This statue is of Domenico Modugno, born in Polignano a Mare, best known as co-writer of the song ‘Nel blu dipinto di blu’, better know as ‘Volare’ (‘To fly’). He wrote the music and co-wrote the lyrics with Franco Migliacci. In 1958, as performed by Modugno, it won the eighth Sanremo Music Festival, came third in the third Eurovision Song Contest, spent five weeks at number one in the Billboard Hot 100 in America, was Billboard’s number one single of the year, and won the first ever Grammy awards for both Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
For many years he continued as both performer and song-writer, with songs covered by, amongst many others, Elvis Presley, Jack Jones, and Shirley Bassey. He also won the Sanremo Music Festival twice more, and represented Italy on two further occasions in the Eurovision Song Contest. In addition he appeared as an actor in 44 films.
Later in life he suffered a severe stroke, which left him partially paralysed. Always politically active on the left, he started campaigning for the rights of disabled people, and was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1987 as a member of the Radical Party, representing Turin. He served in parliament for almost three years, before being elected to the Senate, the upper chamber, in April 1990, serving there for a further two years. He died in 1994 at the age of 66.