Lara Saint Paul, an Italian-Eritrean
singer and entertainer who brought the aerobics craze to Italy,
was a regular presence on Italian TV and duetted with Louis
Armstrong at the 1968 Sanremo song festival, died of cancer
Tuesday at the age of 73.
She had been in a hospice at Casalecchio di Reno near Bologna
for some time, her sister Loredana told ANSA.
Saint Paul, whose real name was Silvana Areggasc Savorelli,
was also an impresario and record producer.
Born in Asmara in 1945, her mother was Eritrean and her
father Italian, from the Romagna area.
After her breakout 1968 Sanremo success she went on to
concerts in Las Vegas where she worked with the likes of Ray
Charles and Stevie Wonder and was friends with Frank Sinatra.
In the 1980s she launched aerobic dancing in Italy, which
became a countrywide craze.
The widow of record producer Pier Quinto Cariaggi, her last
20 years were dogged by illness and other woes.
In 2011 she sued big pharma company Bayer for allegedly
causing invalidity by the use of a popular ointment, Lasonil.
In January 2017 she revealed she was suffering from
intestinal cancer, and was granted a state's pension for artists
and writers suffering poverty, under the 1985 Bachelli Law.
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