ADRIANO CELENTANO

Biography

Adriano Celentano: (6-Ene-1938, Italy)

Adriano Celentano: Born in Milan (1938) to parents from Italy’s Puglia region, Adriano Celentano first began his performing career as a comedian and impressionist in Milanese cabarets, then made his official singing debut at Milan’s ice-skating rink during the First Festival of Rock And Roll in 1957. After that, all it took was three or four singles to turn him into one of the most idolised (and often most criticised) stars of Italian pop music. Already well known as a rocker, he went on to perform highly original ballads drawing from the most diverse genres (soul, tango, waltz, shimmy).

From 1965 onwards he achieved similar success in the cinema, both as a director (“Super rapina a Milano”) and as an actor (Serafino, 1968, by P. Germi), revealing a unique comic vein accentuated by a sly look and a springy step that came to be his hallmark. During a career that has lasted some 40 years, he has collected a staggering number of record hits, but his acting career has been no less successful. He appeared in “The Sin (Bianco, rosso e…”) (1972) by A. Lattuada, “Rugantino” (1973), “Give Me Five (Qua la mano”) (1979), “Il bisbetico domato” (1980), and “Segni particolari: bellissimo” (1988), and he directed “Yuppi Du” (1975), “L’altra metà del cielo” (1976) and “Geppo il folle”. In the winter of 1987-1988, in response to his television popularity he accepted the job of hosting the Saturday evening variety show, “Fantastico 8”.

He proved immensely controversial, prompting entire pages in the daily papers. Most significantly, however, he drew record audience figures and recorded yet another successful album. Celentano will go down in the history of Italian music for many songs. Some, like “Azzurro”, “Una carezza in un pugno” and “Il ragazzo della via Gluck”, are small masterpieces. His most recent recordings include “La pubblica ottusità” (1989), “Il re degli ignoranti” (1991) and “Quel punto” (1994), although all his records continue to sell well, as do various anthologies such as the recent “Le origini di Adriano Celentano”.