This article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: "Nicola Salerno" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
.mw-parser-output .hidden-begin{box-sizing:border-box;width:100%;padding:5px;border:none;font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .hidden-title{font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .hidden-content{text-align:left}You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Italian. (June 2023) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Italian article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 3,006 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Italian Wikipedia article at [[:it:Nisa (paroliere)]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template ((Translated|it|Nisa (paroliere))) to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.
Nicola Salerno
Nisa on Radiocorriere magazine, 1938
Born(1910-03-11)11 March 1910
Naples, Italy
Died22 May 1969(1969-05-22) (aged 59)
Naples, Italy
Other namesNisa
OccupationSongwriter
ChildrenAlberto Salerno

Nicola Salerno (11 March 1910 – 22 May 1969), often known as Nisa, was an Italian lyricist. He formed a famous songwriting duo with Renato Carosone.

Life and career

Nicola Salerno was born in Naples in 1910.

His first hit was "Eulalia Torricelli" of 1947, about the unhappy love story between a wealthy girl from Forlì and a guy named Giosuè. Salerno put the whole team of songwriters (himself, Gino Redi and Dino Olivieri) in the lyrics as heirs to each of Eulalia's three castles.

Salerno met Renato Carosone in 1955. It was Mariano Rapetti, Ricordi record company's director – and father of lyricist Mogol – who suggested that they should work together to enter a radio contest. Nisa brought Carosone three texts to be set to music. One of them was titled "Tu vuò fà l'americano". Carosone had an instant inspiration and started composing a boogie-woogie on the piano keyboard. It took just fifteen minutes to create Carosone's most famous song, that became a worldwide success. Other famous hits by the duo include "'O suspiro", "Torero", "Caravan Petrol", "Pigliate 'na pastiglia" and "'O sarracino".

Salerno worked also with other songwriters. Among his best-known lyrics are "Guaglione", winning song of the Naples Song Festival in 1956, and "Non ho l'età", with which Gigliola Cinquetti won both the Sanremo Music Festival and the Eurovision Song Contest in 1964.

Besides writing lyrics, Nicola Salerno was also an illustrator. He was the author, for example, of cover designs for some Neapolitan music scores published between the 1920s and 1930s.

He died in Naples in 1969. His son Alberto Salerno would also become a successful lyricist.

See also

Categories