Belgian singer Claude Barzotti, author of slow songs and hits from the 1980s like “Le Rital” or “Aime Moi”, has died of cancer at his home, his manager announced to AFP on Saturday.
The slightly hoarse-voiced singer-songwriter “died in his bed at the age of 69 surrounded by his two daughters” in a town between Brussels and Charleroi in Belgium, according to Laurent Comtat.
“Barzotti preferred to be described as a singer of emotions than as a romantic. “He was a lively skinned, really sensitive person who drank to fight his stage fright,” he said.
“I am Rital and I will remain so”, Barzotti also sang in one of his hits “Le Rital”, where the man who was born near Charleroi on July 23, 1953 recalled his origins. His father was an Italian miner.