Cinquetti was born in Verona. At the age of 16 she won the Sanremo Music Festival in 1964 singing “Non ho l’età” (“I’m Not Old Enough”), with music composed by Nicola Salerno and lyrics by Mario Panzeri. Her win enabled her to represent Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 1964 in Copenhagen with the same song, where she claimed her country’s first ever victory in the event. Cinquetti became the youngest winner of the contest to date, aged 16 years and 92 days. Only one younger artist has triumphed since; Sandra Kim in 1986.

The song became an international success, even spending 17 weeks in the UK Singles Chart and ending the year as the 88th best-selling single in the U.K. in 1964, something highly unusual for Italian-language material. It sold over three million copies, and was awarded a platinum disc in August 1964. In 1966, she recorded “Dio, come ti amo” (“God, How I Love You”), which became another international hit.

In 1974, Cinquetti took part in the Eurovision Song Contest again, this time held in Brighton, Sussex, United Kingdom. Her song was called “Sì” (which translates as ‘yes’ in English, and which became quite controversial in Italy at the time, with a referendum on the legalisation of divorce in the offing, because of the title), and came second to Swedish foursome ABBA with their song “Waterloo”.

An English-language version of the song, “Go (Before You Break My Heart)”, reached number 8 in the UK Singles Chart in June 1974.

One of her other songs, “Alle Porte del Sole” (released in 1973), was re-recorded in English (as “Door of the Sun”) and Italian by Al Martino, two years after its initial release, and reached No. 17 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in the United States. Cinquetti’s own English version of the song was released as a single by CBS Records in August 1974, with her original 1973 Italian version on the B-side.