Anita Traversi was a Swiss

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 singer, best known for her participation in the Eurovision Song Contest

Eurovision Song Contest

The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union .Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition...

s of 1960 and 1964.

Early career

Encouraged by her musician father, Traversi started orchestra singing in the mid 1950s, including with the orchestra of the Italian language

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

 Swiss radio channel. In 1956, she took part in the Swiss selection for the first Eurovision Song Contest

Eurovision Song Contest 1956

The Eurovision Song Contest 1956 was the first edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held at the Teatro Kursaal in Lugano, Switzerland on 24 May 1956...

, but "Bandanelle Ticinese" was not chosen. In 1959, Traversi obtained a recording contract in Italy, and went on to record a number of songs with Adriano Celentano

Adriano Celentano

Adriano Celentano is an Italian singer, songwriter, comedian, actor, film director and TV host.-Biography:Celentano was born in Milan at 14 Via Gluck, about which he later wrote the famous song "Il ragazzo della via Gluck"...

, including the top 10 hit "Piccola".
Anita Traversi represented Switzerland at several Song Fsetivals in the world with a great success,as Sopot(Poland) , Rio de Janerio (Brazil), "Golden Orpheus"(Bulgaria). She appeared to Song Festival in Sopot two times , first in 1962 with a song "Una certa sera"(A.Scotti) and with a Polish song "Jesienna rozłąka"("Dis moi , dis moi")Gert -Brok.She was awarded with the First Prize for the best performance. In 1968 she was in Sopot for the second time singing for Switzerland. In "Polish Day" she performed a Polish song "Odra rzeka"("Odra")Pałasz-Fiszer and this time she was placed the second after Annarita Spinaci (Italy).During the festival she performed a fantastic song "Balalaika" which was one of most favourite of that festival. In 1970 she was one of the big stars at "Golden Orpheus" in Bulgaria with a great performance of the Bulgarian song "Edna bylgarska roza"("One Bulgarian rose"). And in Rio de Janerio she was among the rewarded singers too.

Eurovision Song Contest

In 1960, Traversi's second attempt at Eurovision was successful when her song "Cielo e terra

Cielo e terra

"Cielo e terra" was the Swiss entry to the Eurovision Song Contest 1960, composed by Mario Robbiani and performed in Italian by Anita Traversi....

" ("Heaven and Earth") was chosen as the Swiss entry for the fifth Eurovision Song Contest

Eurovision Song Contest 1960

The Eurovision Song Contest 1960 was the fifth in the series, and was held on 29 March 1960 in London. France's win this year was their second in the contest....

, which took place in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 on 29 March. A dramatic orchestral ballad, very typical of early Eurovision, "Cielo e terra" finished in eighth place of 13 entries.

Traversi tried again to represent Switzerland in Eurovision in 1961 ("Finalmente") and 1963 (with three songs, including her first attempt in the German language

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

), but did not make it in either year. She finally got her second chance in 1964, with "I miei pensieri

I miei pensieri

"I miei pensieri" is a song by Anita Traversi, performed in Italian, which represented Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1964...

" ("My Thoughts") being selected to go forward to the ninth Eurovision

Eurovision Song Contest 1964

The Eurovision Song Contest 1964 was the ninth Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark after the Danish victory the previous year. Sweden did not participate because of a boycott by singers. They did however broadcast it...

, held on 21 March in Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

. However, this rather plain ballad did not find favour, being one of four songs to finish at the bottom of the scoreboard, having failed to score.

Later career

From the mid 1960s, Traversi's career foundered as her recordings met with little success. In 1967 she featured again, unsuccessfully, in the Swiss Eurovision heat. By the early 1970s she had effectively retired from showbusiness to devote herself to family life. She did however make one final appearance, with two songs, in the Swiss Eurovision selection of 1976, once more without success.

External links

• Discography and cover art (German)