Romina Power was born in Los Angeles in the family of American idol Tyrone Power and his second wife, Mexican actress Linda Christian. The first five years of a cloudless childhood in a star family passed under the flashes of television cameras, but in 1956, the parents divorced. Romina and her younger sister Tarin lived with their mother and often moved. She spent most of her childhood in Mexico and Italy.
Romina’s interest in music manifested itself in early childhood under the influence of American musicals of the 1950s, Mexican bands Mariachi and Italian music of the 1960s. As a teenager, she discovered The Beatles and Bob Dylan, which inspired her to write music herself. Having received the guitar as a birthday present, she learned the chords, and so the first songs of Romina Power appeared. In 1966, she signed her first contract with a recording studio, and in 1969 she won the Festivalbar competition for young performers. However, worldwide fame came to Romina after a meeting with her husband.
Albano and Romina Power
This is one of the most famous duets in Italian music. They are known not only for giving the world many wonderful songs, but also for embodying the idea of magnificent love for many decades. When the couple met in 1967, Al Bano was a young talented Italian singer who had just won Un Disco per l'Estate with the song Nel Sole. The meeting took place on the set of the film by the same name of the song Al Bano. It was not unusual at that time to make hit films with a leading actor to ensure the success of the film.
Romina's mother opposed this relationship, since Al Bano was just a young singer from a poor family, while Romina was the daughter of two American stars born in Los Angeles and used to living on Olympus. However, the young lovers were able to defend their love, and in 1970, when Romina was already expecting her first child, they got married, becoming one of the most successful duets on the Italian music scene, which soon became known in Italy, Germany, Austria, Spain, France, Greece, Latin America, Eastern Europe and the USSR, releasing several albums in different languages and taking 7th place at Eurovision. However, the couple felt the taste of real fame after 8 years, taking first place at the festival in San Remo.
Their brand of carefree, memorable romantic music has been repeatedly criticized in Italy, but there has always been a different story abroad. Al-Bano and Romina were a symbol of Italian popular culture in the world even after their success weakened in their native country. For almost three decades, they represented the world Italian traditional music, just as they embodied the symbol of true, eternal love. Songs such as Felicità, Ci sarà, Nostalgia Canaglia, Cara Terra Mia, are still very popular.
The collapse of the famous duo
The life of the world famous couple changed in 1994 after the tragedy associated with the disappearance of their daughter Ilya, who was missing in New Orleans. Several years of appeals and searches followed, which, unfortunately, did not lead to anything. Huge tension and pain of loss shared a couple, and in the late 1990s their family broke up, and at the same time their professional music project ended. Al Bano, with a powerful, well-posed voice, continued his musical career as a solo artist.
This gap was shocking for the whole world, because for decades Al Bano and Romina were a kind of symbol of marital stability, and it was strange to see how these two go their separate ways.
Romina's life after a duet
Being a versatile and talented person, she continued her self-realization as an artist and writer. In 2005, Power was a judge on the Italian television show Ballando con le Stelle ("Dancing with the Stars"), from 2006 to 2007 organized exhibitions of her paintings.
In the spring of 2007, Power bought a house in Sedona, Arizona, and decided to leave Italy forever. According to Romina, in Italy she was perceived simply as a performer and it was difficult for her to prove herself as an artist and writer. Moreover, she was alarmed by the annoying attention of the local press, which showed an excessive interest in her personal life.
In 2008, her mother, Linda Christine, was diagnosed with cancer, and Romina moved to her in Palm Springs, where she remained for three years until her mother died in 2011.
“Father's Search, Tyrone Power”
Speaking of Romina, it’s impossible not to touch upon her book, which she wrote in memory of her father, Tyrone Power. Tyrone was a world movie star, but for many decades Hollywood forgot it, because many years have passed since the death of the famous actor in 1958, and many people of that era have already left.
He lived only 44 years, and Romina was only seven years old when her father was gone. The book is a decade-long search for information by Romina through people who knew him best. She created this book as an amazing mosaic consisting of many objects, where each has its own value and is an important integral part of the larger picture.
The moment where Romina writes about the first time she heard her father’s voice as she grew up in Italy and saw his films voiced by other actors is very touching. She bought an album in which he read Lord Byron’s poems, and one of them was dedicated to Byron’s daughter, Allegra. Romin was struck not only by the sound of his father’s voice, it seemed to her that in this work through the space of time, the father refers to her precisely with the words of the great poet. Romina immediately shared this record with her younger sister, and this was the first of many discoveries and revelations for them.
Great reunion
2014 marked an important moment for fans of Al Bano and Romina Power, as they decided to start performing as a duet again. They gave concerts in Russia, Eastern Europe and the USA, where fans enthusiastically greeted them, as if so much time had not passed.
In February 2015, they appeared as special guests at the Di Sanremo festival, where their performance was simply fantastic. As for the personal one, they strongly refute the rumors that they are again a couple, although the fans do not lose hope that this tale of eternal love will come true.
After all, the whole world remembers the words of their famous song "Felicita", which was sung by millions of listeners who do not know Italian, but feel these words with every bit of their soul: "Happiness is holding hands, happiness is being around ...". But no matter how it happens, I would like to wish this delightful woman that Felicita and Romina Power always go hand in hand.