Umberto Tozzi
Encyclopedia
Umberto Antonio Tozzi is an Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

/rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 singer and composer, born in Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...

. His most internationally famous song is "Gloria"

Biography

In 1968, at the age of 16, Umberto Tozzi joined 'Off Sound', one of the many groups that performed in small venues around Turin. In Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

, he met Adriano Pappalardo, with whom he formed a 13-piece band and began a large-scale Italian tour.

At only 22 (in 1974) Tozzi had his first success as a songwriter, with the song "Un corpo, un'anima" (lit. "One Body, One Soul"), co-written with Damiano Dattoli and performed by Wess
Wess
Wesley Johnson aka Wess was an American-born Italian singer perhaps mostly known for representing Italy along with Dori Ghezzi in the Eurovision Song Contest 1975 in Stockholm, Sweden, placing 3rd...

 and Dori Ghezzi
Dori Ghezzi
Dori Ghezzi is an Italian singer who was active as a recording artist between 1966 and 1989. In the 1970s, Ghezzi worked mainly in a duo with American singer Wess, and the couple represented Italy in the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest....

. It appeared on Canzonissima, an Italian music programme running from 1956-1974.

In 1976, he released his first album, Donna amante mia ("My loving woman"), from which came the single "Io camminerò" ("I Will Walk") which at the time had been sung with great success by Fausto Leali. In 1977 one of Tozzi's most famous songs was released- "Ti amo
Ti amo
"Ti amo" is a 1977 song recorded by Italian singer Umberto Tozzi from the album È nell'aria...ti amo. It achieved success at the time, becoming a hit in many European countries, including Sweden and Switzerland where it topped the charts. A Spanish version was released as "Te Amo", and had a good...

".It stayed at number one on the Italian charts for seven months, outselling every other record, and went on to become an international success throughout continental Europe. It also made some inroads in the Americas and Australia, primarily in discotheques. The single was awarded a gold record award in Australia, despite the fact that it only made number 25 on the charts there in late 1979 (source: Kent Music Report
Kent Music Report
The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to 1998...

, 1980). By late 1980 he releases "Stella Stai" originally vocaled in Italian and a year later in 1981 Puerto Rican
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

 youth group Menudo
Menudo (band)
Menudo was a Puerto Rican boy band that was formed in the 1970s by producer Edgardo Díaz, releasing their first album in 1977. The band achieved much success, especially during the 1980s, becoming the most popular Latin American teen musical group of the era....

 release a Spanish vocaled version re-titled as "Claridad" (Clarity). The Spanish version was also composed by Tozzi himself only that Menudo's version topped elsewhere throughout Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages  – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...

. 1978 saw the release of Tu, another hit in Italy.
The following year Tozzi recorded perhaps his most famous song, "Gloria". It was a huge success in Italy in 1979 and 1980. The cover version by American singer Laura Branigan
Laura Branigan
Laura Ann Branigan was an American singer-songwriter and actress of Italian and Irish ancestry. She is best known in the United States for her 1982 Platinum-certified hit "Gloria" and in Europe for the number-one single "Self Control"...

 first brought Tozzi's name to attention in the USA in 1982. Branigan worked with the arranger and keyboardist of Tozzi's own version, Greg Mathieson, who co-produced her version with Jack White, to give the song what she called "an American kick." The song reached the top of the charts, going gold and platinum in several countries and lasting on the US pop charts for 36 weeks.

Branigan's vocal performance of "Gloria" was nominated for a Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female Grammy Award (alongside Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden...

, Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE is a singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA...

, Juice Newton
Juice Newton
Judith Kay "Juice" Newton is an American Pop music and Country singer, songwriter and guitarist...

, and that year's winner, Melissa Manchester
Melissa Manchester
Melissa Manchester is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Beginning in the 1970s, she has recorded generally in the adult contemporary genre. She has also appeared as an actress on television, in films, and on stage....

); "Gloria" marked Branigan's only solo nomination
Nomination
Nomination is part of the process of selecting a candidate for either election to an office, or the bestowing of an honor or award.In the context of elections for public office, a candidate who has been selected by a political party is normally said to be the nominee of that party...

. She would go on to record two more Tozzi compositions, "Mama", and "Ti amo", her version of which went top 5 in Canada and Australia two years after "Gloria".

The early years of the 1980s saw the release of the album Tozzi, recorded in concert with a band of American musicians - his first live record.

After a period of absence from the music scene, the idea came together for another collaboration, and in 1987 won the Sanremo Music Festival with the song "Si può dare di più" ("More can be given"), sung with Gianni Morandi
Gianni Morandi
Gianni Morandi is an Italian pop singer and entertainer.He made his debut in 1962 and quickly placed high at or won a number of Italian popular song festivals, including the Canzonissima festival in 1969. In 1970, he represented Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest with "Occhi di ragazza"...

 and Enrico Ruggeri
Enrico Ruggeri
Enrico Ruggeri is an Italian rock singer-songwriter.-Biography:A native of Milan, Ruggeri made his debut in the 1970s with the punk band Decibel...

. 1987 was also the year of "Gente Di Mare
Gente Di Mare
"Gente di mare" was the Italian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1987, performed in Italian by Umberto Tozzi & Raf.The song is a blues-influenced ballad, in which the singers describe the qualities of the "people of the sea"...

'"("People of the sea"), performed with Raf
Raffaele Riefoli
Raffaele Riefoli is an Italian popular singer who is better known as simply Raf.-Biography:...

 at Eurovision
Eurovision Song Contest 1987
The Eurovision Song Contest 1987 was the 32nd Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 9 May 1987 in Brussels, Belgium after Sandra Kim's win the previous year. The presenter was Viktor Lazlo. Johnny Logan was the winner for Ireland with the song "Hold Me Now"...

 which saw them take third place. 1988 saw the release of his second live album, The Royal Albert Hall.

In the 1990s, Tozzi continued to record, resulting in songs such as "Gli altri siamo noi" ("We are the others") which English version is titled "We are all the same", the album Equivocando ("Misunderstanding"), Il grido ("The outcry") and Aria e cielo ("Air and sky"). He also released a greatest hits
Greatest hits
A greatest hits album is a music compilation album of successful, previously released songs by a particular artist or band...

 compilation, Le mie canzoni ("My songs").

In 2000 and 2005, he performed at the Sanremo Music Festival with "Un'altra vita" ("A different life") and "Le Parole" ("The words"). Between the two participations, he released a duet with French singer Lena Ka of his classic "Ti amo" as "Ti amo (Rien que des mots)". Tozzi also released another greatest hits compilation, a 2-disc set entitled The best of, and another single, "E non volo".

Umberto Tozzi remains one of the most popular Italian singers abroad, and in the course of his career has sold more than 45 million records.

Discography

  • Donna amante mia (1976)
  • È nell'aria ... ti amo (1977)
  • Tu (1978)
  • Gloria (1979)
  • Tozzi (1980)
  • In concerto (1980 - Live)
  • Notte rosa (1981)
  • Eva (1982)
  • Hurrah (1984)
  • Minuti di un'eternità (1987 - Greatest hits)
  • Invisibile (1987)
  • The Royal Albert Hall (1988 - Live)
  • Gli altri siamo noi (1991)
  • Le mie canzoni (1991 - Greatest hits)
  • Equivocando (1994)
  • Il grido (1996)
  • Aria e cielo (1997)
  • Bagaglio a mano (1999 - Greatest hits)
  • Un'altra vita (2000)
  • The best of (2002 - Greatest hits)
  • Le parole (2005)
  • Heterogene (2006)
  • Tozzi Masini (2006)
  • Non Solo Live (2009)
  • Superstar (2009)

External links

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