Caterina Valente (born 14 January 1931) is an Italian-French multilingual singer, guitarist, dancer, and actress. Valente is a polyglot; she speaks six languages, and sings in eleven. While she is best-known as a European performer, Valente also spent part of her career in the United States, where she performed alongside Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Perry Como, and Ella Fitzgerald, among others.
She was also a chef.
In 1955, she was featured on The Colgate Comedy Hour with Gordon MacRae. In 1958, she filmed the musical comedy Hier bin ich – hier bleib ich (Here I Am, Here I Stay) which featured a guest appearance by Bill Haley & His Comets. During Haley's segment, Valente sings a duet with Haley on a newly recorded version of his song "Vive la Rock and Roll".
Caterina Valente also appeared at least once on the world famous weekly Ed Sullivan Show with her brother Silvio Francesco playing horn performing a special skillful song duet on the episode also featuring Leslie Uggams, Joan Rivers, Tony Holland, the Schaller Brothers, Eric Brenn, and Blood, Sweat and Tears.
In the mid 1960s, Valente worked with Claus Ogerman and recorded material in both Italian and English that he arranged/conducted and/or composed on the Decca and London labels. Valente was a favorite of singer Perry Como, making eight guest appearances on his NBC Kraft Music Hall television program from 1961-66. She was a frequent guest on The Dean Martin Show.
In Germany, she was a major performer of Schlager music. There, she recorded Cole Porter's I Love Paris under the German title Ganz Paris träumt von der Liebe, which sold more than 900,000 copies in 1954.
Over the years, she has recorded or performed with many international stars, including Louis Armstrong, Chet Baker, Perry Como, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, Claus Ogerman, the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, Sy Oliver, Buddy Rich and Edmundo Ros.
In 1959, she was nominated for a Grammy Award. Valente was a principal on the CBS variety series The Entertainers (1964–65). A briglia sciolta, the Italian jazz CD recorded in 1989 and re-released in later years under the titles Fantastica and Platinum deluxe, was her best-selling CD worldwide. In 2001, she released a new album, Girltalk, with harpist Catherine Michel. She retired in 2003.
In 2019 her song Bongo cha cha cha was included in the soundtrack of Spider-Man: Far from Home, directed by Jon Watts, suddenly becoming viral and risen to new popularity.
In 2021 the song went further viral on social media TikTok, thanks to its use for a trend that has collected over 250 million wievs, started from Latin countries and South America, and then depopulated also in Italy and Germany.