A Journey Through Music and Personal Life

Today, among the guests in Silvia Toffanin’s living room will be Edoardo Vianello and his (third) wife Elfrida Ismolli. Verissimo, guests of the weekend (Saturday, November 9 and Sunday, November 10): Stefania Craxi to Claudio Amendola. Let’s discover more about them while we wait for the interview to air on Canale 5 at 16:30. Born in Rome (where he still lives) in 1938 (age 86), Edoardo Vianello began his career in the 1960s and has been captivating audiences with his unforgettable songs ever since. The singer, composer and actor wrote important pages in the history of Italian music, contributing to the success of many songs that have become true classics. Among his great successes we remember ‘Guarda Come Dondolo’, ‘O Mio Signore’, ‘Abbronzatissima’ and many more. His flawless voice and unique style have won the hearts of generations of listeners, making him a true legend of Italian music. Edoardo Vianello had three wives. He first married his colleague Wilma Goich, with whom he had a daughter named Susanna, in 1967. Together with his wife, he founded the record label Apollo in 1969, from which he founded Ricchi e Poveri. In the seventies they formed the musical duo I Vianella. They initially had great success, but after breaking up with Goich, Vianello pursued a solo career. The two broke up because Vianello repeatedly cheated on his ex-wife without hiding it; but he would do the same thing more than once. In 1980, he married Vania Muccioli for the second time and became the father of Alessandro Alberto. In 2006, he made his third marriage to Elfrida Ismolli, an electronics engineer who was born in Albania in 1975 and is much younger than him. In fact, there is more than thirty years difference between the two. The meeting was accidental, as the singer recounted: ‘After my divorce from my second wife, I had a scheduled appointment for a dental cleaning. There was a customer before me, I was waiting in the waiting room and there was a girl… I had been single for two hours, I was already counting on my freedom, but then I met her.’ Despite the age difference, a very deep relationship developed between Edoardo Vianello and Elfrida Ismolli, which lasted 25 years. The singer-songwriter said of her: ‘She has more than the others because, first of all, she’s really dedicated to me, my career, she follows me around and gives me advice on everything, she dresses me. Extraordinary, patient, even though she has a very grumpy character…’ What made the singer, who dreamed of being free and dreaming of being tied to a girl instead, fall in love, was as much her beauty as her style of existence. new woman, this time for good. But in the past, Vianello was truly a Don Giovanni: Imagine him saying he wanted to reach 1000 women in his lifetime. He explained that he should settle for 625 instead. ‘All before my three marriages, I wanted to get to a thousand but then I realized it was too tiring and decided to stop,’ she said. The most painful moment in Edoardo Vianello’s life came with the premature death of his daughter Susanna in 2020. ‘The saddest moment of my life. It’s something indescribable that I try to keep inside as much as possible. This is a pain so powerful, personal and present that there is no need to involve others,’ she explained to Serena Bortone. Susanna Vianello, who died of lung cancer in a clinic in Rome on the night of April 6-7, 2020, was the daughter of singer Edoardo Vianello and his first wife Wilma Goich. Many people wonder what Edoardo Vianello’s net worth is. Although we do not know the exact figures about earnings, according to Libero’s news, he declared to the weekly Spy magazine in 2018 that he received a pension of 1300 euros per month. ‘I thought I could achieve much more,’ said the artist, and I also paid a few voluntary contributions. ‘Sometimes I wish I didn’t need to work and could only do it when I wanted to.’ He added: ‘As a member of Siae throughout my career, I have paid 4% withholding tax on the annual rights to my songs. This was to receive a solidarity allowance of 485 euros per month, which is a kind of pension supported by a fund granted only to members and financed by our withholdings. This allowance was abolished with the coup seven years ago and was never brought back. But obviously the 4% paid for life was not refunded to us. I do not lament poverty, but there are disgraced writers for whom this grant could be useful.’