Willy Alberti

Who was Willy Alberti?

Willy Alberti, born Carel Verbrugge, was a Dutch singer, who sang in Dutch and Italian. He was also an actor and a radio and TV personality.

Alberti was born in Amsterdam as the third of eight children to Jacobus Wilhelm Verbrugge and Sophia Jacoba van Musscher. He sang with family members at a very young age.

He began recording professionally in the early 1940s. In 1944 he married Ria Kuiper and his daughter Willeke Alberti, later to become a successful Dutch vocalist herself, was born in 1945. After the war Alberti established himself in the Netherlands with Italian songs; he became increasingly popular in the 1950s, when he had a string of hits beginning with Nel blu dipinto di blu in 1958. In the 1960s he began to act alongside his daughter Willeke; as a duo, they also scored hits on the Dutch charts. From 1965 father and daughter presented a popular monthly television show for the AVRO. Alberti won two Edison Awards in the 1960s.

In the 1970s Alberti's fame began to decline, though he did score a few hits. In 1984 Alberti was diagnosed with liver cancer, and died in Amsterdam on February 18 of the following year. He was cremated at the Westgaarde Crematorium in Amsterdam.