Love in Portofino

"Love in Portofino" is a 1958 song by Italian writing duo Chiosso-Buscaglione, first sung by the latter one. Picked up by French singer Dalida the next year, she recorded it with additional lyrics written by Jacques Larue. Her version achieved sales success in the European market, spawning dozens of covers. Embraced by musical intellectuals as masterpiece of Dalida's early repertoire of 1950s, it eventually became the symbolic song for Portofino, to which it is referring.

Background
Italian lyricist Leo Chiosso wrote the song in 1958. It was mostly in Italian, only the repeating verse "I found my love in Portofino" was in English. Song's composer Fred Buscaglione was the first one to record the song.

French lyricist Jacques Larue soon discovered the song and adapted it wholly in French, titled "A San Cristina". It was immediately recorded by a few French singers, with no success.

It was then when Eddie Barclay noticed the song and got it for Dalida. But in collaboration with Larue, the French part was rewritten and reduced to minimum, just as an addition to original Italian and English lyrics that were kept. "Love in Portofino" thus became a trilingual song, and under this version it became famous. It was recorded during Dalida's 1959 summer tour pause, under orchestra conduction of Raymond Lefèvre, and was published first on the EP (Barclay – 70 271). It was also featured as a title song of her end of year album.

Other recordings
Johnny Dorelli in 1959, Andrea Bocelli in 2013, and many more. Italian rapper Geolier sampled Dalida in the song Finchè non si muore, released on his third studio album Dio Lo Sa in June 2024.