Claudio Baglioni

Claudio Baglioni
Claudio Baglioni, 2006.
Background information
Born	(1951-05-16) 16 May 1951 (age 65)
Origin	Rome, Italy
Genres	Pop, pop rock, adult contemporary music
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter, composer, record producer, conductor
Years active	1969–present
Website	Claudio Baglioni official website

Claudio Baglioni (pronounced [ˈklaudjo baʎˈʎoːni]; born 16 May 1951) is an Italian pop singer-songwriter and musician. He is considered one of the greatest songwriters/singers ("cantautori") in Italy and one of the greatest figures in Italian musica leggera (pop music); his success spanned through several decades. His melodic and highly dramatic love ballads, especially from the 1970s era (such as "Questo piccolo grande amore", "E tu...", "Amore bello", "Sabato pomeriggio", "E tu come stai") are part of Italy's musical and national culture. His various works include the official Anthem for the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin. He has also written for previous sporting events.

His musical career began in 1965 when he entered a competition for new talents in the Rome district of Centocelle. Between 1965 and 1968 he composed a musical suite to a poem by Edgar Allan Poe entitled Annabel Lee, made a test recording for RCA, released his first album Claudio Baglioni. In 1970, he entered the Disco per l'estate competition with the song Una favola blu and the Festivalbar competition with Signora Lia. The same year, Baglioni released his first album Claudio Baglioni, which didn't sell well and was retired from the market a few weeks after initial release.

Following the release of his second album Un cantastorie dei giorni nostri in 1972, he made the big-time with Questo piccolo grande amore. He set off for his first tour in 1973, the year of Gira che ti rigira amore bello (with song Io me ne andrei, translated by Mick Ronson as Empty Bed on his album Play Don't Worry). On 4 August 1973, he married Paola Massari. In 1974 he produced E tu in Paris in collaboration with Vangelis and in 1975 Sabato pomeriggio with arrangements by Luis Enriquez Bacalov. In 1977 he released Solo and began a tour of the United States and Canada. 1978 was the year of E tu come stai?, released by his new record company CBS.

In 1981 he produced the hugely successful album Strada facendo and gave a series of concerts in the palasport buildings. For the birth of his son Giovanni, in 1982, he composed Avrai, a song dedicated to his newborn son Giovanni, and set off for the highly acclaimed Alé-oó tour, which spawned an album of the same name. In 1985 he produced La vita è adesso and the following year set off for the Assolo tour, a three-hour tour-de-force of vocals, guitar and piano. After two years of work, he released Oltre, an album which included the participation of numerous illustrious names from the international music world, such as Paco De Lucia, Pino Daniele, Mia Martini, Youssou N'Dour, Phil Palmer, Tony Levin and others.