Maria Carta

Biography

Maria Carta was a Sardinian folk music singer-songwriter who brought traditional music of her native island into wider popular awareness through her modernized and personal reinterpretations. She successfully showcased Sardinian folk music at national and international levels, including the Canzonissima in 1974, and performed in film and theatre, including roles in The Godfather Part II and Jesus of Nazareth. A winner of the Targo Tenco award for dialectal/regional music in 1985, she was also a prominent figure in Italian politics and received the "Knight of the Republic" honor from President Francesco Cossiga in 1991.