Singing star Eros Ramazzotti’s World Tour began last night with a concert in Rimini attended by 7,000 fans. The “Ali e Radici” [Wings and Roots] tour, also the title of the artist’s latest bestselling CD, consists of 72 events and will take place in locations as diverse as Nice, Vilnius, Prague, Brussels and Dallas.
Ramazzotti was born in Rome in 1963 and learnt to play the guitar at an early age whilst dreaming of becoming a pop star. During his teens his father helped him to write songs. In 1981 he took part in a prestigious music contest, singing one of his own songs. Although he didn’t win, he did receive two votes from record company representatives and soon obtained his first recording contract. At this point he moved to Milan, where he is still based. His first real success came in 1984 when he won the Newcomers category at the Sanremo Festival with “Terra promessa”.
He went on to release nine studio albums and in 2003 his single “Un’emozione per sempre”, from the tenth one, became a huge hit which remained at number one in Italy’s singles chart for 14 weeks.
To date, Ramazzotti has sold over 50 million records. “Ali e Radici”, which he co-produced and co-wrote, is his eleventh studio album and appears after a four-year gap, apart from his popular compilation CD. The first single from the album to be released is “Parla con me”.
Best loved for his romantic songs, in 2008 Ramazzotti was awarded the National American Italian Foundation Award for his efforts in promoting a positive Italian image abroad. You can listen to “Parla con me” here:
