Robert Michaels (Roberto Michele Buttarazzi) (born in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Canada) is a

Juno Award The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...

winner and nominee, multi-gold and platinum-selling recording artist, guitarist and vocalist. Michaels returned from Canada to his mothers home town of

Arpino Arpino ( Southern Latian dialect: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the province of Frosinone, in the Latin Valley, region of Lazio in central Italy, about 100 km SE of Rome. Its Roman name was Arpinum. The town produced two consuls of the ...

, Italy when he was just a few years old. Living roughly 95 km southeast of Rome in Italy, he was exposed to Italian music, art, and culture from an early age. Much of that time was spent at his grandfathers restaurant, before moving back with his family to

. His debut CD, titled ''Paradiso'', was released in 1996 and was nominated for a

(Canadian Grammy). ''Paradiso'' album reached Platinum status eventually sold more than 100,000 copies in Canada. In 1998, Michaels was nominated for Instrumental Artist(s) of the Year for a

JUNO Award The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...

. His album ''Utopia'' was nominated in 2000 for a

for Best Instrumental Album, and his next album ''Allegro'' has already won

for Instrumental Album of the Year. His album ''Via Italia'' was released in 2013. One of Michaels' songs, "Wrong to Let You Go", was a co-write collaboration with the band the Wild Strawberries that reached top 10 on the Canadian Adult Contemporary charts. It was recorded for volume 3 of the '' Women & Songs''

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

series created and produced by Alan Fletcher. Subsequently, Alan Fletcher from Warner put the band in contact with German electronic dance producer and DJ

André Tanneberger André Tanneberger (; born 26 February 1973), better known by his stage name ATB, is a German DJ, musician, and Record producer, producer of trance music. According to the official world DJ rankings governed by ''DJ Magazine'', ATB was ranked No ...

(ATB). Tanneberger produced a

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

of the song, released as an ATB

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

re-titled " Let U Go". This popularized the song on both continents, as the single reached number 18 on the U.S.

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Hot Dance Music/Club Play Dance Club Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. It is a national look over of club disc jockeys to determine the most popular songs being played in nightclubs across the country. It was launched as th ...

charts /sup> and number 7 on the

German Singles Chart The GfK Entertainment charts are the official music charts in Germany and are gathered and published by GfK Entertainment (formerly Media Control and Media Control GfK International), a subsidiary of GfK, on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindust ...

. /sup> The song also marked the point in ATB's musical output when he began to produce songs with full vocal tracks, as opposed to

sampled Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of so ...

and looped vocals. /sup>

Awards and nominations

;Juno Awards The

Juno Awards The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...

is a Canadian awards ceremony presented annually by the

Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) is a non-profit organization responsible for promoting Canadian music and artists. It administers the Juno Awards, the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the MusiCounts music education char ...

. Robert Michaels won the 2003 Juno for Instrumental Album of the Year and received an additional 3 nominations. , - , , , ''Robert Michaels'' , , Instrumental Artist(s) of the Year , , , - , , , ''Utopia'' , , Best Instrumental Album , , , - , , , ''Allegro'' , , Instrumental Album of the Year , , , -
Juno Awards Artist Summary Robert Michaels

Music Canada Gold and Platinum Certification Awards Certifications

Certified albums

Paradiso (1996) Certified: Gold and Platinum
Music Canada Gold/Platinum Artist Summary Robert Michaels

Discography

Other Compilation Appearances

*''Guitar Music For Small Rooms'' (1997) (

WEA The Wea were a Miami-Illinois-speaking Native American tribe originally located in western Indiana. Historically, they were described as either being closely related to the Miami Tribe or a sub-tribe of Miami. Today, the descendants of the ...

) *''Guitar Music For Small Rooms 2'' (2001) (

) *''Guitar Music For Small Rooms 3'' (2004) (

)

References

External links

Robert Michaels , Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Michaels, Robert Canadian guitarists Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Flamenco guitarists Musicians from Toronto Juno Award for Instrumental Album of the Year winners Canadian world music musicians