Franco Battiato

Franco Battiato was an Italian singer/songwriter, musician, composer and filmmaker who enjoyed immense popular in his homeland for more than half a century. Born in Sicily on March 23, 1945, he released his debut single, "L'amore è Partito," in 1965 and moved to Milan two years later. Following a string of singles, he released his first full-length album, Fetus, in 1971. Albums like 1972's Pollution, 1974's Clic, and 1978's Juke Box were among his early successes, while 1981's La Voce Del Padrone became the first Italian record to sell more than a million copies. Franco Battiato's song "I Trend di Tozeur," which he performed with fellow Italian artist Alice, was the Italian entry in the 1984 Eurovision Song Contest. He later released a solo version of the single and continued to record into the 21st century, embracing a mix of pop, experimental, and electronic music. He also scored several features, documentaries, and short films, starting in 1987 with Egidio Eronico's A Proposition di Roma and including Elisabetta Sgarbi's Il Paint Della Statua (2007) and Love Stories (2013). He directed his first movie, Lost Love, in 2003 and built his catalog with subsequent titles like 2006's Musikanten. He announced his retirement in 2019 and passed away two years later, dying at age 76 on May 18, 2021.