Constantino Rossi was born on 29 April 1907 in Ajaccio, Corsica. His parents, Eugénie and Laurent, had eight children so Constantino - known as Tintin then later Tino - spent most of his childhood growing up with three brothers and four sisters. Constantino's father worked as a tailor and fervently hoped that young Tino would go on to run the family business one day. But Tino had other things on his mind. A passionate music fan from an early age, young Tino soon went on to put his exceptional voice to good use singing in the local church choir.

In his late teens Tino went off to live on the French Riviera, where he enjoyed great success performing at amateur singing contests. Meanwhile, he earned a living working for a mortgage company in Nice. Tino soon went on to marry a young violinist by the name of Annie and the couple had a daughter, Pierrette. The marriage did not last long, however, and Tino soon moved back to Corsica where his parents got him a job working as a money changer in Ajaccio Casino.

Tino was still gripped by the music bug, however, and before long he was making his way back across the Mediterranean to try his luck in Marseilles. After spending several months meandering along the coast between Marseilles and Aix-en-Provence, he finally landed a job in Aix Casino, working as a money changer. It was at this stage of his life, around 1929, that Tino got his first major break. A local tour manager by the name of P'tit Louis happened to see Tino performing in concert one night. And, greatly impressed by the singer's vocal talent, his natural stage charisma and his winning ways with female fans, promptly signed him up to do a series of galas in the region.

Tino's fame rapidly spread beyond the South and a talent scout from Parlophone Records soon invited the young singer up to Paris to make his first recording. Tino went into Parlophone's Paris studio in 1932 and released a debut 78rpm, featuring "O Ciuciarella" and "Ninni Nanna", a few months later. The record failed to make any great commercial impact, but Tino's interlude in Paris helped increase his popularity on the South Coast and he soon scored a spot at the Alcazar in Marseilles (a venue renowned as a vital launchpad for new talents in the South of France). After bringing the house down at the Alcazar, Tino went on to perform a series of concerts with Berthe Sylva (the French diva who rocketed to fame with "Roses blanches").

In 1933 Columbia offered Tino a major recording contract. With his Rudolph Valentino-style looks and his languorous velvet-soft vocals, Tino made the perfect 30s heartthrob and he made quite a few appearances on the silver screen. But it was in the music hall that Tino found real stardom. He performed at the legendary ABC in 1934 and when Henri Varna, director of the Casino de Paris, created his famous revue "La Parade de France" (a show based on regional music), Tino was the obvious choice to represent Corsica. Choosing to perform a series of songs written by the Provençal author Vincent Scotto, Tino brought the house down when he performed at the première on 14 October 1934, receiving a rousing standing ovation from the audience. Tino's return to his Corsican roots proved highly popular with French audiences and his success in "La Parade de France" was swiftly followed by tours with Gilles et Julien and the famous 30s diva Damia.

The following year Tino played a major role in the Casino de Paris's new revue "Tout Paris chante". In fact, by this stage of his career, offers to perform in leading reviews and musicals were literally flooding in. There was no doubt about it, by the mid-30s Tino Rossi had become a headlining star and it came as no surprise to anyone when he sold a staggering 500,000 copies of his hit "Adieu Hawaï". As radio sets invaded French homes throughout the 30s, bringing singers into direct contact with national audiences, Tino's record sales increased hand in hand with his fame.

Tino's dark good looks also made him a natural on the silver screen and he quickly progressed from walk-on parts to romantic male leads. In 1936 Tino went on to star in Pierre Caron's "Marinella", a musical film which was written specifically for him. Needless to say, the theme song from the film proved a great hit and in 1937 Tino scored another huge hit with "Naples au baiser de feu", the theme song from Augusto Genina's film of the same name, in which he starred opposite Viviane Romance and Mireille Balin.

Tino proved to be just as great a lady's man off screen as on, and it was not long before his romance with co-star Mireille Balin hit the headlines. In 1938, amidst a blaze of media publicity, the couple climbed aboard the French liner Normandie and set sail for the United States. Tino's concert tour of the States and Canada proved a huge success and his single "Vieni Vieni" soon went rocketing to the top of the American charts - where it stayed for no less than 28 weeks!

By the late 30s, Tino was appearing in an increasing number of films (very few of which ranked among the cinema greats!) In fact, the films Tino made generally revolved around exactly the same scenario - romance, fun, sun and fantasy in the South of France - and appeared to be primarily designed to show off the singer's good looks. In 1941 Tino starred in Jean Delannoy's film "Fièvres" and later that same year went on to meet a young dancer by the name of Lilia Vetti, whom he married in 1947 (much to the disappointment of thousands of his female fans!)

The Second World War did not call a halt to Tino's career - far from it, in fact! Corsica's answer to Rudolph Valentino continued his successful run on the silver screen, making more movies than he recorded songs around this period. However, Tino did make a major impact on the French music scene in the post-war years with "Petit Papa Noël", a song he first performed in Richard Pottier's 1946 film "Destin". The song, written by Raymond Vinci and Henri Martinet, went on to become an absolute classic, children up and down the country adopting it as the ultimate Christmas favourite. In fact, "Petit Papa Noël" has become such a classic that it is re-released in France each Christmas - and over the last 50 years or so sales have exceeded 30 million!

In 1947, the year Tino got married to Lilia Vetti, the singer returned to Canada where he received a warm welcome from his female fans. The following year Tino made a comeback on the silver screen, playing the role of composer Franz Schubert in the Marcel Pagnol classic "la Belle meunière". His wife Lilia also appeared in the film and later that same year went on to give birth to a son called Laurent.

Between his hectic filming and touring schedule, Tino somehow managed to find time to flit in and out of the recording studio. In fact, over the years he built up an extensive repertoire, recording everything from romantic ballads, tangos and serenades to South American and Corsican classics.

In the 50s Tino branched out in a new direction, performing in popular operettas and, needless to say, before long he had become an absolute mega-star. Tino also continued his career on the silver screen, although he acted in less and less films and began to distance himself from his screen idol image. The highlight of his film career in the 50s was playing a gondolier in Sacha Guitry's 1954 classic "Si Versailles m'était conté" - a film starring the crème de la crème of the French cinema and music world.

Tino's operetta career really began to take off after his performance in "Méditerranée". Staged at the Théâtre du Châtelet in 1955, this southern-flavoured musical proved a huge hit with the public, running until 1957 when he followed this success with "Naples au Baiser de feu" at the Théâtre de Mogador. Tino would spend many months touring this new Mediterranean-style operetta in Europe, establishing himself as a (somewhat stereotyped) version of the Latin Lover from the French Riviera. Tino went on to triumph again in 1963 with "le Temps des guitares" at the ABC then returned to the Mogador three years later where he scored another huge hit with "le Marchand de soleil".

Having established himself as a major operetta star, Tino finally abandoned his film career. (He made his last screen appearance in 1970 in "l'Ane de Zigliara"). The singer remained a popular face on television, though, regularly appearing on French variety shows. Tino, who was by now in his 60s, did begin to cut down on his live concerts, however. But in 1976 he delighted fans by performing a special series of concerts in the Jean-Richard Big Top in the Tuileries Gardens in Paris.

At the age of 75 Tino soldiered back on stage at the Casino de Paris, celebrating 50 years in the music business with a series of farewell concerts. Tino's farewell concerts lasted a full three months - and each night the Casino de Paris was packed to full capacity! Tino actually went on to sign a new 5-year recording contract with Pathé Marconi, but shortly afterwards his career was cut short by cancer. He died in his apartment in Neuilly-sur-Seine (a chic suburb of Paris) on 26 September 1983.

In the course of his successful 50-year career, Tino Rossi established himself as the ultimate Corsican crooner, building up an extensive repertoire of love songs and romantic ballads. While he avoided all kind of political or social comment in his songs, Tino deserves his own special place in French chanson history - after all, recording some 1,000 songs and selling over 300 million records is one hell of an achievement!

February 2000