Ernesto Bonino

Who was Ernesto Bonino?

Ernesto Pietro Bonino was an Italian singer of pop and jazz standards whose peak of popularity was during the 1940s and 50s.

A native of Turin, Ernesto Bonino began his career in the late 1930s as a teenage singer in the lively club scene of his hometown. Another contemporary Turin performer, Fred Buscaglione, was also starting his singing occupation in the same fashion. Music impresario/conductor Carlo Prato, who had earlier promoted a Dutch sister act into the very popular Trio Lescano, heard Bonino and arranged an audition for him at the Italian state radio company EIAR. His broadcast debut came on 5 January 1941 with the song Tango Argentino. It was an instant success and other hits followed, including La Paloma, Se Fossi Milionario, La Famiglia Canterina, A Zonzo, Musica Maestro, Il Giovanotto Matto, Ti Comprerò l'Armonica and Conosci Mia Cugina?. During the 1940s, Bonino, dubbed "Mister Swing", rivaled only Natalino Otto and Alberto Rabagliati in terms of popularity.

In 1947, two years after the end of World War II, he embarked on a long tour of Latin America, performing in Peru, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico and Cuba, where he and actress/singer Tina de Mola took Havana theatergoers by storm with their song Chinito chinita.