Jovanotti

Lorenzo Jovanotti Cherubini was born in Cortona on 27 September 1966. He rose to fame in the late 1980s, launched by Claudio Cecchetto. However, Jovanotti soon moved away from the hip-hop blend of his early hits, gradually shifting toward a pop model with a world-music flavour (still filtered through hip-hop and funk). This musical evolution went hand in hand with a change in his lyrics, which over the years came to deal with increasingly personal themes, more typical of the Italian singer-songwriter tradition. At the same time, his social and political commitment grew. An active pacifist, he has frequently worked with major organisations including Emergency, Amnesty International, the Anti-Vivisection League and many others; he contributed to the campaigns for debt cancellation in the 1990s and later to the Niente scuse and Make Poverty History movements, taking part in Live 8.

His true musical debut came in 1987 with the single "Walking", and during the same period, again thanks to Claudio Cecchetto, he became one of the leading personalities on Radio Deejay. In 1988 he released the hugely successful single "E' qui la festa", followed by his first album, "Jovanotti for President". The late 1980s also saw him try his hand at television with Deejay Television and 1,2,3 Jovanotti; that same period also produced another famous single: "Sei come la mia moto".

In 1991, with the release of the album "Una tribù che balla", a markedly different artistic phase began, amounting to a genuine turning point. Themes of political and social commitment gradually began to appear in his lyrics, themes that would go on to shape much of his later work. Throughout the 1990s his musical output was substantial, and several of his best-known songs were written during this period: "Ragazzo fortunato" and "Non m'annoio" ("Lorenzo 1992"); "Penso positivo", "Serenata rap", "Piove" ("Lorenzo 1994"), "L'ombelico del mondo" ("Lorenzo 1990-1995") and "Per te", included on the 1999 album "Capo Horn", dedicated to the birth of his daughter Teresa.

In 1994 he toured Europe with Pino Daniele and Eros Ramazzotti, and around the same time he founded his own record label, Soleluna. The 1990s also brought collaborations with Zucchero Fornaciari ("Alleluja", 1995) and Gianna Nannini (Radio Baccano, 1993).

In 1998 he published his first book, "Il grande boh!", recounting the stories of his travels.

In 1999, during the Kosovo War, Jovanotti took part in a joint project with Piero Pelù of Litfiba and Luciano Ligabue for the pacifist song "Il mio nome è mai più", whose video was directed by Gabriele Salvatores, with all proceeds donated to Emergency; the single was the best-selling record in Italy that year.

The 2002 album "Lorenzo 2002 – Il quinto mondo" confirmed, partly through its singles, the balance and equilibrium between the two poles of Jovanotti's songwriting: the love song ("Ti sposerò") and political and social commitment ("Salvami"). "Salvami", in particular, ranges across a broad spectrum of themes, from pacifism to globalisation and the need for justice for the Third World, as well as environmentalism, and was quoted by Tiziano Terzani in the introduction to his "Lettere contro la guerra".

The album "Buon sangue" (2005) offered further proof of the Tuscan singer's artistic maturity, featuring a number of collaborators (Edoardo Bennato, as well as Planet Funk and Danilo Tasco of Negramaro on the track "Falla girare") and shot to the top of the charts, propelled by the success of the singles "Tanto" and "Mi fido di te". In 2006 came "Buon sangue live", a DVD featuring 40 minutes of extras and behind-the-scenes footage from the latest tour and the Milan concert. That same year, Jovanotti collaborated with Zucchero for the second time, writing the lyrics for the track "Troppa fedeltà", included on the album "Fly".

In 2007 he recorded "Fango", dedicated to his brother Umberto, who had died tragically in a plane crash, while on 7 March 2008 came "A Te", the second single from "Safari", dedicated to his wife Francesca, which stayed at the top of the charts for many weeks. On 12 May the Safari Tour kicked off in Rimini, taking in arenas and stadiums throughout the summer. "Fango" won the first edition of the Premio Mogol. On 4 July the album's title track, "Safari", was released as a single. On 20 October the fourth single from "Safari", "Come musica", came out.

In 2009 Jovanotti, together with Giuliano Sangiorgi of Negramaro, brought together more than 50 stars of Italian music to record "Domani 21/04.2009", a song in support of the areas hit by the earthquake in Abruzzo.

On 8 January 2010 came "Baciami ancora", the title track for Gabriele Muccino's film of the same name, which won the David di Donatello for Best Original Soundtrack. He also contributed to the single "Mondo" with Cesare Cremonini, released on 23 April of that year. In October, the release of an album titled "Ora" was announced for 2011.

On 30 November, "Viva Tutto!" was published, a book based on the email correspondence between Jovanotti and philosopher Franco Bolelli, exchanged during the production of the forthcoming album. On 3 December the single "Tutto l'amore che ho" was released, accompanied by a video posted on Facebook the previous afternoon. On 25 January 2011 the album "Ora" came out. On 11 March the single "Le tasche piene di sassi" was released, dedicated to his mother Viola, who had died a few months earlier; in June it won the fourth edition of the Premio Mogol. On 16 April, Lorenzo Live – Ora in Tour 2011-2012 kicked off in Rimini.

On 27 May 2011 the single "Il più grande spettacolo dopo il big bang" was released.

On September 22, 2012, he took part in the charity concert Italy Loves Emilia, a fundraiser following the 2012 Emilia earthquake, held at Campovolo alongside many fellow singers.

On November 27, the compilation "Backup – Lorenzo 1987-2012" was released, celebrating the singer's 25 years in music; it was preceded by the single "Tensione evolutiva", released on November 9.

On December 16, 2014, the single "Sabato" was made available for streaming, preceding his thirteenth studio album, titled "Lorenzo 2015 CC.", released on February 24, 2015. On June 20, the Lorenzo negli stadi 2015 tour kicked off in Ancona. On July 26, 2015, during this same tour, he performed alongside Eros Ramazzotti at the Stadio San Paolo in Naples to pay tribute to singer-songwriter Pino Daniele, who had passed away a few months earlier and with whom he had shared an unforgettable tour back in 1994.

On December 1, 2017, "Oh, Vita!" was released, his fourteenth album of new material, preceded by the title-track single. The album marks the start of Lorenzo's collaboration with Rick Rubin, a giant of global music production. The album was recorded in August of that same year at Villa "Le Rose" in Florence and finalized at Shangri-La Studio in Malibu, California.

On January 26, 2018, the second single "Le canzoni" was released, followed on June 15 by the third single "Affermativo", in the remix version by Takagi & Ketra. On July 6, to celebrate the conclusion of the arena tour Lorenzo Live 2018, the fourth single "Viva la libertà" was released, accompanied by a video shot by Leandro Manuel Emede.

On December 6, 2018, Jova Beach Party was announced, an unprecedented tour staged on 16 Italian beaches during the summer of 2019, with Lorenzo Jovanotti headlining alongside more than 60 guest artists. A brand-new concert format, with Lorenzo on stage from early afternoon until deep into the night. The 17th and final date took place on September 21, 2019, at Milan Linate Airport, closed for works at the time, in front of around 100,000 spectators. The concert series set the record for highest audience turnout of any tour in 2019, though it also sparked some controversy from environmentalist groups.

After a few months away from this major project, Lorenzo Jovanotti set off on a solo bicycle journey between Chile and Argentina. On his own, armed with a small camera and his iPhone, he shot countless hours of footage, and from this incredible new adventure came "Non voglio cambiare pianeta" for RaiPlay, a docu-trip in 16 episodes of about 15 minutes each, which aired starting April 24, 2020, and is now available on JovaTV.

In October 2021, Jovanotti announced he was once again working with Rick Rubin on new unreleased tracks. On November 19, 2021, during the presentation of the Jova Beach Party, scheduled for the summer of 2022, he announced the release of a new single titled "Il boom".

On December 17, 2021, the single "La primavera" was released, its video, directed by Tommaso Ottomano, shot inside the Teatro Grande in Brescia. The single "La Primavera", together with "I Love You Baby", "Un amore come il nostro", "Tra me e te" and "Border Jam", is part of a new installment of "Disco del Sole". The Disco del Sole is an unidentified flying object, a stream, a philosophy, but above all it is the flow of songs written by Lorenzo Jovanotti two and a half years after "La Nuova Era".

On January 21, 2022, "La Primavera (I Remix)" was released, 5 remixes born out of the enthusiasm of five Italian female DJ-producers who accepted Sbam Records' invitation to rework the track, transforming it according to their own taste and style into five different versions. "I Love You Baby" is the new single and also the new installment of "Disco del Sole", arriving on the first day of spring. On March 30, the music video for "I Love You Baby" was released, along with the announcement of the new chapter of "Disco del Sole": "Mediterraneo", eight brand-new tracks.

In 2025, Jovanotti returns with "Il corpo umano vol. 1".