dead Raoul Casadei, the king of ballroom dancing: had 83 years old, he was hospitalized since Tuesday 2 March at the Bufalini hospital in Cesena for Covid. The composer – born in Gatteo Mare on 15 August 1937, and who had made generations of Italians dance and fall in love with successes such as My Romagna, Hello sea e Friendliness – he was infected like most of the family, which is still in fiduciary quarantine in the Casadei enclosure. This is the portrait of Mario Luzzatto Fegiz; who the last interview with the Corriere.
In 1971, Secondo Casadei, author of the immortal Romagna Mia, died. In ’73 Raoul, the founder’s favorite grandson, he abandoned his job as an elementary teacher to devote himself to the famous Casadei Show Orchestra. He wanted to get her out of the smooth ghetto of Romagna and so she made her debut at Vittorio Salvetti’s Festivalbar with Ciao mare.
It was a triumph. The sound was spectacular, with sax and accordions deployed. The songs and melodies didn’t always shine for originality, but they had the scent of old-fashioned laundry soap, Sangiovese and healthy and sanguine youth.
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Raoul – who died today at the age of 83, struck by Covid – had long since given up the leadership of the orchestra to his son Mirko. Raoul was never, primarily, neither a singer nor a musician, but a marketing genius: he invented brands such as Simpatia, Musica Solare, Simpatici Italians and even a megabalera called Ca ‘del smooth with facilities and swimming pools which turned out to be economically unsustainable.
In short, the king of the smooth was a communicator rather than a musician.
He then decided to put a smooth modernization back into circulation by recruiting excellent musicians and a talented singer – including Luana Babini – which changed periodically.
Every summer Raul Casadei launched a slogan or a fashion (for example Simpatici Italiani).
Riccarda Casadei, a direct descendant of Secondo Casadei, did not like this new form of smooth playing also with the help of Raoul’s children, Carolina (administrator) and Mirko Casadei singer. Although living a few steps from each other in Gatteo Mare, relations have always been tense.
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Raoul became a very popular brand in the 70s and 80s. The formula of the Casadei Show Orchestra proved to be a winner.
Very close friend of Vittorio Salvetti, he was often the protagonist of various editions of the Festivalbar. The Casadei clan was a family-run business that proposed the values of Romagna with music, especially the gastronomic and enjoyable ones, from tortellini to Sangiovese.
Today, Casadei mourns, there are many: from politicians (primarily the president of Emilia-Romagna, Bonaccini) to Claudio Cecchetto (Let’s lose a king). His son Mirko remembered him by greeting him like this: Long live Raul, always. You will be immortal.
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