Ricchi e Poveri

Ricchi e Poveri
A. Sotgiu, A. Brambati, F. Gatti (photo: Cristina Cava)
Background information
Origin	Italy
Genres	Pop
Years active	1967 — Present
Members	Angelo Sotgiu, Angela Brambati
Past members	Marina Occhiena (1967-1981), Franco Gatti (1967-2016)

Ricchi e Poveri [ˈrikki e pˈpɔːveri] (The Rich and Poor) is an Italian pop music group. Active since the late 1960s, they have sold over 20 million records.

The group was formed in 1967 by Franco Gatti (born 4 October 1942 in Genoa), Angela Brambati (born 20 October 1947 in Genoa), Angelo Sotgiu (born 22 February 1946 in Trinità d'Agultu e Vignola) and Marina Occhiena (born 19 March 1950 in Genoa). Their first public appearance was in Cantagiro 1968 with "L'ultimo amore". Ricchi e Poveri has participated in the Sanremo Music Festival several times since 1970 and in 1971 they sang "Che sarà". Ricchi e Poveri represented Italy in Eurovision Song Contest 1978 with song "Questo amore" finishing 12th with 53 points. In 1981 Marina Occhiena left the group.

Ricchi e Poveri has recorded in Italian and Spanish and the group had some of the most popular Italian songs of the 1980s and 1990s, including "Mamma Maria", "Made in Italy", "M'innamoro di te", "Se m'innamoro", and many others.

Their hit "Che sarà" has also been performed by José Feliciano and by the composer of the song's music, Jimmy Fontana. 1971 was the final year of the Sanremo festival in which each song was performed twice, each time by a different artist. Ricchi e Poveri gave the second performance of the song, following Feliciano, who had worldwide hits with Italian, Spanish and English versions of the song.

A crossover version for Latin American countries of the single "Sarà perché ti amo" was recorded with Spanish lyrics. The song, now titled "Será porque te amo", also became a huge hit in Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America.