BIOGRAPHY
Renato Zero is the stage name of Renato Fiacchini born in Rome on September 30th 1950 from the union between the policeman Domenico Fiacchini and the nurse Ada Pica. Renato Fiacchini will spend his childhood in via Ripetta, 54 a stone's throw from Piazza del Popolo, in a female family with his grandmother Renata, the three sisters Enza, Fiorella and Maria Pia (his brother Giampiero will be born ten years later), while he lived his adolescence in a barracks for public security employees in via Fonte Buono, Montagnola area. Immediately after coming into the world he risked dying due to a maternal-fetal incompatibility of the Rh factor, so much so that he needed a total transfusion.
The family will give him an education of simple and solid values.
At the age of fourteen he obtained his first contract for 500 lire a day at the Ciak in Rome , but Renato's official entry into the world of music is dated 1967 with a single produced by Gianni Boncompagni, also author of the lyrics with music by Jimmy Fontana. The song It is not enough you know is a falsely revolutionary rhetoric march, while In the midst of trouble is the cover of beat 98.6 by Keith, aka James Barry Keefer, a banal and moralistic song that in its original version had sold a million copies, while Zero will sell just twenty.
The early Renato Zero had sensed that to be effectively different, innovative and above all last over time he had to play his cards on other levels, in fact, from his debut single to the publication of his first album, he will decide to move away at least partially from the environment musical to carry out other experiences that will be fundamental for his cultural and artistic baggage. He will start attending the well-known Roman club Piper , which will mark an era by becoming a point of reference for anyone wishing to become part of the entertainment world. Here he will meet Mita Medici, Patty Pravo, Mia Martini and her sister Loredana Bertè, but above all he will be noticed by Renzo Arbore, who will recruit him from the audience of the Yellow Flag and For You Young programs and by Don Lurio who will hire him among the collective of dance by Rita Pavone. In the same period he will record some carousels for a well-known brand of ice cream, he will participate in the beat gathering singing for the first time with The Spaectres Groups, with whom he will participate in the film Burn boy, burn by Ferdinando Di Leo, will be part of the chorus of the piece Gingì by Pippo Baudo, theme song of the television program The golden arrow, he will play Tancredi in Ruzante's play the Anconitana and will be part of the cast of Hi, Rudy and the Italian version of Hair together with Loredana Bertè and Teo Teocoli. He will get small roles in some Federico Fellini films: Satyricon, Rome, Amarcord And Casanova, but the most significant experience of this first period will be the role of "Seller of happiness" in the record and film version of the musical Orpheus 9 by Tito Schipa Jr.
Renato Zero between the end of the sixties and the beginning of the seventies is still looking for an identity, but in the meantime he had worked hard to develop his own style, studying artists especially foreigners, writing new songs and experimenting with new formulas of staging. After so much apprenticeship he is ready to debut with his stylistic preferences, his stage name chosen out of spite against those who criticized him (" You are a zero" is the phrase that will be heard most repeated when disguised and made up began to perform in small clubs romans ), his repertoire, his show and a contract with RCA on his terms. His character initially transgressive, provocative and alternative, which tricks and costumes will return only in part, will evolve over the years by replacing the sequins with gestures and mimics that today are the vehicle to express one's emotions, utopias, dreams (from Zerolandia in Fonòpoli), the hopes, the disappointments, the joys and the bitterness. His songs will tell about himself as a man and as an artist, love and sex in all its forms and will anticipate the times by addressing issues such as pedophilia, gender identity, drugs, incommunicability, homosexuality, marginalization, violence and spirituality.
THE AGREEMENT WITH HIS FANS
The singer's fans are called "sorcini" , a definition that has replaced the initial "zerofolli". The term was born in Viareggio in the early eighties, when observing his admirers who surrounded him with their mopeds, he exclaimed: “They look like so many mice”. From that moment, by analogy, he became "the king of the sorcini".
In 1981 the artist dedicated the song I figli della topa to his fans and the following year he organized the “Sorciadi” at the Eucalipti Stadium in Rome, personally participating in the awarding of the winners.
70'S
In 1973 the first official album of his career is released No! Mom, no! An atypical debut given that it is a live record, even if in reality it is not completely such. Despite the technical problems and a certain interpretative acerbity, Zero's first discographic work is far from forgettable, since it already contains all the poetics and themes of the artist Roman. Among the most significant pieces we must mention the hymn to freedom of the opening piece Paleobarattolo, the sympathetic antimilitarism of Sergeant, no! The intense
In the archive of my conscience, the anti-abortion monologue of Dreams in the dark and the brave for the time No! Mom, no!
Despite the commercial failure of the first album, Zero does not give up and in 1974 puts in the yard Inventions , which will be a decisive record. At least two masterpieces present that will last over time: Someone make me my soul which tackles the issue of pedophilia ante litteram e You invent song about universal love, but they are noteworthy: The event, You who are my brother, Metro And 113.
The 1976 it is a decisive year for Zero who must demonstrate his maturity as an artist and finally reach a wider audience. He then prepares a new album and his first related tour
from the same thread, that of Trapezium . The album contains eleven songs (three are taken from previous LPs) and for the first time enters the ranking of best-selling records (the single Madame / A man to burn rises up to fifteenth position).
The poignant songbook will remain over time in his songbook Motel , among the most beautiful love songs of his repertoire, A wheelchair And Save me.
The year of the definitive consecration will be the 1977, when Zero releases the single Mi vendo / Morire qui with which he enters the hit parade remaining there for fifty-seven weeks. The success achieved, also thanks to free radios, will drive the new album (and show) entitled Zerophobia who will manage to reach fifth place in the ranking. The new songs are transversal, ironic, but above all they know how to reach the heart of the listener. Unforgettable: I live, the sky, over time it has become a symbolic song of the artist and the most light-hearted, Mannequins, Tragic samba And The ambulance. Having achieved success, Zero decides to free himself from his record company, which until then had not really believed in him. He therefore creates the independent label Zerolandia.
Anticipated by the single Triangle / Sex or esse Zero publishes in 1978 Zerolandia . In the disc, which will reach the third position of the chart, there are other “erotic” songs such as Amaro Medley And Let's fight, but above all pieces that have become cult like the biographical one My fairy tale, Tin Dreams, Stop And Man, no.
In 1979 public EroZero , an album that takes stock of his career and closes a cycle with the release of movie Hello nì . To stage the show “the tale of Ero Zero” the artist decides to rent from the Togni circus family a marquee and call it Zerolandia. He publishes the single Il carrozzone / baratto, which, like the album, will reach the first position on the chart. EroZero was a complex and varied pop record, contaminated by folk and rock, which alternates poetic and meditative pieces (Il carrozzone, La tua idea, Periferia, La rete d'oro, Arrendermi mai to other irreverent and imaginative ones (Baratto and Fermo Posta).
1980s
Renato turns thirty and asks for a respite from the world, from himself, from his audience. It arises from these assumptions the double album Tregua , dedicated to his father Domenico who died in the same year , anticipated by the single Amico / Amore yes love no. Both will reach the top of the rankings. The eighteen tracks of "Truce" are a kaleidoscope of genres, from No makeup tonight, Trouble, Luck, Scents toys & Husbands to the spiritual Could be God and Merry Christmas.
Between Rome and Turin, between December of 1980 and January of 1981 Zero stages the "Christmas in Zerolandia" concert series from which it was born a double live album entitled “ Icaro ”. The album contains two unreleased live tracks: Chi più chi più and Più su. After yet another triumph in the standings, in the summer, Zero publishes the single Galeotto fu il dinghy without any warning.
Zero is unstoppable so much so that in December 1981 publishes a new unpublished album, entitled Arctic Antarctica that will climb the charts. The disc opens with Pioneers and it is a succession of successful pieces: The joker, Sidewalks, And I will follow you, Our Father, Barren, People, Strangers, Here we are, Crazy night. Less than a year after his previous record, Zero releases a double album entitled Via Tagliamento 1965 - 1970 , a tribute to the period he lived at the Piper.
After much ostracism, RAI recruits Zero for the Saturday night show conducted by Corrado and Raffaella Carrà, but not without problems, given that the initials Long live the RAI will have some problem with censorship. The songs performed are: Nothing, The facade, Hold on, Contagion, Angels and More fire. In the same year he hosted the broadcast Zerolandia Fermposta on the radio, the success of which led to the creation of two other editions. In December of the same year Zero suffered a severe blow, when the tent of Zerolandia was sealed and placed under seizure.
After releasing four double albums in three years, In the 1983 decides to release a Q disc entitled Heat . A summer record that will contain the songs: Beaches, Desire, Surfing and Fantasy. This work will also be able to reach the first place in the standings.
In 1984 , after the frenetic and bulimic record production, Zero returns with a new album produced by Renato Serio entitled Lions are born . The album will be presented at none other than the zoo in Rome and contains: Not to be like this and Giorni. After the publication of Leoni one is born; two good unreleased songs will follow: People like us And Me here.
In 1986 will publish the work: Lost subjects . The album will win gold for having sold one hundred thousand copies. Ten pieces that compose it.
After only eighteen months, in 1987 , Zero returns to the scene with a new double album with an essential title: Zero . He goes to mix the record at Punk Studio in
Denmark and brings together eighteen songs that highlight a refined and thick author. The theatrical tour that follows will be strangely more successful than the album it contains: We are heroes, artists, more or less, I gave, macabre dance And Remote controller are some pieces to be included in the Zeriano songbook.
After the publication of the works, Leoni is born, Lost Subjects and Zero, in 1989 Renato is ready to fire the album of the rebirth: Voyeur . Eight tracks (eleven on cd), for an album recorded in London, with more rock and moved atmospheres (the arrangements are by Geoff Westley) which brings Zero back in the charts (seventh position and 250,000 copies sold). The Voyeur tour will attract 220,000 admissions and will square the circle for Renato.
90'S
Zero's first two live albums are combined and inspired by mythological figures. First Icarus now Prometheus . This disc released in 1991 simultaneously with the VHS Zero 40 is the testimony of the concerts held at the Stellarium, ex Bussoladomani. The double disc contains the unreleased The tightrope walker song written by Zero in 1965 and the song signed by Mariella Nava Back to the wall, brought by Renato to the Sanremo Festival. On Christmas of the same year, he promotes his new recording effort: Zero consciousness . An atypical disc in the Italian panorama, which contains new songs, but collects, fished out, the beautiful ones Civilization And Nafta, At the second-hand market, Psychomania And The Assassin, a duet with Claudio Villa (Happy Birthday), Zero's version of the Rokes song It's the rain that goes, a tribute to the singer-songwriter Piero Ciampi (L'aquilone Piero) and pieces from the eighties such as More together, Give yourself an evening, Curtain.
In 1992 , to promote the Fonòpoli project, his city for
music , Zero participates in the 1 2 3 RAI television broadcast . In 1993 decides to return to the Sanremo Festival with the touching song Hail Mary , a lay prayer in which Zero will be accompanied by a polyphonic choir and which will be worth a standing ovation of over four minutes. In 1993 he will release the album When you are no longer than anyone . At the same time, in support of the Fonopoli project, he records a mini CD entitled Passaporto per Fonòpoli accompanied by a calendar and the association card. The return to the concerts takes place with the triumphal tour Zeropera , where he will perform with an orchestra of over thirty elements.
In 1994 Zero releases his new album: The imperfect . This record will represent his definitive rebirth and his new sensational success. Loving, loving, In the gardens that no one knows , Happy and losers these are just some of the tracks from an album with an international flavor, modern pop and symphonic impulses.The album will stay in the charts for a long time, selling over 350,000 copies and for Christmas a VHS of the disc will be released with a mini film focused on duality well /bad. In the same year he participates as a voice actor and interpreter on the soundtrack of the film by Henry Selick produced by Tim Burton, Nightmare before Christmas .
In 1995 , in the wake of the success achieved, Zero fires On the trail of the imperfect . The flagship song is The best years of our life , which highlights the very high level of the pure interpreter (think of Spalle al muro and Il carrozzone). In the cd (it is the only Zero album not to be released on vinyl) there is a new version of Paleobarat (with instrumental coda of old hits), In the depths of a love And End of the story (already presented live during the tour Zeropera), Another planet, a little blue And Still People (previously published in a video clip) and Supersolo. In the same year Zero collaborates with his friend Ivan Graziani in the song Your sister's nutella, which should be re-evaluated for its grotesque and irreverent irony. The crowds of the 1995 tour duplicated by those of the All Zero for the celebrations of thirty years of career .
In 1998 releases one of his most successful albums titled Love after love , which can be considered the sum of Zero's poetics in the period of his maturity. Thirteen songs (Cercami, Figaro, The impossible to live, Tell me who sleeps next to me, Peace be with you they have become indispensable pieces for what many have called the masterpiece of maturity.
Four unpublished pieces (The star merchant, Just in time, The eternal challenge, Poetry poetry) equally valid have found a place in the singles that anticipated and followed the release of the album.
In 1999 , testifying to the resounding success of the tour that will follow, Zero releases his third double live album: Love after love tour after tour . Four unreleased studio songs will be added (It's getting dark, What a strange game it is, In the dark, The courage of ideas) and one live performed during the tour entitled The circus. Always in the field to support the Fonòpoli Zero project, he starts a new pharaonic and triumphal tour: Fonòpoli shipyard which sees the extraordinary participation of Carla Fracci and Momix . In the same year, in addition to releasing the single The courage of ideas / Matti, Zero will be invited to the Pavarotti and friends and will duet with the Maestro of Italian opera on the notes of Il cielo and Mina will somehow consecrate the icon - Zero
interpreting it in the album Mina N ° 0 (there is even an unreleased duet titled Neri).
'00s
And the 2000 and for Zero, at least on television, the time has come for an apology with a special in four episodes entitled All the zeros in the world ; Zero draws heavily from his repertoire; particular value What I did not say and Via dei martiri, the covers are certainly interesting, Marinella's song by Fabrizio De André, Also for you by Lucio Battisti e You are a big thing by Domenico Modugno (of which a video clip will be made), masterful interpretations of the medleys dedicated to Luigi Tenco and Umberto Bindi, but more astounding how Zero took possession of The histrion by Charles Aznavour. In September 2000 the beloved mother Ada disappears, a loss and a pain softened by a faith that
In 2001 Zero will sing in his new record The curve of the angel . The album will reach the top of the charts and will be the tenth best-selling of the year. Will follow Flight tests , yet another triumphal tour that will collect half a million spectators and will be awarded as the best of the year.
Zero in 2003 public Capture , a work that overflows with art from the cover (a graphic elaboration by Luciano Tallarini), innovative, communicative and self-quoting, with international sounds (as in Voyeur the production is entrusted to Geoff Wesley) with many pieces destined to remain among the best of the Zerian production ( Maybe, How would you like me, Son, My myths ).
Capture the dream And The dream continues are the monumental concerts of 2004 that will bring Zero to the Pollstar ranking of the most successful tours in the world . The dvd and double live cd Children of the dream they are the faithful chronicle of the show (the DVD will be the best-selling of the year).
In 2005 will be among the protagonists of the Live 8 proposing Cercami, In the gardens that nobody knows and The best years of our life with Laura Pausini and Claudio Baglioni.
In the same year it comes out " The gift " , an unexpected album, which is anticipated by the beautiful single While I wait for you to return, On air and music And Life is a gift, which Zero will also propose in the Vatican. The record will once again reach the top of the hit parade and in just six weeks it will conquer the fourth place in the annual chart.
The tour Zeromovimento which will start in 2006 will be sold out and will be successfully broadcast by RAI.
In 2007 Zero will bring his new show with the emblematic title around the Italian stadiums Mp Zero , which will close its doors with approximately 270,000 admissions in just seven dates.
Four years after the "Gift" in 2009 comes the disc Present ; These are the numbers: 500,000 copies sold, five platinum discs and one diamond, with which Zero returns to climb the sales charts (it will be the second best-selling of the year). The real news is that Zero is the first Italian artist to produce and distribute himself through the Tattica label, without the support of the majors . The disc, anticipated by the single and the video clip Still here, it offers seventeen poetic pieces, full of emotions, well written and played and at times amused. A successful bet followed by a successful ZeroNove tour (over 500,000 admissions) focused on the songs of Presente, from which a DVD is taken which is the faithful testimony of the show.
YEARS 010
To celebrate his sixtieth birthday Zero organizes a series of eight titled concerts in Piazza di Siena in Rome You are Zero . The event will convoy further 110,000 spectators and will arrive in a version synthesized on TV and in an extra-large version in a triple DVD accompanied by an autograph letter, photographic postcards and a diary of over two hundred pages. Before the release of the triple DVD, which will be the best-selling of the year, in November Zero publishes the collection Segreto amor e (platinum disc and winner of the Wind Music Awards), containing thirteen love songs recorded between 1982 and 2003 and two unreleased: the homonymous title track and Rome already proposed during the Sei Zero.
In 2011 Zero publishes yet another collection entitled Pure spirit which has irony as its main theme. Seventeen songs (Galeotto fu il canotto and Menefotto are recovered) plus two unpublished: Always smile And Witness. In December together with other colleagues, Zero will perform at the 105 Stadium in Genoa in favor of the victims of the flood , while in September of 2012 will be among the protagonists of Italy Loves Emilia held in Campovolo in favor of the earthquake victims of Emilia .
After four years from his latest unpublished album Zero returns to his audience with an "AMO" trilogy consisting of two unpublished discs and a third elegant box, containing the two previous CDs, a poster - puzzle by the artist and the story of the songs included. In the two CDs there are twenty-nine songs that tell of love in its various forms; a homogeneous project where the first chapter is more autobiographical and self-referential while the second broadens the range of action by dealing with different topics including the sick world of television and recordings. Both chapters of Amo will reach the first position in the standings, leading Zero to reach a record. He is the only Italian artist to have reached the top of the sales chart in five different decades . On the twenty-seventh of April the triumphal Amo on tour starts from the Palalottomatica in Rome (renamed PalaZero for the occasion ).
ZERO "THE EXHIBITION"
From 18 December 2014 to March 22 2015 was held in Rome at the La Pelanda Cultural Production Center, in collaboration with the Macro - Museum of Contemporary Art, the exhibition Zero entirely dedicated to the Roman artist. His artistic parable between music and verse is retraced, in a suggestive and inspired retrospective that photographs a span of time in which there have been enormous changes. No reliquary, therefore, rather a path of meaning and life, a historical and social photograph that connects Renato Zero and the flow of his time and of Italy.
An urgent exhibition in a historical moment that tends to erase memory, to level the differences and not to enhance individual creativity. The exhibition will be a great success with more than 50,000 visitors . The Cultural Association Fonopoli, at the same time as the exhibition, launches a competition notice entitled Zero in literature which aims to promote and enhance the contents, structures and social value of the lyrics of some songs from the songbook of the Roman singer-songwriter. Participation is reserved for secondary schools in Rome and involves the textual or graphic analysis of one of the proposed songs. At the School where the winner will be registered and the same will be awarded a prize of one thousand euros, which Zero himself delivered during an award ceremony held at Pelanda.
2016 ALT - the return with the social denunciation
Anticipated by the single Ask and from the participation as guest of honor at the 66th edition of the Italian song festival, in April 2016 Zero publishes Alt , an unpublished album that already from the title indicates the message it wants to convey. An explicit invitation to reflect, in search of lost values, to return to the streets to shout their disappointment, to live less virtual relationships. The originality of the record lies in the fact that Zero for the first time offers a lucid and angry look at the present. Fourteen songs ranging from pop to funk, passing through Latin rhythms, electric guitars and strings. A kaleidoscope of sounds at the service of incisive and courageous texts which deal with issues such as faith, ecology, the drama of youth work, political ill repute, hospitality. The record (released in a limited edition together with the single Ask / My years tell also on vinyl) will reach the first position in the charts. In June he will perform in three event concerts in the magnificent setting of the Verona Arena. With the title Arenà - Renato Zero tells itself , a montage of the three evenings will be broadcast in September by Rai, collecting the favors of the public with over 4 million spectators and 20% share. Subsequently an elegant box will be created containing a DVD, two CDs containing the recording of the concerts and the unpublished “Don't forget me”.
In November, " Alt in Tour " starts from Bologna, over 30 dates all sold out, where Zero, in a scenography that recreates a construction site, presents the songs of the new disc alternating them with old hits, accompanied by the Franciacorta Philharmonic Orchestra directed by maestro Renato Serio, from Neri per Caso to the choirs, from young actor Luca Giacomelli Ferrarrini and da Sal da Vinci with whom he duets in the unpublished Singles, present in the Neapolitan singer-songwriter's album “Non si fa prisoneri” to whom Zero collaborated in the writing of 7 songs. On some dates there will be some guests of honor: Ron, Mario Biondi, Raf, Giorgio Panariello, Leonardo Pieraccioni, Tosca, Max Tortora, Eros Ramazzotti, Elio and the tense stories, Samuele Bersani, Franco Battiato.
2017-2018 Zerovskij Only for Love
On March 20, 2017, Renato Zero announces what will be his most ambitious project of his entire career: " Zerovsky Only for Love ", a double album and an unprecedented live. On 12 May the new discographic work is published, consisting of 19 unreleased tracks that will be at the center of the homonymous live project, while on 1 July 2017 the tour begins from the Centrale live in Rome. Renato Zero brings an orchestra of 61 elements, 5 in the rhythm section, 30 choristers and 7 actors. An artistic and social operation that has illuminated many resources of our country increasingly de-legitimized in its founding pillars: art and culture. The “Zerovskij Solo per Amore” tour was also enriched by the artistic importance of the chosen locations. By recording the sold out on each date. On 19, 20 and 21 March “Zerovskij only for love”, arrives at the cinema. Distributed by LuckyRed, the concert film is present in 320 rooms. A montage of over 2 hours of show recorded during the performances held at the Verona Arena. In the three days of programming, conquer the top of the Cinetel ranking. By popular demand, Zerovsky will then return to the cinema for another two days. April 3rd and 4th.
2019 - ZERO THE INSANE
"Crazy is he who dreams, who is free, who changes"
In May, the single " Never again alone ", anticipates the release of the new album titled unreleased " Zero the Fool " scheduled for October 4th. The song, as well as the rest of the album, recorded in London, sees the production and arrangements of Trevor Horn (producer of Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart, Robbie Williams), with whom Renato Zero returns to collaborate after the 2013 album "Amo". The press conference to present the new record was a real party, in fact on the day of his birthday, at the Sala Sinopoli of the Auditorium Parco della Musica, packed in every order of place, and live on his social channels, Renato Zero presents to the public and to the journalists present in the room the new songs. The album, consisting of 13 tracks, in addition to the first two singles “Mai più alone” and “La Vetrina”, it will be released with 4 different covers, both in cd and lp version.
It should be emphasized that some songs (such as the title track “Zero il Folle”) immediately become part of the artist's historical songs. From 1 November Renato Zero will be on the stage in the major Italian sports halls with “ Zero il Folle in Tour ” . A great show, where Zero returns to amaze his audience. With a theatrical scenography, the show saw, between new and old successes, over 3 hours of live and 19 changes of clothes. The first date is at the Palazzo dello Sport in Rome, the tour will then continue in Florence, Mantua, Pesaro, Livorno, Turin, Bologna, Milan, Bari and Rome again. A real success, with 28 dates on the calendar, “ Zero il Folle in Tour ” will be sold out everywhere reaching over 200,000 spectators.
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