Transnational 'Italian' Stardom: Lara Saint Paul and the Performativity of Race

This article aims to contribute to the debate about critical race studies in the Italian context - and especially in the 1960s and the 1970s - by focusing on the construction and negotiation of race in the career of the prominent Italian meticciasinger, television host and producer Silvana Areggasc Savorelli, also known as Tanya from 1960 to 1966 and Lara Saint Paul from 1967 onwards. Through an examination of Savorelli's career as a singer, television host and Italian diva, this article shows how the meanings of Savorelli's meticcio body have been constantly adapting to the shifting perceptions of blackness in Italy and other Western societies. Lara Saint Paul's media representations illustrate a change in the social construction of Italianness in terms of race from the early 1960s to the early 2000s.