Eros Luciano Walter Ramazzotti
(born on October 28, 1963), known simply as Eros Ramazzotti
, is an Italian singer and songwriter. [1] Ramazzotti, who is one of the most popular artists in Italy is well known not only in most non English-speaking European countries but also in most of the Spanish-speaking world as he has released most of his albums in both Italian and Spanish. [2]
Since 1984, he has released 11 studio albums, one EP, two compilation albums, two live albums as well as 35 singles, all of which have charted noticeably high in many European countries as well as in South and Central America. Ramazzotti has sold over 40 million records in his 25-year career. [3] The Italian star has done duets with several prestigious artists such as Cher, Tina Turner, Andrea Bocelli, Patsy Kensit, Anastacia, Joe Cocker, Luciano Pavarotti, Laura Pausini, and Ricky Martin.
Ramazzotti first gained international success in 1993, after the release of his Tutte storie
, with which he managed to occupy the top five in every country wherein he had his previous albums released. After amassing six million in album sales of Tutte storie
, in 1994, he got a record contract with BMG International. His success greatly lies beneath his unique voice which could be described as somewhat nasal but yet a bit aggressive at the same time and he always delivers catchy, melodic tunes throughout the refrains of his songs which are passionate autobiographical ballads often rich in soft-rock influence. [4]
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EROS RAMAZZOTTI TICKETS
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Biography
Childhood and early beginnings
Eros Ramazzotti was born on October 28, 1963 in
Cinecittà, suburb of
Rome,
Italy. Ramazzotti, the son of a housepainter, who was named after the Greek god of love, started to play the guitar at age of seven.
[5] At an early age he would occasionally appear as an extra in films while spending most of his time dreaming of having a career as a pop-star.
[6] While still a teenager, he would write songs with help from his father Rodolfo. Later he decided to attend a musical conservatory but instead ended up taking a training program for a book-keeper, after failing the admission examination.
Ramazzotti first took part in 1981 in a music contest called Voci Nuove di Castrocaro (new voices of
Castrocaro Terme) with the song "Rock 80" (written by himself) in front of various record label representatives.
Even though, the contest was won by
Zucchero and Fiordaliso, Ramazzotti managed to reach the final and received two votes from Roberto Galanti and Baron Lando Lanni who represented the newly born label
DDD. Soon Eros received his first contract with DDD and moved to
Milan with his brother Marco and his mother Raffaella where they, in the beginning, lived in the same building where the record label was located.
1982–1986: Career breakthrough
Ramazzotti's first single "Ad un amico" (To a Friend) appeared in
1982 which, however, was not successful.
[7] Soon after Eros met his mentor Renato Brioschi,
who helped the young artist find his first success as in
1984 he took part at highly-regarded
Sanremo Festival with his song "Terra promessa" (Promised Land), winning the competition for the category "Newcomers".
[8] The song was then released Europe-wide.
In
1985, once again Ramazzotti took part at the Sanremo Festival with his "Una storia importante" (An Important Story), a song from his debut album
Cuori agitati
(Troubled Hearts), which reached the number six place at the festival. The single "Una storia importante" became a huge hit in many
European countries including
France where it sold a million units alone.
His second album
Nuovi eroi
(New Heroes) was released in
1986. And for the third time in a row, Ramazzotti ended up at Sanremo Festival where he performed one of his most memorable singles, "Adesso tu" (Now You) from
Nuovi eroi
, which Ramazzotti won the overall competition with.
1987–1994: Popularity established
In
1987 Ramazzotti went on a nine-month long tour after releasing his third album
In certi momenti
(Sometimes), performing in front of more than a million people.
In certi momenti
sold more than 3 million copies.
He later performed La Luce Buona Delle Stelle (which translates to The Good Light Of The Stars) with Patsy kensit on November 22nd 1987.
A year thereafter, in May 1988, he released a seven-track mini-album
Musica è
(Music is).
The fifth album, entitled
In ogni senso
(In Every Sense), released in April 1990, attracted more than two hundred journalists from around the world who attended the press conference of the album's presentation in
Venice.
An
American record producer
Clive Davis advised him to hold a concert at the
Radio City Music Hall in
New York City, which Ramazzotti eventually did.
Ramazzotti was the first
Italian artist to perform at the renowned concert hall before a sell-out crowd. However, the Italian singer later was disappointed to learn that most of his audience was of an Italian descent.
While in the USA during that period, Ramazzotti made other performances on TV shows like
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and
Good Morning America.
His 1991 double CD release Eros in Concert was followed by another long tour including the concert Ramazzotti gave before 20 thousand fans on December 4 of that year in Barcelona, Spain, which took place on the day of his live CD's release.
Ramazzotti released a series of albums in quick succession consisting of ballads with soft instrumentation as well as mid-tempo soft-rock ballads which launched him both domestically and internationally. Eros has recorded most of his albums in
Spanish as well as in
Italian).
In
1993 he released
Tutte storie
(All Stories), and he toured in Europe and 15
Latin American countries (where he has been releasing his albums in
Spanish). In November of the same year, Ramazzotti performed his "Cose della vita" (Things of Life) at
MTV Europe Music Awards in
Berlin. The album
Tutte storie
entered the Top-5 in many countries in Europe including Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, The Netherlands, Sweden and Norway
[9] . The album eventually sold 6 million copies worldwide which played a significant role in helping Ramazzotti get his contract with BMG International.
1995–2000: Worldwide commercial success
In the summer of 1995 Ramazzotti participated in the European summer festival along with
Rod Stewart,
Elton John and
Joe Cocker. A year thereafter, on May 13, 1996, his seven million seller-album
Dove c'è musica
(Where There is Music) was released,
which happened to be the first album completely self-produced by Eros.
On December 5 of the same year his then wife
Michelle Hunziker (
Swiss model and television host) gave birth to their daughter Aurora Sophie.
In October 1997 Ramazzotti's
Eros – Greatest Hits
CD appeared, containing two unreleased tracks up to now "Quanto amore sei" (How Much Love Are You) and "Ancora un minuto di sole" (Just One More Minute of Sunshine) as well as several previous hits in a reworked format including "Musica è" (duet with
Andrea Bocelli) and "Cose della vita-Can’t Stop Thinking of You" (duet with
Tina Turner). While the collection of his hits entered the Top-5 in France, Belgium, Sweden and Finland, it managed to peak at number one position in countries like Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, The Netherlands and Norway.
[10] [11] [12]
The album went on selling well over five million units in Europe alone as well as over 2.5 million in USA.
[13] Also in that the same year, the Italian singer was awarded at Germany's
Echo Music Awards in the category of "Best International Male Artist of the Year".
[14]
In 1998 he released the live CD
Eros Live
, which included the two duets recorded during the world tour "Cose della vita-Can’t Stop Thinking of You" featuring Tina Turner and "That's All I Need to Know-Difenderò" with
Joe Cocker performed in
Munich. In 1999, Ramazzotti collaborated again with Italian superstar
Andrea Bocelli, this time for his album
Sogno
(Dream), singing "Nel Cuore Lei" (In Your Heart). The album went on to sell over 10 million albums worldwide, giving more recognition to Ramazzotti. In 1999, he was once again awarded at Germany's
Echo Music Awards, again for being "The Best International Male Artist of the Year".
[15] Throughout his career, Ramazzotti has done duets with some very well-known artists such as
Cher,
Andrea Bocelli,
Joe Cocker,
Carlos Santana,
Tina Turner,
Anastacia,
Luciano Pavarotti, and
Laura Pausini.
Ramazzotti gained reputation of a recognized producer when he produced the album
Come fa bene l’amore
(As Good Love) for
Gianni Morandi in the beginning of 2000.
In the October of the same year his eighth studio album
Stilelibero
(Freestyle) saw light, which contained a duet with the
American diva Cher in the song "
Più che puoi" (More Than Cars). The album, which was a result of a collaboration of producers such as
Celso Valli,
Claudio Guidetti,
Trevor Horn and
Rick Nowels, reached the Top-5 album charts throughout Europe and sold well over 2 million untis in Europe alone.
[16] [17] In the course of the international tour for
Stilelibero
, Ramazzotti also appeared in
eastern European countries including
Moscow,
Russia where he gave three-day sold out concerts at
Kremlin Palace.
2003–Forward
On May 30, 2003, Ramazzotti released his ninth studio album which was also entitled
9
. The first single "Un’Emozione Per Sempre" (An Emotion Forever) was released on May 9 which quickly climbed all the way to the top and stayed at no. 1 position in
Italy's official single chart for 14 consecutive weeks.
The album produced along with
Claudio Guidetti and Eros’s longtime musical friend
Celso Valli stayed at the no. 1 position for nine weeks in
Italy's official album chart.
9
went on selling 3.5 million copies, 1.1 million of which were sold in
Italy alone.
He began his world tour in
Ancona,
Italy which was set to have 100 dates in front of audiences of up to one million audience people (56 dates of which were done in Europe in front of 550,000 people).
On October 28, 2005, Ramazzotti's 10th album
Calma Apparente
(Apparent Calm) was released on the day of his birthday, which he produced together with
Claudio Guidetti. The album
Calma Apparente
, which sold one million copies in a period of one month in Europe,
[18] contains the duet hit single "
I Belong to You" with American singer
Anastacia, the single went number one in many countries.
[19] Eros is especially popular in
Germany,
Switzerland,
Austria,
France,
Chile,
Bolivia,
Peru,
Argentina,
Venezuela, and most
Spanish-speaking countries.
During his 25 year career he has sold over 40 million records worldwide.
After more than ten years from Ramazzotti's last compilation album
Eros
which has sold well over 7.5 million copies worldwide and has reached no. 1 in many countries including
Germany's
Media Control album chart,
Ramazzotti released a new double CD compilation album
e²
on October 26, 2007, which contains 4 new tracks and 14 original songs in a remastered format on the first CD and 17 tracks on the second CD all redone featuring artists like
Carlos Santana,
Wyclef Jean,
Steve Vai,
Jon Spencer. Among the four unreleased pieces on the
e²
album, there is a new international duet "Non Siamo Soli" (We're Not Alone) which Eros sings along with Latin pop star
Ricky Martin. This is the first single off the album which was available for sale on October 5, 2007. The single available both in
Italian and
Spanish is written by Ramazzotti and his longtime songwriting partner
Claudio Guidetti.
[20]
Ramazzotti's new 11 track material called
Ali e radici
(Wings and Roots), which was released on May 22, 2009, is produced by Eros himeself as well as his long time musical partner Claudio Guidetti; in addition, six tracks on the album are co-produced by Michele Canova who has previously worked with artists such as
Laura Pausini,
Tiziano Ferro and
Jovanotti.
[21] The first single "
Parla Con Me" (Talk to Me), released on May 17, 2009, off his 11th studio album, is a catchy pop song which has already peaked at number 1 in Italy and number 11 in Switzerland. His new album which is available in a standard edition as well as in a deluxe edition (the latter includes 64-page booklet of photographs) has already entered the Top-5 in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, France, Sweden, whereas it peaked at number one in Italy and Switzerland.
[22]
Personal life
In his personal life Ramazzotti remains with only few good friends, mostly due to his suspicious personality.
[23] Ramazzotti had a poor childhood, he also recalls having a limited source of information at home about everything:
"Latin Lover Eros Ramazzotti"/>.
Ramazzotti recalls being extremely shy in the early 1980s before achieving fame:
"Latin Lover Eros Ramazzotti"/>.
Ramazzotti was married to
Swiss model/actress
Michelle Hunziker from 1998 to 2002, they have a daughter together Aurora born on December 5, 1996. He published a 320-page autobiography on April 13, 2006, co-written by Luca Bianchini.
[24]
Discography
Studio albums
- Cuori agitati
(Troubled Hearts) (1985)
- Nuovi eroi
(New Heroes) (1986)
- In certi momenti
(Sometimes) (1987)
- In ogni senso
(In Every Sense) (1990)
- Tutte storie
(All Stories), (1993)
- Dove c'è musica
(Where There is Music) (1996)
- Stilelibero
(Freestyle) (2000)
- 9
(2003)
- Calma apparente
(Apparent Calm) (2005)
- Ali e radici
(Wings and Roots) (2009)
Live albums
- Eros in Concert
(1991)
- Eros Live
(1998)
Compilation albums
Extended plays
- Musica è
(Music Is) (1988)
References
- Starporträt:Eros Ramazzotti
- Biography: Eros Ramazzotti on Who's Who
- Biography: Eros Ramazzotti on Sony Music Germany
- Eros Ramazzotti Italian pop Idol
- Eros Ramazzotti's biography on Britannica
- Biography:Eros Ramazzotti on Sony Music Switzerland
- Biography: Eros Ramazzotti on Chart King.de
- Eros Ramazzotti on Muenchen.de
- Eros Ramazzotti- TUTTE STORIE
- Gli album più venduti del 1997
- Eros Ramazzotti-Eros
- [1].''charts-surfer.de''
- &artist=eros%20ramazzotti&format=&debutLP=&category=&sex=&releaseDate=&requestNo=&type=&level=&label=&company=&certificationDate=&awardDescription=&catalogNo=&aSex=&rec_id=&charField=&gold=&platinum=&multiPlat=&level2=&certDate=&album=&id=&after=&before=&startMonth=1&endMonth=1&startYear=1958&endYear=2009&sort=Artist&perPage=25
- Die Preisträger des Jahres 1997 (Winners of 1997)
- Die Preisträger des Jahres 1999 (Winners of 1999)
- Ramazzotti stays true to Italian roots on 'Stile Libero'
- European Certifications 2000
- November 2005 - Platinum Europe Awards
- Anastacia und Eros Ramazzotti stürmen die Charts
- e² the new best of Eros Ramazzotti
- Biography: Eros Ramazzotti German Official Site
- Eros Ramazzotti-Ali e radici
- Latin Lover Eros Ramazzotti
- Eros: Lo giuro