Reggio Emilia, August 12, 2026 — Iva Zanicchi is ready to say goodbye to concerts. Not to television, not necessarily to the entertainment world, but to the life on stage with which she has built a career spanning over sixty years. The Emilia singer announced that 2026 will be the last year of live performances, explaining to the weekly ‘Oggi’ that she feels the burden of travel and commitments: “I’m a fool, going around like this is crazy, it’s too much! But it’s the last year, eh, then no more concerts. If God gives me the luck to live, maybe I’ll do TV and other things, but enough singing.”
No more music, but at 86 Iva Zanicchi does not leave the entertainment world
So it is not a definitive farewell to the stage. Zanicchi, who turned 86 years old, envisions a future presence still linked to entertainment, but with different rhythms. Television could be one of the paths to take once the concert activity is over. The singer does not seem to intend to stop completely, but simply to change the way she stands in front of the audience.
The last year of live concerts
The decision comes after a career that has made her one of the most recognizable voices of Italian music. Zanicchi has won the Sanremo Festival three times, in 1967, 1969, and 1974, and has also been a protagonist at the Eurovision. An artistic story built through records, concerts, and television, with a constant presence in the Italian scene for several generations. And precisely the relationship with the audience remains one of the aspects that make it harder to imagine a farewell to the stage. For this reason, Zanicchi has not chosen to immediately stop the activity: there will still be one last concert season, before turning the page. The idea is to allow herself a period of live music, but knowing it will be the last.
The commemorative plaque in her hometown
Meanwhile, the artist continues to look fondly at her origins. On August 7, Vaglie di Ligonchio (Reggio Emilia) inaugurated a plaque with the inscription “Hometown of Iva Zanicchi”, next to the welcome sign of the village. And a second plaque placed in Vaglie, the village where she was born, specifically a plaque on the singer’s birthplace.
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“I was born in the stable and the midwife didn’t want to come to the house”
An occasion that allowed her to also tell the story of her birth: “Even if I, to be precise, was born in the stable — her words — It was under the main room, typical of peasants’ houses. My mother, although already in labor, had ‘gone down’ to take care of a cow that her sister-in-law had lent her so we would have a bit more milk: I was on the way, but my two little sisters were already there.” Then the memory of that birth, on January 18, 1940, in the middle of winter: “The midwife from Ligonchio had refused to come — Zanicchi concludes — it was January 18, 1940, on the roads there was snow never seen before. She said: ‘Elsa has already had two girls, she can manage on her own’.”
Vandalized plaque dedicated to Iva Zanicchi: “Absurd act, but the emotion remains”
Two days after the inauguration, however, the plaque dedicated to the singer was vandalized. An episode that stained a tribute meant to celebrate the bond between Zanicchi and her land, just as the artist prepares to close one of the most important chapters of her professional life. “I would like to say that such an absurd act will not erase the emotion I felt in recent days when I returned to my beloved places and felt the affection of all my fellow townspeople,” the Reggio Emilia singer told Resto del Carlino. The mayor condemned the episode: “A stupid act”.
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