Bino (born Benedetto Arico; * 24 April 1953 in

Contessa Entellina Contessa Entellina () is a small ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Palermo, in Sicily, southern Italy. Is located in the "Valle del Belìce" at above sea level in the mountains called ''Brinjat'', is situated 80 km from Palermo. The ...

; † 19 October 2010 in

) was an Italian pop singer.

Early life and career

Bino (real name Benedetto Arico) first studied architecture in order to take over his father's company. He returned to Italy and came back to Germany in 1975 as a musician, first to Schopfheim in the Black Forest. In nearby Bad Säckingen he became a member of the existing group "I Figli Di Yuma" with which he toured the region and through Switzerland. Then he came to Oldenburg, where he once worked as an ice cream vendor, sometimes as a singer at festivals and on to Hamburg, where producer Rainer Felsen from Pino Music first took notice of him. In 1978, working with

Drafi Deutscher Drafi Franz Richard Deutscher (9 May 1946 – 9 June 2006) was a German singer and songwriter of Sinti origin. Biography Early life and career Deutscher was born in Charlottenburg, in the western zone of Berlin, Germany. Between 1964 and 1966 ...

and Mike Mareen, Bino recorded '' Mama Leone''., a song composed by German pop composer and singer Drafi Deutscher and was first sung in German version by Ruth Händel in 1976, but was not a success in this version or in the version by Mike Mareen released in the same year. A third version was released in 1978, sung by Bino. In addition to the German version, he also released an English and an Italian version with lyrics written by himself. Bino landed his biggest success in 1978 with the song ''Mama Leone'', with music composed by

and Mike Mareen. The song was recorded in an Italian with lyrics by Bino as well as a German version. For eight weeks it was number 1 on the charts in Austria, and four weeks at the top position on the Swiss charts. On 23 November 1978 both versions were in the top 10 on the German charts. The ''Mama Leone'' album sold 20 million copies worldwide. In 1997 he dedicated his song to the late Catholic nun

Mother Teresa Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu (born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, ; 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), better known as Mother Teresa or Saint Mother Teresa, was an Albanian-Indian Catholic Church, Roman Catholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of ...

. He later had two minor hits with the songs Bambino (18th in Germany) and Maria (25th place in Germany), both written by Drafi Deutscher. For some years Bino lived with his girlfriend Katrin on

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. He died at the age of 57 in Palermo with cancer.Der Mann, der "Mama Leone" huldigte, ist tot
in:

Welt Online (, ) is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE. is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group and it is considered a newspaper of record in Germany. Its leading competitors are the ...

vom 20. Oktober 2010

Discography

* 1978: ''Mama Leone'' (Carrere) * 1980: ''Bino'' (RCA) * 2003: ''Emozioni'' (Pingo)

References

External links

* (English, German)
Radiobericht über die Sessions in Binos Kneipe 1996
(

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany under the lead of Karlheinz Brandenburg. It was designed to greatly reduce the amount ...

; 2,2 MB) {{DEFAULTSORT:Bino 1953 births 2010 deaths People from Contessa Entellina 20th-century Italian male singers Musicians from the Metropolitan City of Palermo