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Italian-born Caterina Valente comes from one of Italy's most prestigious families of artists. Her mother Maria Valente was the most famous circus clown of her time, her brother Silvio Francesco (1927-2000) was also active in show business and made numerous recordings and performances together with Caterina. Caterina was already performing in the circus ring with her siblings at the age of five. Her extraordinary international career began in 1953 as a guest singer with the Kurt Edelhagen Orchestra. Her first record, Istanbul, reached the top 20 of the German charts. With her first No. 1 hit Ganz Paris träumt von der Liebe, Caterina Valente remained in the German charts for 36 weeks. The song sold half a million copies in Germany, which was unusually high for the time. Other top placings included Baiao Bongo (#2, 1955) and her second No. 1 hit Wo meine Sonne scheint (1957), followed by Tschau Tschau Bambina (#2, 1959) and her third No. 1 Ein Schiff wird kommen (1960). At the beginning of the 1960s, Caterina Valente achieved further top placings with Pepe (#3, 1961), Ein Seemannherz (#5, 1961), Quando, Quando (#9, 1962) and Rosen sind rot (#7, 1962).