Born in
Los Angeles, Parisi worked for the
San Francisco Ballet and the
American Ballet Theatre in
New York City. During a vacation in Italy, she was noticed by choreographer
Franco Miseria, who had her audition for
RAI. In 1979, Parisi debuted on the show
Luna Park, hosted by
Pippo Baudo. Her rise as a television star took place in the fall of the same year in the first edition of the Saturday night show
Fantastico, which had high ratings (average of 23.6 million viewers). In each episode, Parisi performed a ballet and interpreted the opening song "Disco Bambina." The song became a hit, peaking several weeks at No. 1 on the Italian hit parade. Parisi was cast in four more editions of
Fantastico and in other successful variety shows, and had other musical hits including "Cicale," which ranked first on the hit parade for four weeks between 1981 and 1982. On her website in December 2021, Parisi logged an entry entitled "Damned for Eternity" in which she told women that they "should be ashamed" of having children vaccinated against COVID-19 and that it was "criminal". In a different post, Parisi said, "For me, being socially responsible is one of the most overestimated virtues." ==Filmography==