Luca Barbarossa (born 15 April 1961, Rome) is an Italian singer-songwriter who has released 12 albums since 1981, and is known for his participation in the 1988

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

Early career

In 1980, Barbarossa won the

Castrocaro Music Festival The Castrocaro Music Festival, also known as Concorso per Voci Nuove, is an Italian musical contest which takes place every year in the town of Castrocaro Terme e Terra del Sole, near Forlì, from 1957. The competition is exclusively reserved for ne ...

, where he was spotted by a producer for the Fonit-Cetra record company, who signed him to a recording contract. As the Castrocaro winner, he was eligible to compete in the 1981

San Remo Festival The Sanremo Music Festival, officially the Italian Song Festival () and commonly known as just (), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria. It is the longest-running annual ...

, where he finished fourth with the self-penned song "Roma spogliata". His first self-titled album was released in the same year, and he toured as support act to

Riccardo Cocciante Riccardo Cocciante (; born 20 February 1946), also known in French-speaking countries and the U.S. as Richard Cocciante (), is an Italian singer, composer, theatre man and musician. He acquired French citizenship. Personal life Cocciante was b ...

. The album, and the singles released from it, were not notably successful and relations soured with Fonit-Cetra, leading to Barbarossa's departure from the label. He signed with the Italian division of the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

label, where the decision was taken to try to establish him as a singles artist before releasing an album. In 1986, he again participated in the San Remo Festival with "Via Margutta", but only managed 18th place. Another San Remo entry in 1987 resulted in ninth place for "Come dentro un film", which was also the title of the first album he released for CBS in the same year. He achieved his best San Remo placement to date in 1988 with "L'amore rubato" finishing third.Biography at Popon.it
(Italian)

Eurovision Song Contest

In 1988, Barbarossa was chosen by broadcaster

RAI RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...

as the Italian Eurovision representative with the song "

Vivo (Ti scrivo) Vivo or VIVO may refer to: Companies * Vivo (technology company), a Chinese consumer electronics company * Vivo (telecommunications company), a Brazilian mobile phone company * Vivo Class, a British company that sells a web-based rewards syste ...

" ("Alive (I Write to You)"). He went forward to the 33rd Eurovision Song Contest, held on 30 April in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, where "Vivo (Ti scrivo)" finished in 12th place of 21 entries.ESC History 1988
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Later career

Barbarossa won the 1992 San Remo Festival at his fifth attempt with " Portami a ballare", a song dedicated to his mother. In the 1990s he released four studio albums and a live album. In 1996 another San Remo entry with "Il ragazzo con la chitarra" placed 12th. A compilation album of his most popular songs, with two previously unreleased tracks, was issued in 2001. Barbarossa's next San Remo participation came in 2003, with "Fortuna" finishing 10th. He released an album of the same name that year, before putting his recording career on hold for four years. He returned with a single, "Aspettavamo il 2000" in 2007, before releasing ''Via delle storie infinite'', his first album for five years, in 2008. Barbarossa would take part in the festival two more times: in 2011, and 7 years later: the first song was Fino in Fondo, performed as a duet with

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

singer

Raquel del Rosario Raquel del Rosario Macías (; born 3 November 1982) is a Spanish singer. She was the lead vocalist of the band (''Morpheus' Dream''). Biography Raquel is the second of six children. At the age of 14, she started writing the first of many so ...

. The song came in 8th, and after Sanremo ended he published a compilation called ''Barbarossa Social Club'', in collaboration with artists like Max Gazzè and Roy Paci, among others. His 2018 Sanremo song, Passame Er Sale, was performed in the

Romanesco dialect Romanesco () is one of the central Italian dialects spoken in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, especially in the core city. It is linguistically close to Tuscan and Standard Italian, with some notable differences from these two. Rich in ...

of Italian, a dialect of the

Italian language Italian (''italiano'' or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. Together with Sardinian, Italian is the least divergent language from Latin. Spoken by about 85 m ...

spoken around his native Rome. The song would get him another top 10 result, finishing in 7th place, and it won him a Lunezia award.

San Remo Music Festival entries

*1981: "Roma spogliata" – 4th *1986: "Via Margutta" – 18th *1987: "Come dentro un film" – 9th *1988: "L'amore rubato" – 3rd *1992: " Portami a ballare" – 1st *1996: "Il ragazzo con la chitarra" – 12th *2003: "Fortuna" – 10th *2011: "Fino in fondo" Feat.

– 8th *2018: "Passame er sale" – 7th

Albums discography

*1981: ''Luca Barbarossa'' *1987: ''Come dentro un film'' *1988: ''Non tutti gli uomini'' *1989: ''Al di là del muro'' *1992: ''Cuore d'acciaio'' *1993: ''Vivo'' *1994: ''Le cose da salvare'' *1996: ''Sotto lo stesso cielo'' *1999: ''Musica e parole'' *2001: ''Viaggio di ritorno'' *2003: ''Fortuna'' *2008: ''Via delle storie infinite'' *2011: ''Barbarossa Social Club'' *2018: ''Roma è de tutti''

References

External links

*
Myspace page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barbarossa, Luca Italian male singers Eurovision Song Contest entrants for Italy Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1988 Sanremo Music Festival winners Singers from Rome 1961 births Living people