Eros Ramazzotti

Eros Luciano Walter Ramazzotti Molina (born on October 28, 1963), best known as simply Eros Ramazzotti is one of the most successful Italian singers and songwriters of all time. Ramazzotti 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.

Childhood and early beginnings

Eros Ramazzotti was born in Cinecittà, suburb of Rome, Italy the son of a housepainter. At an early age Eros would occasionally appear as an extra in films while spending most of his time dreaming of having a career as a pop star. He would write songs with help from his father Rodolfo, during which time he decided to attend a musical conservatory but instead ended up taking a training program for a book-keeper, after failing the admission examination. However, this did not last long as all he could think about was music.

Eros first took part in 1981 in a music contest called Voci Nuove di Castrocaro (new voices) with a song "Rock 80" which he wrote himself. Not surprisingly, the young talent reached the final and received his first contract with a newly born label DDD. Soon after he moved to Milan with his brother Marco and his mother Raffaella where they, in the beginning, lived in the same building his record label was located.

1982-1986: Career breakthrough

Ramazzotti's first single "Ad Un Amico" appeared in 1982; however, success failed to come at this time. Soon after Eros met his mentor Renato Brioschi, who helped the young artist find his first success as in 1984 he took part at the popular San Remo Festival with his song "Terra Promessa" and won the competition for the category of "Newcomer". The song's triumph drove Eros's career to take off as it was released Europe-wide.

In 1985, once again Ramazzotti took part at San Remo Festival with his "Una Storia Importante", a song from his debut album Cuori Agitati, which reached nomber 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.

At this time Eros could almost see himself as what he once could only dream of. His second album Nuovi Eroi was released in 1986, and one of his most memorable singles ever "Adesso Tu" was performed at San Remo Festival where Ramazzotti won again.

1987–1994: Popularity established

The popularity kept growing and in 1987 Ramazzotti went on a nine-month long tour after releasing his third album In Certi Momenti performing in front of more than a million people. In Certi Momenti sold more than 3 million copies.

Ramazzotti released a series of albums in quick succession, composed of heartfelt autobiographical ballads as well as powerful rock tunes, which launched him both domestically and internationally (he records most of his albums in Spanish as well as in Italian).

The fifth album entitled In Ogni Senso, released in April of 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 amazed by Eros's talent advised him to hold a concert at the Radio City Music Hall in New York city. Ramazzotti turned out to be the first Italian artist to perform at the renowned concert hall before a huge sell-out crowd.

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.

In 1993 he released his Tutte Storie, and besides Europe he also toured in 15 Latin American countries (where he's been releasing his albums in Spanish). The album Tutte Storie, which sold 6 million copies world-wide turned the year 1994 into a golden year for Ramazzotti as he got his contract with BMG International.

1995–2000: Worldwide commercial success

File:Eros & Anastacia.jpg

Eros Ramazzotti, Anastacia, from the "Calma Apparente" Album

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 of 1996 his album Dove c'è Musica was released, which happened to be the first album that was completely self produced by Eros. The 7 million figure in sales of Dove c'è Musica was enough to say the 33 year old had managed to enter the hearts of many in the world. On December 5th of the same year his ex-wife Michelle Hunziker (Swiss model and television host) gave birth to their daughter Aurora Sophie.

In October of 1997 Ramazzotti's Eros – Greatest Hits CD appeared, a record which contained two unreleased tracks up to now "Quanto Amore Sei" and "Ancora Un Minuto Di Sole" 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). The collection of his hits went on selling well over 7 million units world-wide emphasizing once again how beloved the Italian pop-star is without even appearing in the charts of any English-speaking nation.

Ramazzotti gained reputation of a recognized producer when he produced the album Come Fa Bene L’Amore for Gianni Morandi in the beginning of 2000. In the October of the same year Eros made a come back with his eighth album Stilelibero, which contained a duet with the American diva Cher in the song "Più Che Puoi". The album was a result of a collaboration of internationally renowned producers such as Celso Valli, Claudio Guidetti, Trevor Horn and Rick Nowels. In the course of the international tour for Stilelibero, Eros also appeared in eastern European counties including Moscow, Russia where he gave two-day sold out concerts at Kremlin Palace.

2003-Forward

On May 30, 2003 the longawaited ninth album arrived in stores which was also titled as 9. The first single "Un’Emozione Per Sempre" was released on May 9th which quickly climbed all the way to the top and stayed at no. 1 position in Italy's official single chart for nine consecutive weeks. The album produced along with Claudio Guidetti and Eros’s longtime musical friend Celso Valli perched at no. 1 position for fourteen weeks in Italy's official album chart. The 9 went on selling 3.5 million copies, 1.1 million of which were sold in Italy alone.

He is especially popular in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina and most Spanish-speaking countries. During his 24 year career he has sold over 36 million records worldwide. Eros has done duets with several prestigious artists such as Andrea Bocelli, Joe Cocker, Tina Turner, Cher, Anastacia, Luciano Pavarotti, and Laura Pausini.

File:Eros Ramazzotti gallery.jpg

Eros Ramazzotti

In November 2005, his 10th album Calma Apparente was released, which he produced together with Claudio Guidetti. This album contains the European hit single "I Belong to You", a duet with Anastacia.

After more than ten years from Ramazzotti's last complition album Eros which has sold well over 7.5 million copies world-wide and has reached no. 1 in many countries including Germany's Media Control album chart, the Italian superstar released a new double CD compilation album e² on October 26th, 2007, which contains 17 original-hits (14 of which are remastered in their original version) and 4 new tracks. Among the four unreleased pieces in the e² album, there is a new international duet "Non Siamo Soli" which Eros sings along with Latin pop star Ricky Martin. This is the first single off the album which appeared in the music stores starting October 5th. The single available both in Italian and Spanish is written by Ramazzotti and his longtime songwriting partner Claudio Guidetti.

Discography

Albums

Album titles

Italian title	Spanish title	Year
e²	e²	2007
Calma apparente	Calma aparente	2005
9	9	2003
Stilelibero	Estilolibre	2000
Eros Live		1998
Eros (best of)		1997
Dove c'è musica	Donde hay música	1996
Tutte storie	Todo historias	1993
Eros in concert		1991
In ogni senso	En todos los sentidos	1990
Musica è	Música es	1988
In certi momenti	En ciertos momentos	1987
Nuovi eroi	Héroes de hoy	1986
Cuori agitati		1985

All regularly released albums and their chart peak position in Italy (ITA), German Top 100 Singles (GER 100), Switzerland (SUI), Austria (AUT), the Netherlands (NL), France (FR), Finland (FIN), Sweden (SWE), Belgium (BEL), Norway (NOR).

Year	Album	Chart positions
		ITA	GER	SUI	AUT	NL	FRA	FIN	SWE	BEL	NOR
1985	Cuori agitati	10	-	5	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1986	Nuovi eroi	1	-	1	1	-	-	-	29	-	-
1987	In certi momenti	1	-	3	5	21	-	-	-	-	-
1988	Musica è	2	-	2	10	7	-	-	-	-	-
1990	In ogni senso	1	-	1	5	2	-	-	34	-	10
1991	Eros in Concert	4	-	21	-	23	-	-	-	-	-
1993	Tutte storie Todo historias	1	-	1	1	3	-	-	4	-	5
1996	Dove c'è musica Donde hay musica	1	-	1	1	5	10	6	1	-	8
1997	Eros Eros [Spanish Version]	1	1	1	1	1	3	4	5	-	1
1998	Eros Live	15	-	6	12	44	7	-	46	-	38
2000	Stilelibero Estilo libre	1	-	1	3	9	3	9	15	-	17
2003	9 9 [Spanish Version]	1	2	1	2	5	5	9	14	3	6
2005	Calma apparente	1	4	1	2	4	5	15	20	12	-
2007	e²	1	2	1	3	5	6			11

Other charts

Year	Album	Chart	Peak
1993	Tutte storie	Portuguese Album Top 30	1
2000	Stilelibero	Top World Music Albums	14
2005	Calma apparente	Portuguese Album Top 30	19

Singles

Released singles and their chart peak position in Italian Top 50 Singles (IT 50), German Top 100 Singles (GER 100), Swiss Singles Top 100 (SUI), Austrian Singles Top 75 (AUT 75), the Dutch Top 40 (NL 40), , Swedish Top 60 Singles (SWE 60), , French Top 100 Singles (FR 100), Norwegian Top 20 Singles (NOR 20), Finnish Top 20 Singles (FIN 20) .

Year	Single	Chart positions
		ITA	GER	SWI	AUT	NL	SWE	FRA	NOR	FIN	EUR
1984	Terra promessa	-	-	46	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1985	Una storia importante	-	-	7	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1986	Adesso tu	-	-	1	1	-	-	-	-	-	5
1986	Un cuore con le ali	-	-	-	21	-	-	-	-	-	-
1987	Ma che bello questo amore	-	-	21	19	9	-	-	-	-	-
1989	Musica è	-	-	-	-	12	-	-	-	-	-
1990	Se bastasse una canzone	-	19	7	15	2	-	11	10	-	-
1990	Amarti à l'immenso per me	-	-	-	23	-	-	-	-	-	-
1990	Dolce Barbara	-	-	-	-	24	-	-	-	-	-
1993	Cose della vita Cosas de la Vida	-	30	7	15	12	15	14	4	-	2
1993	Un' altra te Otra como tu	-	-	11	-	-	-	-	14	-	-
1996	Più bella cosa La cosa mas bella	-	17	6	9	23	22	8	-	-	10
1997	Quanto amore sei Cuanto amor me das	-	-	6	17	84	42	-	-	-	-
1998	Cose Della Vita / Can't Stop Thinking of You Cosas de la Vida (Can't Stop Thinking of You) (with Tina Turner)	-	4	7	10	4	37	6	-	-	9
Year	Single
		ITA	GER	SWI	AUT	NL	SWE	FRA	NOR	FIN	EUR
2000	Fuoco nel fuoco	1	50	4	29	79	-	21	-	-	8
2001	Un angelo non è	-	-	32	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2001	Più che puoi (with Cher)	20	61	17	-	43	-	42	-	-	32
2001	L'ombra del gigante	27	-	52	74	-	-	57	-	-	16
2001	Per me per sempre	-	-	69	-	85	-	-	-	-	-
2003	Un' emozione per sempre Una emoción para siempre	1	35	1	31	43	-	61	-	-	18
2003	Un attimo di pace	12	87	34	-	84	-	-	-	-	-
2004	Solo ieri	-	-	59	-	96	-	-	-	-	-
2004	Ti vorrei rivivere	-	-	56	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2005	La nostra vita Nuestra vida	1	-	6	36	-	-	-	-	22	17
2006	I Belong to You (il ritmo della passione) (with Anastacia)	1	1	1	2	6	-	-	-	-	2
2006	Bambino nel tempo	15	-	40	-	-	-	-	-	-	57
2007	Non Siamo Soli (feat. Ricky Martin)	1	32	3	45	-	-	-	-	-	19

Other charts

Year	Single	Chart	Peak
2006	I Belong to You (il ritmo della passione)	Hungarian Top 40 (Airplay)	1

See also

• Best selling music artists — World's top-selling music artists chart.

External links

• Official Website
• erosramazzotti.TV international website
• German Official Website
• Biography of Eros Ramazzotti, from RAI International
• Eros Ramazzotti Multilingue Site
• Eros Ramazzotti Italian Site by Lella
• Eros Ramazzotti Polish/English Site
• RBS | Ramazzottiano Blog Site