Adelmo Fornaciari, more commonly known by his stage name Zucchero Fornaciari or simply Zucchero, is an Italian singer, musician and songwriter.
30 Facts About Zucchero Fornaciari
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Zucchero Fornaciari is credited as the "father of Italian blues", introducing blues to the big stage in Italy.
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Zucchero Fornaciari is one of the few European blues artists who still enjoys great international success.
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Zucchero Fornaciari has won numerous awards, including four Festivalbar, nine Wind Music Awards, two World Music Awards, six IFPI Europe Platinum Awards, and a Grammy Award nomination.
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Adelmo Zucchero Fornaciari was born 25 September 1955 in Roncocesi, a frazione near Reggio Emilia.
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Zucchero Fornaciari spent most of his childhood in the seaside town of Forte dei Marmi.
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The first song he played to Zucchero Fornaciari was The Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding, and this immediately inspired his interest in soul music.
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Zucchero Fornaciari then got together with friends to play rhythm and blues, finding his own way to fuse black music and Mediterranean music.
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Zucchero Fornaciari started writing his own songs when he was 13 or 14 years old, and after learning basic instruments, from 16 he moved on to learning the tenor saxophone.
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In 1979, Zucchero Fornaciari wrote "Tutto di te" by Fred Bongusto, and the hit "Te ne vai" by Michele Pecora.
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Zucchero Fornaciari found initial success with a band named Taxi, with whom he won the Castrocaro Music Festival in 1981.
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Zucchero Fornaciari made his first appearance in the famous Sanremo Music Festival in 1982 with the song "Una notte che vola via" but without success.
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Zucchero Fornaciari again played at the Sanremo festival and, although the song "Donne" ended up in a disappointing penultimate place, it became a hit single and one of the classic Italian songs.
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Davis himself insisted to re-record the song with Zucchero Fornaciari, describing it "interesting Mediterranean type of blues".
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Zucchero Fornaciari's best known hit "Senza una donna", in a duet with Paul Young, is from this album.
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Between 1991 and 1993 Fornaciari continued duetting with some of the world's most famous artists, such as Sting, Luciano Pavarotti, a young Andrea Bocelli, Peter Maffay, Elton John, Brian May and Eric Clapton.
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Zucchero Fornaciari admitted having been 'terrified' before hitting the Wembley Stadium stage, as this was his first time performing live at a worldwide broadcast event.
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In 1994 Zucchero Fornaciari was the only Italian artist to perform at the 25th anniversary edition of the Woodstock festival.
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Zucchero Fornaciari performed for the fundraising Rainforest Foundation in New York, and Zoological Society of Florida, Miami.
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Zucchero Fornaciari reappeared in the summer of 2001 with the European hit single "Baila morena", described as "swinging track densely populated with crunching electric guitars, thick piano and organ vamps, and soaring bluesy female vocals over Zucchero's trademark rasp".
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Zucchero Fornaciari performed the Italian versions of the songs from the DreamWorks animated drama Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.
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In July 2005, Zucchero Fornaciari took part in the Live 8 concerts in both Rome and Paris.
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In November 2007, Zucchero Fornaciari released a new compilation album All the Best with several new tracks, including a popular cover of Black's "Wonderful Life".
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The album was produced by Don Was, Brendan O'Brien, and Zucchero Fornaciari and includes collaborations with Brian Wilson, Roland Orzabal, and Bono.
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In March 2011, after three years, Zucchero Fornaciari started the Chocabeck World Tour, notably with five consecutive concerts at the Arena in Verona.
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Zucchero Fornaciari received the premium awards "Premio Pavarotti", and "Giovani di Collisioni".
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Zucchero Fornaciari became the honorary member of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, recognition received by the Cuban Minister of Culture, Fernando Rojas.
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In October 2015, Zucchero Fornaciari performed at the Voices for Refugees concert in Vienna, the Europe's first solidarity concert for refugees, in front of an audience of 120,000.
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Zucchero Fornaciari has two daughters Alice and Irene from his first marriage with Angela Figlie, and son Adelmo Blue born 1998 with current partner Francesca Mozer.
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Zucchero Fornaciari has collaborated wit a great number of Italian as well as international musicians, singers and authors.