The Felicità that Al Bano and Romina Power sang so much became a true hell thirty years ago. The media couple, considered an example of conjugal love, did not overcome the pain and despair caused by the disappearance of their eldest daughter Ylenia in New Orleans when they had been married for 23 years, the same as their first-born daughter. She was lost on December 31, 1993, and on January 6, Three Kings Day, the police officially declared her missing.

The two singers, who surpassed the figure of 25 million records sold with their famous song, ended up separated in 1999 and divorced in 2012. The different ways of facing their daughter’s absence eroded a relationship that had begun in 1967, when They coincided in the filming of the film Nel Sole. Tyrone Power’s daughter was only 16 years old, and the singer was 24. It was love at first sight and they became an idyllic couple with millions of followers who celebrated both their films and their songs.

As a result of their love, three more children were born: Yari Marco (1973), Cristel Chiara (1985) and Romina Iolanda (1987). If their wedding was quite an event, gathering more than 30,000 people in Al Bano’s small hometown, Cellino San Marco, their breakup caused shock among his followers. And more so, due to the tragic reason that caused it.

Different theories have surrounded Ylenia’s mysterious disappearance, from kidnapping or murder to escape or suicide. The truth is that, at the request of her father, a court in Brindisi officially declared her death almost twenty years after searching. The singer, who has sold more than 165 million records, always believed the statement of the only witness who testified officially in the investigation, a watchman at the port of New Orleans, who claimed that he saw a young blonde who fit the image jump into the Mississippi. description of Ylenia.

This same year, in an interview he gave to Corriere della Sera coinciding with his 80th anniversary, the singer spoke as never before about the case and assured that he himself went to question the security agent. “She was sitting by the river, he warned her that she couldn’t stay there. But Ylenia told her: ‘I belong to the waters’, and she dove into the river… She used to say that phrase as a child before going swimming. And the Mississippi does not forgive. Romina never wanted to accept it. But it was like that.”

In this sense, just a month ago the artist published the following appeal on her Instagram on the day Ylenia would have turned 53: “Anyone with any information about her, please contact me.” And along with a photograph of the couple with her newborn daughter, she sent him the following message: “I will always be waiting for your return.” Romina continues searching and has been attentive to the different theories that have arisen throughout these long thirty years.

It was first thought that street musician Alexander Masakela, twenty years older than Yleina and with whom she was supposedly in a relationship in New Orleans, may have murdered her. He was even arrested, but released due to lack of evidence. Other theories would come later, such as that she had been the eighth victim of Keith Hunter Jesperson, known as the happy face killer. He even stated that he had killed her after picking her up with her truck in Tampa on the way to Las Vegas. But it could not be proven that this was the case.

The German weekly Freizet Reuve published in 2011 that Ylenia lived in a convent in the United States. The information could not be verified either. Even the Spanish journalist Lydia Lozano came to assure that Ylenia was alive and that she had evidence, which provoked the anger of Al Bano. Recently, in 2019, an Italian photographer claimed that he saw her in Venice.

Romina maintains hope from the United States, where she moved to live after the separation. In 2000, Al Bano began a relationship with the singer and presenter Loredana Lecciso, with whom he had two children and from whom he separated in 2018. The close relationship between Romina and Al Bano, who sang together again in 2013, could be behind the breakup. And there are loves that never die, even though pain has irremediably separated them.