Cristina D'Avena

Cristina D'Avena entered the world in Bologna on July 6, 1964, and went on to become Italy’s preeminent voice for televised theme songs, above all those attached to Japanese animated series. Italian broadcasters routinely set aside the original tracks in favor of freshly composed Italian-language replacements, a practice that, given the intense popularity of anime among local youngsters, gave rise to an entire domestic ecosystem of writers, singers, and ensembles devoted to the format. Within that ecosystem D’Avena stood unrivaled. During the 1980s she functioned as a full-fledged pop star, supplying the Italian lyrics and melodies—sometimes penning the words herself—for dozens of programs, appearing regularly on television, and moving millions of units.

Her path began early: at three and a half she captured a prize at the Zecchino D’Oro, Italy’s foremost children’s singing competition. The decisive turn arrived in 1981 when the Canale 5 network approached conductor Giordano Bruno Martelli in search of fresh vocal talent for an upcoming animated program. Martelli, who had been struck by her performances in his own choirs, put her name forward. The resulting single “Bambino Pinocchio” scored an immediate success and opened the door to a recording contract while she was still a seventeen-year-old secondary-school student. Her commercial apex came in the latter half of the decade when she took the lead role in the live-action adaptation of the hit anime series Kiss Me Licia. The program’s popularity generated three follow-up seasons and elevated her to teen-idol status across Italy as well as in Switzerland, Yugoslavia, and Malta. Once the Licia cycle concluded, broadcasters created a new prime-time vehicle, Arriva Cristina, in which she portrayed a version of herself; three additional seasons followed before the run ended in 1991. Each installment was accompanied by soundtrack albums containing every number performed on-screen, several of which attained platinum status.

She maintained an active schedule of recordings, concerts, and television appearances through the 1990s, yet work diminished in the 2000s once programmers began favoring newer artists. Across her career she is believed to have issued more than 600 singles and 140 albums, with worldwide sales exceeding five million copies.