Giorgio Gaberscik

Giorgio Gaber, born Giorgio Gaberscik (25 January 1939 - 1 January 2003), was an Italian singer-songwriter, composer, actor, playwright, and musician. He was an accomplished guitar player and author of one of the first rock songs in Italian, "Ciao ti dirò" (1958). With Sandro Luporini, he pioneered the musical genre known as teatro canzone (theatre song). Born in Milan into a lower-middle-class family of partly Slovene origin, he began to play guitar as rehabilitation for a hand injury, and at fourteen earned his first paycheck playing at a New Year's party.

At the Santa Tecla venue in Milan he met musicians including Luigi Tenco, Adriano Celentano and Mogol, who obtained a contract for him with Dischi Ricordi. He paired up with Enzo Jannacci as I Due Corsari, making their debut in 1958 and releasing their first album in 1960. He took part in the Sanremo Music Festival four times between 1961 and 1967. In 1969 he released one of his best-known successes, "Com'è bella la città," and the following year showed his first edition of Il signor G at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano.

In 1973 he recorded "Far Finta di Essere Sani," covered in English as "Tomorrow's Got to be Sunny" by Tony Orlando and Dawn. He was given the very first Premio Tenco award and later received the Targa Tenco in 2001 and 2003. As one of the founders of the teatro canzone genre, he toured mainly in theatres. A lifelong smoker, Gaber died of lung cancer on New Year's Day 2003. On 25 January 2022 he was honoured with a Google Doodle for his 83rd birthday.