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.