Nek

Born Filippo Neviani on 6 June 1972 in Sassuolo, Modena, the Italian pop-rock singer-songwriter known as Nek is celebrated in the Spanish-speaking world as much as he is on home soil, having released most of his albums in both Italian and Spanish. He discovered music at a young age, learning drums, bass and guitar at the age of 9 and later finding his professional feet in the band Winchester, cutting his teeth in the Bologna soft-rock scene with White Lady. The beginning of the 1990s marked the beginning of his solo career, and after finishing second at the Castrocaro Music Festival, he set about releasing his first album as Nek in 1992 on the esteemed Italian label Fonit Cetra. His performance of "In te" at the iconic Sanremo Music Festival in 1993 inspired the name of his second album while his third album of 1994 Calore umano helped to boost his career and in 1994 he was named best young Italian pop artist alongside Giorgia at the European Awards. His big break happened in 1997 when he took part in the Sanremo Music Festival in the Big Artists section, and his song "Laura non c'è" (in Spanish: "Laura no está") became an international hit, also paving the way for the release of his fourth and million-selling album Lei, gli amici e tutto il resto, his first with Warner Music. He went on to release successful albums at a consistent rate, hitting a career high with his 11th studio album Filippo Neviani (2013), which was predominantly written, composed and performed by Nek himself and for which he received the Lunezia award in the Pop Rock category for the album due to musical-literary value. His 13th studio album Unici arrived in 2016 with Il mio gioco preferito – prima parte folowing in 2019 and Il mio gioco preferito - seconda parte landing in 2020. In 2023, he returned with a new single, "L'infinito più o meno," which hit number 33 in Italy's Top 40 Radio chart.