Volare

Tenor Luciano Lamonarca presented his single “Volare” in New York City, on Tuesday, October 9, 2018. In this new recording, he pays his personal tribute to the famous song “Nel blu dipinto di blu,” popularly known as “Volare,” on the 60th anniversary of the song’s composition.

“Volare” won the eighth Sanremo Music Festival, and it was chosen as the Italian entry to the Eurovision Song Contest in 1958, where it won third place. Combined sales of all the versions of the song exceeded 22 million copies worldwide, making it one of the most popular Eurovision songs of all time and the most successful Sanremo Music Festival song ever. It spent five non-consecutive weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in August and September 1958 and was Billboard’s number-one single for the year. Modugno’s recording subsequently became the first Grammy winner for Record of the Year and Song of the Year at the first annual Grammy Awards in 1958. The song was later translated into multiple languages and was recorded by a wide range of performers, including Dean Martin, Sergio Franchi, Louis Armstrong, and Luciano Pavarotti, to mention just a few.