Iva Zanicchi was born in
Ligonchio, in the
province of Reggio Emilia, to Zefiro Zanicchi (1909–2004) and Elsa Raffaelli (1914–2010). Her career began in 1962 at the
Castrocaro Music Festival, where she earned third place. She won the
Sanremo Music Festival in
1967 with "Non pensare a me", in
1969 with "
Zingara" and again in
1974 with "Ciao cara, come stai?". Zanicchi remains the only woman singer to have won that festival's prize three times. In 1969, she represented Italy in the
Eurovision Song Contest in Madrid with "
Due grosse lacrime bianche", finishing 13th. She represented Italy in the V
Festival Internacional da Canção in Rio with "Tu non-sei più innamorato di me" in 1970. A concert at the
Paris Olympia and a tour (United States, Canada, South America and the Soviet Union) followed. Zanicchi later also toured Australia and Japan. Has worked with
Mikis Theodorakis,
Charles Aznavour and
Luigi Tenco, and has made numerous recordings. Has performed at
Madison Square Gardens, New York (1974) and the
Teatro Regio (Parma). In total, Zanicchi released 14 albums during the 1970s, including a Christmas-themed, Neapolitan and Spanish language recordings. From 1987 to 2000 Zanicchi hosted the television game show
OK, il prezzo è giusto!, the Italian version of
The Price Is Right, as the only female host in the history of the game show worldwide (since then, other countries have had versions of the show hosted by a woman). In 2004 she was one of
Forza Italia's candidates at the
European Parliament elections, polling nearly 35,000 but not enough to be elected. However, as the highest-polling among the candidates failing to be elected, Zanicchi took up her seat in Strasburg in May 2008, representing Forza Italia, when EuroMP
Mario Mantovani left to become a
PdL senator. She was confirmed in her post at the European elections of June 2009. == Personal life ==