The Felicità that Al Bano and Romina Power sang so much turned into real 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 firstborn. He was lost on December 31, 1993, and on January 6, Epiphany, the police officially declared him missing.
The two singers, who surpassed the figure of 25 million records sold with their famous song, ended up separating in 1999 and divorcing in 2012. The different ways of dealing with the absence of their daughter gradually eroded a relationship which had begun in 1967, when they agreed on the filming of the film Nel Sole. Tyrone Power's daughter was just 16, and the singer, 24. It was love at first sight and they became an idyllic couple with millions of fans celebrating 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 that brought together more than 30,000 people in the small native town of Al Bano, Cellino San Marco, their breakup caused commotion among their followers. And more, because of 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 his father, a court in Brindisi officially declared his death almost twenty years after searches. The singer, who has sold more than 165 million records, always believed the statement of the only witness who officially testified in the investigation, a New Orleans port watchman, who said he saw a young woman jump into the Mississippi blonde that fit Ylenia's description. This same year, in an interview he gave to Corriere della Sera coinciding with his 80th birthday, the singer spoke like 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 could not stay there. But Ylenia said to her: 'I belong to the waters', and she dived into the river... She used to say that phrase as a child before jumping in to swim. And the Mississippi is unforgiving. Romina never wanted to accept it. But it was like that."
In this regard, just a month ago the artist published the following appeal on his Instagram on the day that Ylenia would have turned 53: "Anyone with any information about her, please contact me". And next to a photograph of the couple with their newborn daughter, he sent her the following message: "I will always be waiting for you to come back." Romina continues to search and has been attentive to the different theories that have followed each other over the course of these long thirty years. It was first thought that street musician Alexander Masakela, twenty years older than Yleina and with whom she was supposed to be in a relationship in New Orleans, may have killed her. He was even arrested, but released for 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 came to declare that he had killed her after picking her up with his truck in Tampa, ca Las Vegas. But it could not be proved that this was the case. The German weekly Freizet Reuve published in 2011 that Ylenia was living in a convent in the United States. The information could not be verified either. Even the Spanish journalist Lydia Lozano went so far as to assure that Ylenia was alive and that she had evidence, which angered Al Bano. Recently, in 2019, an Italian photographer claimed to have seen her in the city of Venice.
Romina maintains hope from the United States, where she moved to live after the separation. Al Bano began a relationship with the singer and presenter Loredana Lecciso in 2000, with whom he had two children and from whom he separated in 2018. The close relationship maintained by Romina and Al Bano, who sang together again in 2013 , could be behind the breakup. And there are loves that never die, even if pain has separated them irreparably.
