The ninties

In 1990 both State TV and press celebrate the fortieth birthday of the Sanremo Song Contest. "TV Sorrisi e Canzoni" and "Oggi" publish large articles on the contest and its protagonists during the years. Gigi Vesigna writes the book "Sanremo racconta", and Fonit Cetra publishes "Gli anni d’oro di Sanremo", four videocassettes telling the story of the contest in the years ’50s and ’60s, according to the TV programme "Le mille bolle blu" by Giancarlo Governi (whose materials were often used for historical revivals on the contest). The cassettes include Gigliola's victory in 1964 and part of her interpretation of "Tomorrow". With the cassettes four booklets with news, hit parades and the title of all partecipating songs from 1951 to 1989. Of coures there are also several photos of Gigliola.
The State TV has also a celebrative show, like "C'era una volta il festival". Its title should have been "Aspettando Sanremo" but a few changes are decided examining the result of the show of the previous year, broadcast by Canale 5. Suche decisions give birth "Il caso Sanremo: a debate with the use of television on forty years of contest in Sanremo". The show is hosted by Lino Banfi and Renzo Arbore who tell the story of the contest with irony and giving relevance to the funny side of it. Giogliola, as guest of the last evening, sings "Dio, come ti amo" and "Tomorrow".
Gigliola is also back on the press for her partecipation in 1989, this time having problems with the law since her manager, marquis Antonio Gerini, refuses to pay one of her restaurant bills, contesting the amount indicated. Both parts end up in court but in a few months the whole affair is forgotten.
On 5th May Toto Cutugno joins Gigliola among the winners of the European Song Contest with the song "Insieme...1992". Gigliola calls him saying: "Next year we're both hosting the European Song Contest, aren't we?"... A really far-seeing question...
During the Summer Gigliola's topless appears again on the press, as one of the fixed themes of the season. In she takes part to the "Festival delle cantautrici" at the Roman theatre in Verona with a concert which lasts an hour and a half and proposes some new songs that will be recorded only the following year in the "Tuttintorno": "Abbassando", by the Avion Travel Orchestra, and the beautiful "Notte di stelle" and "Prima del temporale", written by Enrico Ruggeri. In "Free Doc", tv show dedicated to the recently deceased TV director Enzo Trapani, is again broadcast her interpretation of "Bravo" from the show "La compagnia stabile della canzone..."

On 4th May 1991 the Eropean Song Contest takes place in Italy. As Gigliola had foreseen she's hosting the competition with Toto Cutugno. Before that they take part as guests to the show "Scommettiamo che...", hosted Fabrizio Frizzi and Milly Carlucci. The critics on Gigliola's hosting are positive: "an intelligent, subtle and very intriguing charm, as the French like"; "... now she is a sexy woman, of a very refined beauty, and a great professional artist, now revealing herself as a celf-confident host".
1991 is also the year of Gigliola's new LP "Tuttintorno", produced by Mimmo Locasciulli, author of most of its songs. The album will be printed in three different editions in Italy and will also have an edition for the Spanish-speaking market with the title "Todos juntos". Its promotion starts right after the European Song Contest. Gigliola sings "Abbassando" at the show "Festa di Compleanno", hosted by Loretta Goggi on Telemontecarlo; on 12th May she presents the video "Io sono tua", directed by her husband, at the programme "TG l'una". The video is black and white and Gigliola appears as a surreal creature who walks is a metaphisical scenery which reminds Magritte's paintings. She takes then part to "Mattina 2" (hosted by Alberto Castagna), "Il gioco dei 9" and "Serata d’onore", goes to Montecatini for a tribute show to Domenico Modugno and is invited at "Domenica in" where she presents "Il treno dell’amore", "La spagnola" and "Those were the days". After that "Ho fatto 13" on Telemontecarlo and, on Canale 5 "Il gioco dei giochi", hosted by Lino Banfi and his daughter Rosanna.
During the Summer "Novella 2000" announces that Gigliola is expecting her third child and plans to leave definitely the scene of Italian music. She denies the news taking part on 23rd August to the show "Un'estate al massimo", hosted by Massimo Ranieri, singing again "Abbassando". Canale 5 broadcasts again "C'era una volta il festival" and on TeleMontecarlo starts the show "La più bella sei tu". The show proposes to the audience a poll to elect the most beautiful songs of the latest ten editions of the Sanremo Song Contest. Gigliola is mentioned both for her return in 1985 with "Chiamalo amore" (the story is told by the journalist Claudia Vinciguerra) and for her partecipation in 1989. That edition is celebrated by the show on 10th Settembre and Gigliola is among the guests. She receives compliments by all others (among which Fred Bongusto and Adriano Aragozzini, chief organizer of the latest contests) for her brilliant career. Especially the journalist Mario Luzzatto Fegis says that Gigliola is nowadays more beaufiful and skilful than twenty years before. Her ironical answer is ready: "Why don't you write so, then?", afterwards she offers him a slow dance to be pardoned.
On 7th October Gigliola on Telemontecarlo replaces Loretta Goggi as host of the show "Festa di Compleanno". On that occasion she manages to bring back to TV Lelio Luttazzi after a very long absence. The first guest of the show is the politician Renato Altissimo, then the National Singers Football Team with Morandi, Ramazzotti and many others. Because of "Festa di Compleanno" Gigliola takes part to the last evening of "La più bella sei tu", in which the result of the poll is announced, just through a television link up with the studios of her show. "Chiamalo amore" is elected most beautiful song of the 1985 edition of the Sanremo Song Contest. Gigliola' comments are simple but firm: "Why did I win? - she says - Because "Chiamalo amore" was indeed the most beautiful song in the 1985 edition of the contest".
On 20th December Gigliola, during "Festa di Compleanno" celebrates her own birthday party. For one evening she leaves her role of host to Lelio Luttazzi. Among all friends who celebrate her the lyricist Pilat, her husband Luciano, her sons Giovanni and Costantino and the politician Silvia Costa as her interviewer. Gigliola appears as a woman of her time, an artist always looking for something new, but still ambassador in the world of a beautiful and fantastic image of Italy and of her town, Verona. The success of "Festa di Compleanno" is so great that TMC turns it on 31st December into "Festa di Capodanno" celebrating the arrival of the year 1992. On that occasion the show is much longer than usual and she receives many more guests.

After New Year's Eve "Festa di Compleanno" goes on with its normal schedule lasting till 11th March (six months and 120 episodes in total). The show celebrates the birthdays of many VIPs from the show business, or the politics and cultural fields. Among them Marina Ripa di Meana, Marta Marzotto, the architect Paolo Portoghesi, Rossella Falk, Rita Pavone, Nino Manfredi, Monica Vitti, Marcello Mastroianni, Johnny Dorelli, Leopoldo Mastelloni, the gastronome Luigi Veronesi, Sylva Koscina. Among the friends of the celebrated VIPs Pippo Baudo, who takes part to an evening through a telephonic link up, Renzo Arbore and Giulietta Masina. Gigliola wears often mini skirts and velvet tops of the greatest Italian stylists: Balestra, Missoni, Fontana (all her guests) and with her everybody seems at ease. She sings many times in duet with Lelio Luttazzi or with her guests. Many of the songs are still unpublished. The final episode is a great party with many guests from the previous ones.
In the Summer Gigliola goes to the seaside and the press publishes again her topless photos, "Dio, come ti amo" is broadcast again as "Una rotonda sul mare". In September "Eva Express" publishes her photo during a gala evening with her husband at the S. Pellegrino Terme Gambling House (Bergamo) writing that for her "...an official apparition with her husband is enough to draw to her the loving attention of everybody."

On Saturday 18th February 1993 Gigliola, during the show "Partita Doppia" hosted by Pippo Baudo, announces her next tour to Japan with Mimmo Locasciulli. There she records the live CD "Live in Tokyo", sold just on the oriental market.
She is seldom on TV that year, but many of her old shows are broadcast again. Her audience can then see again "Dio, come ti amo" on Raiuno on 19th June and all editions of "Senza Rete", including Gigliola's three partecipations, at 6.00 in the morning.
She's again on TV just at the end of the year taking part to the morning show "Mattinadue" as mysterious character whose identity the audience had to guess. On that occasion she presents her new radio programme: "Tornando a casa" that will be broadcast by Radiodue and Radio-Verde RAI every Sunday from 17:30 to 24:00 starting on Sunday 26th December.

Her experience with "Tornando a casa" lasts till February 1994. The show alternates information on traffic to variety numbers and gives to people travelling by car the opportunity to contact CISS to signal problems or ask information. Gigliola, along with the journalist Carlo Sacchettoni, talks to her audience who often asks her to sing. She does proposing several songs from her Japanese CD as "Sotto le stelle del jazz" by Paolo Conte (signature tone of the show) and "La donna cannone" by Francesco De Gregori, a good friend of hers. The programme has many famous guests, among them Gigliola's friends Roberto Vecchioni and Mimmo Locasciulli. Motor and traffic specialized press compliment her for her work from the pages of the monthly magazine "Quattroruote".
On 6th April Gigliola takes part to the show "Il Tappeto Volante" by Luciano Rispoli and again her audience asks for her return to music. She sings again however only on 8th May, on Raiuno during a celebration for Mother's Day organized by the Antoniano College in Bologna. Gigliola hosts the show with Gianfranco D'Angelo and opens it singing "Nel blu dipinto di blu" with the college children choir. She wears a long lace dress with transparencies that reveal a mini skirt and presents several guests as Alberto Tomba, the missionary Amelia Barbieri and Andrea Bocelli. Topo Gigio makes up even a poem for her. Gigliola, alway with the children choir, sings also "Chiamalo amore" and her personal version of "Il mio canto libero" by Lucio Battisti, till now unpublished.
In 1994 the weekly magazine "Oggi" celebrates its 50th birthday and Gigliola is present at the celebration, since, as she says, the magazine has always "cuddled and protected her". On that occasion "Oggi" publishes the lists of the singers who have gained more covers. Gigliola is third, above her just Mina and Milva.
She's back on TV just on 3rd December for the talk-show "Harem", hosted by Catherine Spaak. With her Serena Grandi, at the peak of her success. She announces the realization of a new programme for TMC on Italian capital cities of art, that will never never be made due to financial problems of the channel. On 27th December Pippo Baudo, chief organizer of the 1995 edition of the Sanremo Song Contest, reveals the list of the partecipants. Gigliola is among them with a song by Giorgio Faletti: "Giovane vecchio cuore". She says that her emotion in listening the song had been so strong to convince her that the song deserved to be presented on such occasion. Her return to the contest after a 32-year-long career wouldn't have had any sense without presenting a song able to stir at first her feelings, then those of the audience.

Before the contest Gigliola takes part again to "Il tappeto volante" and hosts for TMC the show "C'era una volta il festival di Napoli" with Andrea Giordana. The usual articles on the press about the Sanremo Song Contest always mention Gigliola. "Tv Sorrisi e Canzoni" dedicates her a cover, shared with two other famous singers, both taking part to the competition: Gianni Morandi and Massimo Ranieri. "Bebas Record" publishes the compilation "Gigliola Cinquetti: il meglio", a reprint of her first album with the addition of "Ho bisogno di vederti" and "Grazie amore".
On 2nd February Gigliola is invited by Pippo Baudo to the show "Luna Park" She talks about her career and her 11 partecipations to the Sanremo Song Contests. Pippo Baudo proposes then some of her past performance in some TV shows, real collector's items.
Gigliola sings her song for the first time during the contest on 21st February. She wears no make-up, hair almost unkempt, a splendid short black dress. Her hands tremble holding the microphone. "Giovane vecchio cuore" is not an easy song: seductive, a bit melancholic, hanging between past and present. The day after the critics define her interpretation as one of the most intense of the whole contest. Mario Luzzatto Fegis, who gives marks to the singers on the pages of the magazine "Oggi" gives her 9/10. Comments are different, but almost always favourable: "Gigliola was perfect", "... she passed the exam with the maximum", "Everything perfect.", "...invisible make-up, a short dress to reveal her beautiful legs and, above all, a great class... now she can do everything she wants, she is charming and charismatic... The beauty of her skin, the way she moves, her class, she could show the right way to many presumptuous modern teenage girls...". Gigliola wins completely the critics'side and on the web she wins the poll organized "Video On Line" beating even Massimo Ranieri, Drupi, Toto Cutugno, Sabina Guzzanti e la Riserva Indiana, Loredana Bertè and Patty Pravo. However the composition of the juries is still contested, as in the old "Canzonissima": too many young people who have exalted modern singers constricting all old glories of the Italian music in the last ten positions (with Gianni Morandi as only exception).
One month after the contest Gigliola publishes her new album "Giovane vecchio cuore". Almost all songs are written by Giorgio Faletti. The album is now at its third edition in Italy. To promote it Gigliola takes part to many TV shows: twice to "Domenica in...", then to "Cuori d'oro", hosted by Enrica Bonaccorti, and to the "Maurizio Costanzo Show". Raiuno, as late night revival, broadcast all editions of "Canzonissima" and on 10th May the show "Emozioni", hosted by Pippo Baudo has Gigliola among its guests singing several hits of the sixties, including "Riderà" by Little Tony. On Sunday 14th May she's back to "Domenica in..." interpreting several of her hits and giving a tribute to Mia Martini, whose death had been addounced by the TV news just before the start of the show.
Gigliola sings then "Rosa rosae" during the show "Io e Handy", in August takes tart to the game show "Il quizzone" and on 3rd and 10th September hosts for Raiuno "Napoli prima e dopo", a show dedicated to Neapolitan songs and music. The discographic label "Fremus" publishes the compilation "Luna nel blu... con amore" which includes several hits recorded for foreign markets and never before published in Italy along with some collector's items of her Italian production. Her last apparition on TV for the year is in the show "Una sera c'incontrammo", hosted by da Iva Zanicchi. On that occasion Iva confesses her delusion whe Domenico Modugno refused her "Dio, come ti amo" as it had been "thought and written for Gigliola". Iva had recorded the song only several years after its launch in the album "Care colleghe".

The Sanremo Song Contest in 1996 is welcomed by the publication in several issues of "La vera storia del Festival di Sanremo", an encyclopedia of the contest written by the director of "TV Sorrisi e Canzoni" Gigi Vesigna. With every issue a CD or cassete with the first three songs of every edition including, of course "This is my prayer", "Dio, come ti amo" and "Chiamalo amore". Gigliola takes also part to the show "Mille lire al mese", hosted by Pippo Baudo, celebrating the history of Italian music. She wears dresses of past times and sings "Violino Tzigano", "Chitarra romana", "Com'è bello fa'l'amore quanno è sera", "Non ti scordar di me", "Non dimenticar le mie parole" and "Rosamunda". With her as guest Alba Parietti.
"Scherzi a parte", a show about pranks played to VIPs, chooses her as victim of a particular hard prank, simulating the fall of an airplane on her villa in Cerro Veronese. She gets extremely angry, then laughs heartily when the prank is revealed. The audience chooses it as one of the most beautiful of the show.
In May the weekly magazine "Intimità" dedicates her its cover article: "Gigliola, ritratto di una donna felice" in which her happiness, revealed by an interview, is compared to the sadness of another very popular woman: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. In the summer "Evatremila" publishes two articles on her topless sunbathing. For the first time on the photos appears also her husband. On 20th August Gigliola is guest of Paolo Limiti in the show "...e l'Italia racconta", his first successful programme. Limiti shows also a registration of her partecipation to the 1966 edition of the International Music Fair in Venice with "La bohème". She goes back to "...e l'Italia racconta" from 7th to 11th October presenting songs from her new "Live in Tokyo", a smaller version of the live CD she had previously recorded for the Japanese market. Its the first title she publishes with NAR International, her actual label. She announces also her partecipation as protagonist in the comedy "L'uomo che inventò la televisione" but reveals the name of her partner just two days later, during "Domenica in...": Pippo Baudo. On that same occasion she presents her new fiction "Il medico dell'impossibile" (till now never broadcast), sings "La donna cannone", "Nel blu dipinto di blu" and "Le mille bolle blu". Just the first one has been recorded till now. She goes again to "...e l'Italia racconta" on 26th November to celebrate her friend Caterina Caselli.
She also goes on with her career as a journalist signing a five-year contract with the daily newspaper "L'arena", that nine year before had savagely attacked her for her subscription to the Radical Party. Peace is then signed and according to their agreement Gigliola can now express her thoughts on the most important subjects of the time on the cultural page of the newspaper through her own personal heading "Pensieri al video" published every Wednesday.

On the first days of January, in the thatre Gerini of Rome, Gigliola starts rehearsing the comedy "L'uomo che inventò la televisione", which obtains immediately several photographic reports by the press. A preview is held on the 14th February in the theatre "La Gran Guardia" in Livorno, the "première" on 17th in the same theatre. Then, according to the schedule, the comedy is represented from the 21st on in the theatre "Augusteo" in Neaples, from the 21st March on in the theatre "Smeraldo" in Milan, from the 18th April on in the theatre "Sistina" in Rome.
Critics are good since the beginning. Here are the comments of the main newspapers:
"La Repubblica": The audience is delirious... a great success... Gigliola Cinquetti as Lisa, Tito's wife, seems one of the female figures of Pitigrilli's novels.
"Il Messaggero": Capable, with no reserves, all interpreters. Gigliola Cinquetti sings, acts and shows body and legs of a cover girl...
"Il Corriere della Sera" (in occasion of the "première"): Gigliola Cinquetti, at her first experience on stage in a comedy, has received by the audience the loudest applauses.
"Il Corriere della Sera" (in occasion of the dèbut in Milano): ...the audience, composed by many TV VIPs has warmly applauded...[Gigliola] is a surprise on stage: of course she sings well but she has also the ideal silouhette for dresses by Ertè and expresses her refrain of frustated middle-class wife with extreme irony and cleanliness.
"Il Giorno": Gigliola Cinquetti is a very pleasant surprise.
"La Stampa": Gigliola Cinquetti appears in a wonderful shape.
"Il Mattino di Napoli": ...the main surprise is Gigliola Cinquetti, at her first experience on stage in a comedy, who, as Lisa exhibits - together with an enviable physical shape - an expressiveness which candidates are to other and more challenging experiences... a good result for a beginner!
"Il Tempo": Gigliola Cinquetti, at her first theatrical experience, appears sure of herself. As a singer she has a wonderful and robust voice and as an actress is both tender and malicious. All the audience applaudes her.
"Il Giornale": [Gigliola Cinquetti] shows, along hit her affirmed qualities as a singer, a surprising flexibility, a necessary feature for a musical comedy actress.
Of course the press starts gossiping about Gigliola and Pippo. "Evatremila" dedicates then a photographic report taking their pictures among bales of hay.
However the comedy is not much successful at the theatre Smeraldo in Milan, after the good affluence of the first evenings the audience starts to wane. A better success is obtained instead in Rome, at the theatre Sistina,. Plenty of audience and several VIPs go to see the show and each evening, at the end of the comedy, Gigliola's room is crowded with fans. She listens to everybody. Michele Placido and Franco Nero congratulates her saying: "A star is born".
Even TV offers a preview of the comedy. "Quelli che il calcio" links up with the theatre for the reharsals and the company is invited to "Buona Domenica" and "Il Tappeto Volante"; Gigliola goes instead alone to "I fatti vostri", hosted by Massimo Giletti, to sing and dance with her stage costume.
At the end of this experience Gigliola is back on the press, again photographed wearing topless at the seaside and in a report of the weekly magazine "Oggi" on VIPs who have won their personal battle against aging and seem much younger than their real age. Gigliola is going to celebrate her 50th birthday and the experts say she demonstrates at least ten years less.
On the 40th birthday of the children song contest "Zecchino d’oro” Gigliola is back on TV for a show to elect the most beautiful song of all editions. She sings “44 gatti" ad brings it to victory.
On 7th December she's back to "Domenica In...", hosted by Fabrizio Frizzi, as "Donna della Domenica" (female guest of the day). She sings, dances even twist, acts as a competitor in a musical quiz inspired to the old show "Il Musichiere", sings some of her hits as "Sciur padrun da li beli braghi bianchi", "Qui comando io", and "Tomorrow" and is interviewed by Fabrizio Frizzi. She appears self-confident and is not afraid of speaking frankly explaining that, when she was asked if she was a romantic girl the interviewer often meant if she had sex or not.
On 20th December "Oggi" dedicates an article to Gigliola's 50th birthday: "Charming and seductive as ever Gigliola Cinquetti celebrates with us her half century: not a source of crisis, on the contrary... At 50 years I feel sexy: what do you think about it?"

In 1998 Gigliola is on the pages of the monthly magazine "Club" for a photographic report, then a few times on TV: on Rete 4 for Valentine's Day is interviewed in Juliet's house in Verona delivering the "Cara Giulietta" award for the best letter to Juliet to the winner; on 22nd February she takes part to "Buona Domenica" singing "Dio, come ti amo" and "Prima del temporale" in duet with Luca Laurenti; on 26th February she is at the "Maurizio Costanzo Show" for a debate on the Sanremo Song Contest, on that occasion Gianni Borgna acknowledges her merit to have brought the contest to a world dimension during the sixties, as many artists of the time did.
Gigliola, though her few appearances, has not abandoned her career on TV. 1998 is a very important year for her as protagonists on less known TV channels: the satellite ones.
RAI International entrusts her with a Summer programme in five episodes "Donne - Viaggio nella storia delle donne italiane". The programme starts on 29th July. Each episode lasts 45 minutes and relates the latest 50 years of history on the women's side, from the end of the Second World War to the present day. The women themselves tell thier story talking about science, politics, culture, medicine and much more. Gigliola interviews many famous women, and reports on the changes in culture and in behaviours with the help of old films, articles from newspapers and magazines for women, songs and music of past times, recorded interviews with protagonists of women's history.
Every episode summarizes ten years of history. Really not an easy task! Here's the schedule of the episodes:
1st episode: the fifties, scene of the first achievements in politics and in the Trade Union field. Among the guests the politicians Marida Dentamaro and Maria Luisa Rodano and many other famous women as Miriam Mafai, Nicoletta Orsomando, Silvana Pampanini and Nilla Pizzi.
2nd episode: the sixties, the economic boom, a new model in women's life and the crisis of relationships between men and women. Among the guests: Adriana Poli Bortone, Tina Anselmi, Ida di Benedetto and Paola Pitagora.
3rd episode: the seventies, feminism, new family law and divorce. Among the guests: the politicians Patrizia Toia and Laura Cima and Sabina Ciuffini.
4th episode: the eighties. Women start to achieve important positions in their jobs and in politics and all the industrialized world sees a change in the standard model of woman. Among the guests the minister Livia Turco and the politician Silvia Costa.
5th episode: the ninties. The women's demands acquire central importance, in open contrast to them movements of integralism against women are born. Gigliola talks about the Pechino World Meeting on women, shows several filmed documents from the State TV archives and has a long interview with the Minister for Equal Opportunities Anna Finocchiaro.
The programme is not much followed in Italy, since satellite TV is not much known. It has however a good success abroad and draws towards Gigliola the attention of another satellite channel, the catholic network SAT 2000 which proposes her a daily talk-show: "Vivendo Parlando". Authors of the show are Pupi Avati and Manuele Dilani. It is presented as a journalistic and cultural talk-show which goes deeper in examining the principal matters of the day. In the studios a group of young people asks question to the guests, since mainly it's their problems that are being debated. The show is broadcast from Monday to Friday, each episode is broadcast three times: one in the afternoon, one in the evening and one in the morning of the following day. Guests are normally experts in different fields: culture, politics, journalism, show business etc. The program has a wider diffusion than "Donne" since the programmes of SAT 2000 are also broadcast by several catholic local channels.
The first episode of the show is on 12th October. Its success causes its continuation during the years for 4 seasons for a total of 587 episodes and around 1500 guests, among which Rita Levi Montalcini, Ennio Morricone, Carla Fracci, Giulio Andreotti, Ettore Scola, Mario Monicelli, Giuseppe Tornatore, Gigi Magni, Edoardo Sanguineti, Valeria Moriconi, Massimo Boldi, Bruno Vespa, Sergio Zavoli, the Israelian writer Meir Shalev, the detective novel writer Mary Higgins Clark, Rigoberta Menchù (winner of the Nobel Prize for peace), Suso Cecchi D'Amico, Dacia Maraini, Enzo Siciliano, Piera Degli Esposti and Mario Luzi. Gigliola has acquired a new dimension in the world of TV journalism and seems to be perfectly ad ease with it.
The TV, however, still remembers the Gigliola of the old times: Raiuno broadcasts again "Dio, come ti amo" on 22nd February 19th August and, in the night "La compagnia stabile della canzone..." and "Vino, whisky e chewing-gum". "TG2 Dossier", in a report about record collectors, finds out that Gigliola's records are among the most collectioned.

Gigliola is back to music in the following year. On 17th January 1999 she takes part to "Domenica in...", (hosted by Tullio Solenghi, Giancarlo Magalli and Anna Falchi) singing "Dio, come ti amo", "Tomorrow", "Door of the sun" and her personal version of "Quelli della mia età", an old hit by Catherine Spaak. She introduces in this way her new album for DVMore label "Il meglio". She talks also of her experience with "Vivendo Parlando", now a central point of her career as she says in an interview to the weekly "Confidenze".
On 23rd January RAIDUE broadcast again "Dio, come ti amo", and on 12th February Gigliola is interviewed in her house in Rome by Gianfranco Agus during the show "La vita in diretta" hosted by Michele Cucuzza. The interview is a tribute to one of the main characters of Italian music, dreams and life. At home with her during the interview her son Costantino and her dog Michelone. During the show are also broadcast parts of some of her old TV shows and she sings live "Tomorrow" and "Chiamalo amore".
On 13th February she's again on the TV screens with Michele Cucuzza but this time they're both guests of Catherine Spaak in the talk-show "Harem", along with Rosa Russo Iervolino and Justine Mattera, Paolo Limiti's wife. The theme of the evening is "Behind the mask". Gigliola recalls the beginnings of her career, when everybody asked her if her aspect was truthfully respondent to her personality or just a "mask" she wore. She also remembers her painful efforts to be liked by people, efforts to which now she gives almost no attention.
On 19th February Gigliola is invited by Davide Sassoli to the show "Prima" with Livia Azzariti, on 26th March she takes part to "Telesogni" on RAI TRE, introducing her new fiction "Commesse" and talking about her past and present experiences as journalist (in addition to "Vivendo Parlando", she recalls her interview to Gorbatchev in Moscow for a journalistic programme hosted by Arrigo Levi).
The first episode of the fiction "Commesse" is broadcast on 12th April. Gigliola's role is marginal, but she is one of the main characters of the second episode, along Ray Lovelock and Nancy Brilli. She is Clara Massimi, a woman deceived by her husband who, when he's hospitalized for a serious illness, leaves apart her hurt feelings and remains to tend him. The success of "Commesse" is great. Each episode is followed by an audience of more than 10 millions people, so that RAIUNO broadcast it again in September. The usual photographic report with Gigliola's topless at the seaside this year has a different title: "Gigliola naked to conquer Hollywood".
On 22nd April the daily newspaper "Il Messaggero" announces Gigliola's candidature to the next European elections for the Democratic Party. In the end however the news is denied. However Gigliola appears quite competent in the political field, as it shows during her two partecipations to the talk-show "Porta a porta", hosted by Bruno Vespa. In the first one, on 6th October she interviws, along with Vespa and the other guests (Pippo Baudo, Irene Pivetti e Sandra Bonsanti) the new secretary of the Italian Populist Party Pier Luigi Castagnetti; in the second one, on 1st November she talks about Pope John Paul II with Francesco Cossiga and Lech Walesa.
Her work relationship with Pupi Avati, started with "Vivendo Parlando", goes on. "Gente" announces that Gigliola will play a role in Avati's new movie. She is also invited to Sanremo on 17th November to celebrate the 50th birthday of the Song Contest, but she refuses.