Cesare Cremonini

Italian singer/songwriter Cesare Cremonini emerged early as a versatile, chart-topping pop figure whose compositional instincts surfaced in childhood. Piano lessons started near his sixth birthday, and by age eleven he was composing original songs and poems to channel teenage unrest. A Queen album arrived when he turned twelve, instantly making the group his lodestar. Through his late teens he worked to fuse those poems with melody and to master song as a communicative tool. Grammar school behind him, he teamed with peers to launch a band that delivered fame far sooner than anticipated.

Lùnapop achieved spectacular results from 1999 through 2001. Its lone release, ...Squérez?, moved more than 1.5 million copies. Capitalizing on that international profile, Cremonini launched his solo career in 2002 with the album Bagus. Two years later, Maggese—issued in June 2005—proved even more successful, topping the Italian charts and earning platinum certification. A nationwide Maggese Theatre Tour followed, pitting his eight-piece band against a 24-piece orchestra. Tracks such as “Ancora un Po’” lingered on the charts well into 2006. His first live album appeared late that year; 1+8+24 captured material from the tour performed by the expanded ensemble.

Cremonini tracked his third studio set, Il Primo Bacio Sulla Luna, at London’s Air Studios. The September 2008 release reached the Italian Top Ten and attained gold status. Lead single “Figlio di un Re” climbed to number four, his strongest showing to that point. The 2010 compilation 1999-2010: The Greatest Hits also performed solidly, while La Teoria Dei Colori—his 2012 album—became his biggest seller and final Warner project. After signing with Universal, he scored a major breakthrough with Logico. Released in May 2014, the album held the Italian number-one spot and remained on the chart for more than a year; its singles “Logico #1” and “GreyGoose” enjoyed strong individual success. A second live album, Più Che Logico: Live, appeared the following year and was later paired with Logico in the limited-edition Logico Project package issued late in 2015.