Giovanna Marini died at the age of 87, following a short illness. Roman singer-songwriter, daughter of the composer Giovanni Salviucci and student of Andres Segovia, she founded the first popular music school in Italy, that of Testaccio, in the 1970s. Traveling since the 1960s to speak about the Italy of protest, tradition and ritual, he frequented Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italo Calvino and Diego Carpitella, learning popular singing.
Nicknamed “the Italian Joan Baez”, both for the content of her music and for her appearance, characterized by short and inimitable white hair and a lively and intense look, she participated in 1964 in the show “Bella Ciao”, at the Festival of Due Mondi di Spoleto, and in 1966 in “Ci ragione e canto” by Dario Fo. He was part of the Nuovo Canzoniere Italiano. Among his acquaintances were also several young Roman singer-songwriters, such as Francesco De Gregori with whom, in 2002, he made the album “He whistles the steam”, a work that brought together the classics of Italian popular music and renewed them.
From 1991 to 2000, he taught applied ethnomusicology at the University of Paris. Many social posts express condolences for his passing. Among them also that of Bobo Craxi: “Giovanna Marini contributed with her research and her artistic talent to the history of Italian popular music, and was at the forefront in the struggles for the progress of our country. We are indebted to her . I cry over the disappearance,” he wrote. “I take off my hat in honor of Giovanna Marini. A career and life always on the positive side. She is gone forever with her body, but her spirit and her example will remain immortal,” adds journalist Gianni Cerqueti.