Connie Francis, the legendary Italian American pop singer known for hits like Stupid Cupid, Who’s Sorry Now?, and Pretty Little Baby, has died at the age of 87 after being hospitalized earlier in the month for what she described as “extreme pain”, possibly related to hip surgery.
Her longtime friend and label president, Ron Roberts, confirmed the news on Facebook, saying: “It is with a heavy heart and extreme sadness that I inform you of the passing of my dear friend Connie Francis last night. I know that Connie would approve that her fans are among the first to learn of this sad news.”
Francis was one of the most commercially successful female vocalists of the 20th century, selling over 200 million records worldwide. Her song Pretty Little Baby recently went viral on TikTok, introducing her music to a new generation.
Connie Francis was deeply rooted in her Italian-American heritage, and it shaped both her identity and her music career. Born Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero in Newark, New Jersey, she grew up in the Ironbound neighborhood, a historically Italian enclave. Her parents, George Franconero and Ida Ferrari-di Vito, were of Calabrian descent, with family ties to San Giovanni di Gerace in southern Italy.
Connie Francis honored her heritage with the 1959 album Connie Francis Sings Italian Favorites, recorded at Abbey Road Studios. It became her most successful album, staying on the charts for 81 weeks and peaking at No. 4. The single “Mama” from that album reached No. 8 in the U.S. and No. 2 in the U.K., resonating with Italian American families everywhere. However, she didn’t stop at Italian—Francis recorded in nine languages, including Spanish, German, Hebrew, and Yiddish, reflecting the multicultural neighborhoods she grew up in and her broad international appeal.
She famously said, however, “Singing in Italian was my way of saying thank you to the culture that shaped me.” In 1965, Connie Francis participated in that year’s edition of the annual Sanremo Festival, where her team partner Gigliola Cinquetti and she presented “Ho bisogno di vederti”, which finished on number 5 of the final ranking.
Connie Francis’s movie career was brief but memorable, closely tied to her success as a pop singer in the early 1960s. While she never aspired to be an actress, MGM capitalized on her fame by casting her in a series of musical films that showcased her voice and wholesome image.
Her life was marred by two tragedies. While staying at a Howard Johnson’s Lodge in Long Island after performing at the Westbury Music Fair, Francis was raped at knifepoint by an intruder who bound her and nearly suffocated her under a mattress. The assailant was never caught.
Her brother, George Franconero Jr. with whom she was very close, was shot in the head outside his New Jersey home in 1981 by two gunmen believed to be connected to organized crime. George had cooperated with federal investigations into mob infiltration of union dental plans and bank fraud schemes, and had declined witness protection. His murder was widely viewed as a mafia hit, though prosecutors stopped short of officially labeling it as such.
Francis underwent years of therapy as a result of these traumas but continued to perform until 2018, after six decades of a thriving career.
