Alberto Camerini (born May 16, 1951) is an Italian singer-songwriter and musician, who was commercially most active during the late-1970s and early-1980s.

Life and career

Alberto Camerini was born in

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

from Italian Jewish parents who had moved to

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

a few years earlier. His parents moved back to

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

when Alberto was 11 years old. Camerini enrolled at the

University of Milan The University of Milan (; ), officially abbreviated as UNIMI, or colloquially referred to as La Statale ("the State niversity), is a public university, public research university in Milan, Italy. It is one of the largest universities in Eu ...

, where he became friends with Eugenio Finardi, who introduced him to music; together with Eugenio Finardi, Camerini started two bands, "Il Pacco" and "L'Enorme Maria". Camerini became a proficient guitarist and he later did session work for musicians such as

Patty Pravo Nicoletta Strambelli (born 9 April 1948), known professionally as Patty Pravo, is an Italian singer. She debuted in 1966 and remained most successful commercially for the rest of the 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Having suffered a decline in p ...

Stormy Six Stormy Six were an Italian progressive and folk rock band founded in Milan in 1966. They performed and recorded until 1983, mostly as a sextet but occasionally as a quartet, a quintet and a septet. Although their line-up changed considerably ...

Fausto Leali Faustino (Fausto) Leali (born 29 October 1944 in Nuvolento, Brescia) is an Italian singer. Early life Leali began his musical career as a singer in several bands in his native Brescia. His first guitar teacher was Tullio Romano, of the band ...

and Eugenio Finardi himself. Camerini started his solo career in 1976, with the single "Pane quotidiano" and three albums that proposed an original mix between rock and Brazilian music. In the eighties Camerini initiated a successful collaboration with lyrics author and record producer Roberto Colombo. Inspired by the

Kraut rock Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock that developed in Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It originated among artists who blended elements of psychedelic rock, avant-garde composition, and electroni ...

movement that was dominant in Europe at the time, Camerini had a significant commercial success with a number of

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s ...

hits, particularly with the songs "Rock 'n' roll robot" and "Tanz bambolina". In 1984 Camerini participated to the

Sanremo Music Festival The Sanremo Music Festival ( ), officially the Italian Song Festival (), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria, organized and broadcast by (RAI). It is the longest-running ...

where he finished 16th. Following the lukewarm reception to his 1986 album ''Angeli in Blue Jeans'', Camerini took a break from music for about a decade. In 1995 Camerini reprised his career and recorded the album, ''Dove l'arcobaleno arriva''.

Discography

Selected singles

*1976 – Pane quotidiano *1977 – Gelato metropolitano *1978 – Sciocka *1980 – Sintonizzati con me *1980 – Serenella *1981 – Rock 'n' roll robot *1982 – Tanz bambolina *1982 – Questo amore *1983 – Computer capriccio *1984 – La bottega del caffè *1986 – Va bene così

Studio albums

*1976 – ''Cenerentola e il pane quotidiano'' *1977 – ''Gelato metropolitano'' *1978 – ''Comici cosmetici'' *1980 – ''Alberto Camerini'' *1981 – ''Rudy e Rita'' *1982 – ''Rockmantico'' *1986 – ''Angeli in blue jeans'' *1995 – ''Dove l'arcobaleno arriva'' *2001 – ''Cyberclown'' *2005 – ''Kids Wanna Rock''

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Camerini, Alberto 1951 births Italian pop singers Living people Italian rock singers Italian Italo disco musicians Musicians from São Paulo Singers from Milan Italian new wave musicians Brazilian emigrants to Italy