I
Calogero

About:

30 July 1971

Calogero Joseph Salvatore Maurici was born in Échirolles, near Grenoble from Sicilian parents and learned to play the flute, piano, and bass at a very young age. In 1986 he became the lead singer and songwriter for a band called Les Charts he started with his brother, Gioacchino Maurici, and a childhood friend, Francis Maggiulli. Between 1989 and 1997, Les Charts released five albums, L'Océan sans fond (1989), Notre monde à nous (1991), Hannibal (1994), Acte 1 (1995) their most successful charting album and Changer (1997). After break-up, all members of Les Charts continued with solo musical careers, but continued to co-write songs together, first, under the name of Calogero Bros. and later listing of their individual names.

As the band began to lose its momentum, Calogero decided to launch himself as a solo artist and gathered important connections by writing songs and collaborating with already popular artists such as Zazie and Pascal Obispo. The latter helped produce Calogero's first solo album Au milieu des Autres (2000). His second album, Calogero (2002) was a huge success with several hit singles. Since the late 1990s, Calogero composed songs for many artists, often in collaboration with his brother Gioacchino. He composed songs for instance for Florent Pagny ("Châtelet-les-Hâlles"), Hélène Ségara ("Au Nom d'une Femme" and "Regarde"), Pascal Obispo ("Millesime") and several songs for Patrick Fiori. He also composed three songs for the musical The Ten Commandments: "Je n'avais jamais prié", "Une Raison d'espérer" and "Y'a tant d'amour". In 2008, Stanislas Renoult recorded a duet with Calogero entitled "La Débâcle des sentiments". His third album, which confirmed Calogero's reputation as one of the fastest rising stars on the French music scene, featured songs penned by leading lyric-writers such as Lionel Florence, Patrice Guirao and Raphael. "3" spawned a series of hit singles which kept Calogero in the upper reaches of the French charts throughout 2004. His fourth studio album, recorded with the musicians from his last tour, was released in March 2007. “Pomme C” (“Apple C” – a reference to the copy function on Mac computers) featured eleven songs all written by Calogero’s close friend Zazie.However, "Pomme C" failed to live up to commercial expectations, selling a mere 400,000 copies (compared to the 3 million Calogero's last two albums had racked up between them). Disillusioned his follow up "L’Embellie" showed a more introspective feel with singer's personal thoughts on notions such as friendship, fame, family, hope and regrets. From March 2010, Calogero made a comeback to acoustic performance with a series of concerts in small French venues. In June 2011, he opted for a new live formula: a symphonic orchestra of 52 musicians conducted by Pierre Adenot. Starting 2012, he starts the sideproject Circus with Stanislas, Philippe Uminski, Elsa Fourlon and Karen Brunon.

Calogero also participates in numerous charities. He is currently member of Les Enfoirés and participated in the single "Douce France" led by Marc Lavoine to fight discrimination and help young people to have work.

On the web:

- Calogero is (not very active) on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com

If you like this, you probably like... / european counterparts:

Rasmus Walter (Denmark)

Enrico Ruggeri (Italy)

What do we think:

DB: Calogero has made no secret of the fact that he has a strong attachment to Anglo-Saxon music and bands such as The Cure and Coldplay, Through his career he has tried to combine that sound with the French variété artists he admires like Barbara and Greco. His music is usually clear pop and rock arrangements and radio friendly. A sort of Sting of French pop, being a bass player himself. That said Calogero certainly has a talent to write catchy and good solid sounding popmusic. Combined with the right lyric writers he can lift a mediocre song to a supersounding poptrack. Maybe we can say that Calogero has a keen ear for great sounding pop. And that pays off. In 2014 Calogero was gaining the highest revenues for his art in the World up to an estimated 41 million Euro.

Albums:

- Au milieu des autres - 1999

- Calogero - 2002

- 3 - 2004

♪♪♪ - Pomme C - 2007

♪♪♪♪ - L'Embellie - 2009

♪♪♪ - Circus (with Stanislas a.o.) - 2012

♪♪♪ - Les feux d'artifice - 2014

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♪♪♪♪♪ = outstanding album, an absolute must-have
♪♪♪♪ = great album, highly recomended
♪♪♪ = nice album
♪♪ = be careful, requires listening before buying
♪ = best to be avoided