Ron

Born in 1953 in the Italian town of Dorno south of Milan, Rosalino Cellamare already displayed a passion for singing during childhood and soon pursued vocal instruction while entering neighborhood festivals and contests. At sixteen he stepped onto the San Remo stage for the first time in 1970, joining Nada for a seventh-place finish with the song “Pà Diglielo a Mà.” Two years afterward Lucio Dalla introduced the Cellamare composition “Piazza Grande” at the same festival, while the singer’s first long-player, Il Bosco degli Amanti, appeared under his birth name. For the follow-up efforts Dal Nostro Livello in 1972 and Esperienza in 1975 he recorded simply as Rosalino, yet after pausing his career to try acting he returned in 1980 with the album Una Città per Cantare, the first release credited to the name Ron that would define his later work and one that quickly became among his most cherished. A steady stream of recordings followed, among them the self-titled Ron in 1985 and Le Foglie e il Vento in 1992.

Victory at San Remo finally arrived in 1996 with the song “Vorrei Incontrarti Fra Cent’Anni.” Four years later the Italian broadcaster Rai marked the artist’s three decades in music by staging and airing a celebratory concert again titled Una Città per Cantare, on which Ron performed alongside Gianni Morandi, Jackson Browne and Lucio Dalla. A 2002 tour united him with Pino Daniele, Francesco de Gregori and Fiorella Mannoia, after which he issued Le Voci del Mondo in 2004. The following year he assembled the charity project Ma Quando Dici Amore, recruiting Anggun, Carmen Consoli, Raf, Luca Carboni, Loredana Berté and additional guests to benefit Lou Gehrig’s Disease research. Originally available only through newsstands in partnership with La Corriere della Sera, the collection was expanded and re-released in 2006 under the title Ma Quando Dici Amore: Sanremo 2006, incorporating further tracks absent from the initial edition.