Happy birthday Pippo Baudo , 84 years old for the monument of Italian TV! He has a unique flair, has discovered talents such as Heather Parisi, Lorella Cuccarini and launched Beppe Grillo on Rai, holds a historical record: he has conducted 13 Sanremo festivals . That's not all: he also risked an international crisis with Iran during the 'Fantastic 7' he conducted due to a sketch by the trio Lopez, Solenghi, Marchesini on Ayatollah Khomeini.
Rai1 also paid tribute to him this year with a television party with Fiorello, Jovanotti, Albano and Romina, Giorgia, Michelle Hunziker, Gigi D'Alessio, Solenghi and Lopez, Anna Tatangelo, Lorella Cuccarini, Giancarlo Magalli, Ficarra and Picone, Laura Pausini and the Orchestra conducted by Maestro Bruno Biriaco.
Born in Militello in Val di Catania, Baudo made his television debut in the early 1960s. A career lived relentlessly, until the bomb attack on his home in 1991 in Santa Tecla in Sicily for having thrown himself against the mafia during a commemoration of Judge Chinnici (fortunately the villa was empty that night). "No celebration for my birthday. It will be a day that I want to live exactly like everyone else," he assured in recent days when speaking to the Chamber at the presentation of the book 'The politicians and the control of television' by Gennaro Pesante. National monument of TV, the Sicilian conductor never spared himself. On his birthday Rai Cultura celebrates Baudo, who has worked for Rai for 54 years, dedicating the evening to him (from 9.30 pm on Rai Storia with a special). And Rai Movie celebrates the birthday with two musical films: His name is Donna Rosa by Ettore Maria Fizzarotti (at 7.25 am) and W le donne by Aldo Grimaldi (at 9.05 am). The first successes of the 'Pippo Nazionale' came after an intense apprenticeship: "I fell in love with the show at the age of 7, I started with a few shows and for twenty years I was doing cabaret with Giuseppe Fava, the journalist who was later killed by the mafia".
He invented the talent show with 'Settevoci', he also had a break in Mediaset due to a controversy with the Rai top management. The experience in the shadow of the Biscione did not last long. The return to Viale Mazzini was characterized by a second youth, during which he alternated other editions of Sanremo with varieties such as Mille Lire per month. From 1984 to 1986 he successfully conducted three editions of the historic Saturday night variety of Rai1, also combined with the Lottery Italia, Fantastico, in which he baptized showgirls such as Lorella Cuccarini, Alessandra Martines, Tosca D'Aquino. Despite his more than prolific career, Pippo is not tired of making television, to such an extent that some time ago he proposed to lead Sanremo 2015. In the meantime, in Baudian TV there is not only the "pure" show, the variety, the " Saturday night "targato Rai, the two Canzonissime, the numerous Italian lotteries, the Sanremo Festivals, the" evening of honor "from Montecatini Terme, the many game shows conducted on Rai1, Rai3 and the hundreds of Sundays of the flagship of the public service that bear his signature. Baudo has gone through the difficult themes of contemporary history and culture in his programs, giving space to books, theater performances, auteur films, and conducting interviews with writers, directors, actors (such as Moravia, La Fallaci, Arbasino, Montanelli).
He conducted five consecutive editions of the Sanremo Festival from 1992 to 1996. In 1998 he returned for the second time to Mediaset where he made "The song of the century", a program on the history of Italian music. When his image seemed to be on the decline, he started again on Rai3 with a program entitled "Day after day". In 2000 he conducted the transmission "Nel cuore del padre", in honor of Al Bano Carrisi. Then follows the great success of "Novecento - Day after day", where events and events of the twentieth century were revisited in the studio with exceptional witnesses and protagonists. Since January 2001 he has been the creator and conductor of the Rai1 show "Double Pass". He was chosen again for the 2002 Sanremo. After the good success of the previous year he was still the owner of the house in Sanremo for the eleventh time. While 2004 is the most difficult moment: after 18 years of marriage he separated from his wife Katia Ricciarelli. But that's not enough: following serious misunderstandings with Flavio Cattaneo, at the time dg Rai, the news of his dismissal arrived. Matter of little, however: the following year he returned to Rai1 with Domenica In.
Then back on the saddle: with the conducting of the Sanremo Festival 2007 (together with Michelle Hunziker and Piero Chiambretti) it has surpassed the primacy of the 11 participations, which was by Mike Bongiorno, reaching 13 with the Sanremo 2008 edition. anecdotes remembered by Pippo in the past few days, "when Benigni touched my private parts in Sanremo in his monologue. A member of parliament asked a question saying that this had been sexual violence and that I should have denounced". Finally, to those who asked him for an opinion on Grillo: "I love him very much, he is spontaneous, and his movement has asserted itself at a political level. But now they have a great responsibility".
