Willy Alberti

Willy Alberti (14 October 1926 – 18 February 1985), born Carel Verbrugge, was a Dutch singer, who sang in Dutch and Italian. He was also an actor and a radio and TV personality. Alberti was born in Amsterdam as the third of eight children to Jacobus Wilhelm Verbrugge and Sophia Jacoba van Musscher. He sang with family members at a very young age. He began recording professionally in the early 1940s. In 1944 he married Ria Kuiper and his daughter Willeke Alberti, later to become a successful Dutch vocalist herself, was born in 1945. After the war Alberti established himself in the Netherlands with Italian songs; he became increasingly popular in the 1950s, when he had a string of hits beginning with Nel blu dipinto di blu in 1958. In the 1960s he began to act alongside his daughter Willeke; as a duo, they also scored hits on the Dutch charts. From 1965 father and daughter presented a popular monthly television show for the AVRO. Alberti won two Edison Awards in the 1960s. In the 1970s Alberti's fame began to decline, though he did score a few hits. In 1984 Alberti was diagnosed with liver cancer, and died in Amsterdam on 18 February the following year. He was cremated at the Westgaarde Crematorium in Amsterdam. In 1998, a Willy Alberti museum was established; it quickly closed due to lack of interest.