Departures of note

Antoine Ciosi was a Corsican singer who became known as the patriarch of Corsican variety music, carrying the island's song tradition to audiences for more than fifty years. Born into a farming family in Sorbo-Ocagnano, Haute-Corse, he began his career after working as a chorister for Tino Rossi at the Théâtre Mogador, and won the first prize at the first Corsican song contest at the Olympia in Paris in 1963. In the 1970s, at the height of the island's cultural revival, he created the first audiovisual show devoted to Corsican traditions at the Palais de Chaillot and recorded songs written by the Vincenti brothers, including U Tragulinu, along with well-known titles such as Le Prisonnier and Le Dernier des bandits, sung in Corsican and French. He also recorded covers including Tino Rossi's Ô Corse, île d'amour. His 2020 album Duetti paired him with a younger generation of Corsican singers, and he made his farewell Paris appearance at the Folies Bergère in 2017. He was named a Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur in 2001 and made an honorary citizen of Marseille in 2018, and also published autobiographical works including Une odeur de figuier sauvage. He died at Corbara, Haute-Corse, on 4 October 2026 at the age of 94.