano and Romina's house literally shuddered from every phone call. All information, without exception, has been carefully checked. Having canceled all the performances, the unhappy parents rushed about America in a fever in search of their eldest daughter. Shelters of the homeless, drug addicts' dens were checked, thousands of photographs were posted with a request for help, a fabulous amount of remuneration was announced on television and in the press. But Ilenia was never found either alive or dead.

But the tabloids were regularly full of headlines, throwing logs into the already blazing fire: “Ilenia is expecting an illegitimate child. Parents hide her in the estate”; “Ilenia does not want to see mother and father”; Ilenia was seen in Arizona; "The eldest daughter Karrizi married a groom and left the country" … Mother's heart was torn to pieces by the unknown and the antics of the journalist, making a sensation on her grief.

The search for Ilenia continued for almost 20 years, but it did not lead to anything. During this time, many new versions surfaced, according to one of which a truck driver who killed young girls who hitchhiked became a suspect in the possible murder of Ilenia. But when the maniac pointed out the place in the forest belt, where he buried the murdered blonde girl, whom he gave a lift, and then killed in early 1994, it turned out that the remains of the victim belonged to a completely different girl. She was also wanted for many years as a missing person. In the end, many, including her father, agreed that Ilenia, under the strong influence of drugs, drowned in the Mississippi, throwing herself from a bridge into the river to swim across it. According to the father, a year earlier, his daughter tried to swim across this river. From the very beginning there was a witness to all the events of that January evening on the river bank. But this version disappeared back then in 1994, since as a result of a long search, the body was not found. But if we take into account the large number of alligators in that place of the river and the strong undercurrent … then even the unexpected could have happened.

Ilene Karrizi's search was officially terminated in the winter of 2013. The girl was finally declared dead, and her parents were given a death certificate. True, by that time Al Bano and Romina had been divorced for a long time. The couple were never able to survive the tragedy together, and preferred to start life anew, each separately. They divorced in 1999 and their legendary duo ceased to exist. And the mystery of the disappearance of the daughter of famous artists has remained an unsolved mystery. However, Romina was never able to come to terms with the idea that their daughter was dead. She could not forgive her husband for accepting the death of Ilya.

After parting, Romina left to live in the United States, where she bought a house in Arizona. Leading a secluded life, she took up writing and painting. To this day, the inconsolable mother has not resigned herself to the disappearance of her daughter. At first glance, her paintings seem bright and cheerful. Only now all the human figures on them are turned with their backs to the viewer …

Al Bano stayed in Italy. For some time, the singer lived alone, and in 2000 he met journalist Loredana Lecchiso, who became his common-law wife. He also has younger children from his second marriage - Jasmine, who is 19 years old, and Albano Jr. He is 17. True, Al Bano parted with their mother for a long time.

But in recent years, the duet of Al Bano and Romina Power can sometimes be seen together again. And he was reunited in 2013 in Moscow, where for the first time in many years, the former spouses gave three joint concerts dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Al Bano. And on stage, they again look very close to each other, although in all interviews they deny any connection other than a creative one. Apparently, they are very afraid of the blows of fate, which once mercilessly punished them for excessive happiness.

As for their children, 47-year-old Jari Marko has become a successful musician, 34-year-old Christelle is a famous figure in Italy, she produces a line of women's clothing, and Romina's 32-year-old daughter is a film actress and photographer.

P. S. Lost heaven

- Romina says bitterly. But, nothing can be returned …

Italian singers have always been loved in Russia. The boom in their popularity reached its climax in the 70s and 80s of the last century, but many still remember triumphant concerts of participants and winners of the San Remo festival, which attracted thousands of audiences.